Literary text: T-S AS 121.326

Description

Leaves 1 and 3: text in Judaeo-Arabic, probably an apocalyptic account (prognostications), referring to Zerubbabel, the Arabs, the Byzantines and wars in various places in the Near East (Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Persia), mentioning the year 353 AH (= 964 CE). Leaves 2 and 4: literary text in Hebrew, probably part of a maqāma. (Information from CUDL.) Discussed and partially translated in Gil, "The Apocalypse of Zerubabbel in Judaeo-Arabic" (2006); many of the historical figures alluded to are also identified there; the only one mentioned by name in the text is Sayf al-Dawla the Ḥamdānid. One interesting section which Gil glosses over is on recto of leaf 1, describing an outbreak of immorality including male and female homosexuality (וירכב דכר לדכר ואנתי לאנתי), a proliferation of bathhouses (ותוכתר אלחמאמאת), the building of mosques (ביות אלכפאר אעני אלמסאגד) in (Jewish) cemeteries, permissiveness of people raising the dead (ויסתחל נבש אלמותי), etc.