This essay introduces a special triple issue of Jewish History that aims to offer both an introduction to and an in-depth guide for documentary Cairo Geniza studies. We outline the history of scholarship that led to the definition of the documentary or historical Geniza and in particular introduce the work of Shlomo Dov Goitein, the scholar whose work has essentially defined the field for the past half century. This historical sketch is followed by a brief review of the kinds of materials found in the documentary corpus and a look at the distribution of scholarship to date on different document genres, including some that have so far remained relatively overlooked. The nature of the materials, and the history of their scholarship, helps shape the rationale for the volume’s form as we provide an overview of the essays in each of its four sections, which focus in turn on historiography, methodology, document types, and writing Geniza history.

中文翻译：

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导言：21 世纪纪录片 Geniza 研究手册

这篇文章介绍了一个特殊的三期《犹太历史》，旨在介绍和深入指导纪录片开罗吉尼萨研究。我们概述了导致纪录片或历史 Geniza 定义的学术史，并特别介绍了 Shlomo Dov Goitein 的工作，这位学者的工作在过去半个世纪里基本上定义了该领域。在此历史概述之后，简要回顾了文献库中发现的各种材料，并回顾了迄今为止关于不同文献类型的学术分布，包括一些迄今为止相对被忽视的文献。材料的性质以及他们的学术历史，有助于塑造本书形式的基本原理，因为我们在其四个部分中的每一部分都提供了论文的概述，