"In 1897, Solomon Schechter brought over 140,000 fragmentary Jewish documents from the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo to Cambridge University Library and ushered in a new age of learning about Jews and Judaism as they existed in the Mediterranean a thousand years ago. The texts that he and others found in what has become famous as "the Cairo Genizah" have shed light not only on what Jewish scholars wrote then in the biblical and rabbinic fields but also on the daily lives, loves and relations of Jews, Christians and Muslims." "This book will serve as a helpful reference work for students and teachers of Jewish history and literature. Perhaps more importantly, it will introduce the whole topic to those with an interest in uncovering the secrets of the past but lacking the awareness that the Genizah's contents are at least as important for this purpose as the Dead Sea Scrolls."--BOOK JACKET.