Page 596 - הערבית-היהודית הקדומה בכתיב פונטי, חלק א' / בלאו והופקינס

SUMMARY

The present book is made up of two main parts. The first part contains a
general introduction to the world of ancient Judaeo-Arabic in phonetic
spelling – its rise and development, its characteristics, its demise etc. –
while the second part presents a selection of Biblical texts (or texts
with Biblical connections) which represent this formative period of
Judaeo-Arabic civilization.

The texts have been chosen in order to illustrate the language and
culture of early Judaeo-Arabic in phonetic spelling. Some of the texts
have already been published by others; some of them are new. What
is given here is but a representative sample of a rather large amount of
material, yet unstudied. The geniza collections around the world contain
many similar texts, the analysis of which will add significantly to what
appears in the present volume. Each text in the book is preceded by
a short introduction, followed by the edition of the Arabic original, a
Hebrew translation and such notes as seemed necessary or interesting.

The edition, and especially the translation, of this collection of early
Judaeo-Arabic texts have not been easy. Judaeo-Arabic texts in general
present the editor with various problems, the more so when the MSS
are unique, lacking any parallel transmission from which help might
be sought. The physical state of some of the MSS is a further difficulty;
it is very possible that the digital technology now available will enable
scholars to improve upon the readings given here. To these routine
editorial difficulties we must add the problems caused in the present
case by the unfamiliar, ambiguous and inconsistent phonetic mode of
spelling. For these and other reasons, we are very much aware that we
have not always succeeded in understanding the text, and even in cases
in which we have offered a certain interpretation, there is no doubt
that we will have often missed the point. We hope, however to have

VII