Oxford, Bodleian MS. Heb. a. 3.27

Bodleian Library (Oxford, United Kingdom)

One leaf document

Paper

Brown (iron-gall)

Calamus

No ruling can be seen

84

11th Century CE

Romania, Thessaloniki, Thebes, Tripoli (Lebanon)

Orient

Letter

Copy of a letter from Menaḥem b. Eliyyahu, in an unspecified location near Salonica and Constantinople. In Hebrew, with occasional phrases in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably composed during the period of the first crusade, as it refers to the arrival of German armies. Relates messianic events that occurred in Salonica (including the healing of a blind man and various apocalyptic visions and the reduction of taxes) and asks the addressees to share any messianic rumors that they have heard. Contains several noteworthy names of people (including a reference to Evyatar ha-Kohen, gaon in Jerusalem c.1083–1105, who had sent them a letter from Tripoli, Lebanon) and geographical areas (Romania, Thebes, the land of the Khazars).

Sporadic

From the Genizah, 1896.

990053618660205171

https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts/itempage?vid=KTIV&scope=KTIV&docId=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS990053618660205171&SearchTxt=Heb.%20a.%203.27,AND (Date accessed: 2026-01-16)

https://genizah.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/volume_5 (Date accessed: 2026-01-16)

Andrew Sharf, "An Unknown Messiah of 1096 and the Emperor Alexius,"Journal of Jewish Studies 7, no. 1 (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 1956), 59-70.

Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/34009/ (accessed January 16, 2026).