On Editing Medical Fragments from the Cairo Geniza

Abstract

A reliable edition of medical fragments in Hebrew and/or Arabic script from the Cairo Geniza, especially those dealing with pharmacology, can only be accomplished if the editors are trained in medieval Judeo-Arabic, Arabic philology, and paleography and have a thorough knowledge of all the secondary sources and studies. Allowing too many faulty readings otherwise, editions of these fragments cannot be considered credible.