More than Meets the Eye: Notes of the Jewish Court in Medieval Egypt

Oded Zinger's article deals with the activity of the Jewish court in Egypt in the Middle Ages through court notes found in the Cairo Genizah. These small and concise notes include various messages related to the court's activities such as summonses to the court and instructions to the court officials. They reflect the daily administrative activity of the Jewish courts, but they also have the power to shed light on essential issues concerning the legal culture of the entire medieval Islamic world. In the article, Zinger presents twenty-two notes arranged according to the typical order of an imagined legal case. The analysis of the notes elucidates legal procedures, archival customs and the place, side by side, of literacy and orality in the legal arena.