Cairo Genizah : Piyyuṭ; liturgy

ʿEli b. Amram

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Recto: liturgy for the concluding Neʿila service on Yom Kippur (צלוה נעילה), consisting of seliḥot by ʿEli b. Amram, in his own handwriting (according to Beeri 2003: 315). Verso: part of (end missing) a beautifully written and fully vocalised poem of praise in honour of ʿAdaya b. Manasseh (son of Abū Sahl Manasseh b. Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Qazzāz), a leading Karaite courtier, who was kātib al-jayš in Syria-Palestine for the Fatimids, c. 1020s. Between the lines and in the right-hand margin, ʿEli b. Amram has adapted the existing poem (using its metrics and rhyme, and borrowing the odd phrase here and there) to create a new panegyric (of 45 lines) in praise of Peraḥya, who Beeri (2003: 215) identifies as the son-in-law of Judah ha-Nagid b. Saʿadya. ʿEli’s reworked poem must date to after 1064, when Judah became Nagid. </p>