Dr. Mohamed Ahmed

Poetry enjoys a special place in Arabic culture and literature. For centuries, Arabs of all faiths have considered poetry a key source for knowledge, intellectuality and wisdom. In the pre-Islamic era, poetry was considered as `the Arab knowledge" and `the Arab cultural archive", in which the social and cultural history, language, arts, music, religious and Arab"s human experience were stored and preserved. Being a part of Arabic culture, Jews of Arab lands equally enjoyed writing and reading poetry. APCG will investigate for the first time a hitherto neglected collection of Arabic poetry fragments written in Hebrew script (in Judaeo-Arabic), which has been preserved in arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The fragments, numbered in the hundreds, constitute a unique source for understanding medieval and Early Modern Egypt from three main perspectives: Arabic studies, Jewish social and cultural studies, and anthropological studies. The core aims of the project are: " to make the entirety of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah accessible to both academic scholars and to the public in a comprehensive database and in critical editions; " to reveal, through the study of poetry, hitherto hidden aspects of social and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East with regard to literacy, education and intercommunal relations; " to explore hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and the social function of poetry in medieval and early modern Egypt through the study of Genizah poetry. To achieve the planned main objectives, APCG carries out a thorough interdisciplinary study of Genizah"s Arabic poetry. This approach involves research from philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.

From Tuscany to Alexandria: Arabic and Hebrew mercantile letters in the Prize Paper collections The Prize Paper Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain a sack full of business letters in Arabic and Hebrew script, which were seized in 1759 by British seafarers as part of the loot on a Venetian ship bound for Alexandria. Virtually untouched since that time " most of the letters are still unopened and have been since they were archived in the 18th-century " they present a most exciting opportunity to investigate the interaction between Christian, Jewish, and Muslim merchants across borders in the 18th-century Mediterranean. The letters, numbering in the dozens, are particularly valuable as very little comparative material in Arabic script from that period is known and virtually nothing has been edited and published on the topic. Traders make an extremely important subject for studies on historical interfaith relations for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is usually business activity that creates the only opportunity for people of different faiths to meet in a neutral place and work for a common benefit. Commerce therefore really establishes an arena in which people deal with each other regardless of their respective religious background. Secondly, being part of a community of merchants also provides a facet of identity to people that may become as important as their religious identity. Merchants therefore often feel as much part of a perceived community of traders as they see themselves as Jews, Muslims or Christians.