General

Are you there, world? It’s me, Ray.


Well, our website is coming together. It’s all very exciting, to say the least!

I’m Ray (Raymond J. Davidson Jr), and I am here to welcome you all to our new project website. Here, you will find a little bit of information about our project in general, our team, and our affiliations. But what we are particular excited about is our Poem Index. This is the cornerstone of our website. What you will find here is an user-friendly, searchable index for the poetry we are investigating. Have a special occasion coming up, and want to add something unique to it? Try looking through the themes to find the perfect medieval accompaniment to your wedding ceremony. Or maybe you’re a researcher looking to learn more about specific Arabic poets, or the most influential Arabic poet on the medieval Jewish community in Cairo? Use the drop-down menu to look for the author most referenced in the fragments. Honestly, your imagination is the only limitation!

Unfortunately, you might not find exactly what you are looking for just yet. After all, we are only just starting out! But keep an eye on this space and fear not! As the research continues (and as fast as we can guzzle our coffee!) we will be indexing more and more poems.

As the famous poet Ibn al-Rumi (836 – 896) wrote:

لعمرُك ما السيفُ سيف الكميِّ بـأخــوفَ مـن قـلم الكاتِـبِ
لهُ شـــاهــــدٌ إنْ تــأمّـــلتَهُ ظـهــرتَ عـلى سـرِّهِ الغـائبِ

(I swear) by your life that the sword, the brave’s sword, is not more fearful than an author’s pen.
It has a sign, if you think over it deeply, you could reveal its hidden secret.

We hope you’re just as excited as we are to see this index reveal the hidden secrets of the Arabic poetry found in the Genizah as we are!

Have an awesome day!

Ray
Raymond J. Davidson Jr