Published by Maney Publishing (c) Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham BMGS 16 (1992) 34-47 Byzantium in the Cairo Genizah NICHOLAS DE LANGE On the occasion of the Byzantine Symposium at Cambridge in March 1990, an exhibition of manuscripts of Byzantine interest recovered from the Cairo Genizah was mounted in the University Library.l Although these manuscripts have been in Cambridge for nearly a century, they are still not as well known as they deserve to be, and the exhibition provoked a good deal of interest among participants. 2 It therefore seemed useful to provide this more permanent record. I have taken the opportunity to add one or two items which, for various reasons, could not be exhibited. I have also introduced references to publications in English or other western languages; it should be remembered, however, that there is a growing quantity of Genizah publication now in Hebrew. It should also be borne in mind that, although most of the Genizah manuscripts are in Cambridge, other smaller collections are to be found in many other libraries, notably (so far as Byzantine material is concerned) in St Petersburg, New York and Oxford. * * * * * It was in 1986 that Solomon Schechter, Reader in Rabbinic and Talmudic Literature at Cambridge, travelled to Cairo to investigate the discovery of a cache of manuscripts in the roof of an ancient synagogue. He succeeded in bringing back to Cambridge most of the contents of the Genizah (the technical term for such deposits) from the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fostat (Old Cairo). 1. I must express my gratitude to Dr. Jonathan Shepard for his enthusiasm and support, and also to the Revd. N.J. Hancock, Dr. S.C. Reif, and Dr. G. Khan of the library staff for their considerable practical assistance. 2. See the review by Dion C. Smythe in Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 6 (Summer 1990) 23-25. 34