Skip to content
Libra Esoterica

Miscellany of Judeo-Turkish and Hebrew hymns, between 1800 and 1890

Also known as קובץ פיוטים, טורקי-עברי ועברית, בין 1800 - 1890

by Avraham Ashkenazi

  • First published:
  • 18th century
  • Languages: Hebrew, Turkish
  • Content type: ManuscriptPrimary source

This is a miscellany of Judeo-Turkish, Hebrew, and Judeo-Arabic hymns, with certain pieces from earlier manuscripts. It begins with a section of vocalized hymns in Judeo-Turkish, circa 1820, originating in southern Russia, Anatolia, or possibly Armenia. After these are poems in Hebrew, with stanzas and refrains standard for Hebrew poetry (simanim), written in a vocalized cursive script, aside from a poem for a bride and groom (f. 21r-21v), some Judeo-Turkish poems, and returning to Hebrew poetry at the end of the section (with many of these poems containing Biblical passages from Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations), with a colophon in Turkish signed by Abraham Ashkenazi, 1 Elul 5596 (Sunday, 14 August 1836; f. 78v). The next section is another hymn with a table of contents, possibly North African, circa 1850 (f.79r-80v). This is followed by cabalistic meditations and formulations in a North African square script on unruled paper, circa 1890 (f. 81r-81v), followed by more hymns in Judeo-Arabic (f. 82r-100v). Another section of Yemeni piyutim follow in a large square script, circa 1870 (f. 101r-104v), and a final section of meditation on the names of angels, possibly Yemenite as well, circa 1850 (f.105r-107v). There is a loose note at the beginning of the manuscript (a Biblical sermon, possibly North African, 19th century) and another laid in at the end (cabalistic prayer, possibly Israel, 20th century). Most manuscripts laid out as traditional hymns, with catchwords, stanzas, and acrostic letters accentuated; written mostly in a Turkish style script, with some variation. Bound in a modern cloth binding with a brown spine.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Demonology, angelology, and possession and Kabbalah and Jewish esotericism.

  • Kabbalah and Jewish esotericism

    Controlled discovery queries from colenda matched “Cabala”. Retained metadata contains “Cabala” in the subject metadata.

    • Cabala· via Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries
    • Cabala· in subject
  • Retained metadata contains “Angels” in the description.

    • Angels· in description

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Free, public copies reported by our sources. Links open the source directly.

Not yet in passage search

Pro research answers quote indexed passages. Ask the library to index this book’s public text.

marks a direct file download. Rights vary by country; each source states its own terms.

Buy or borrow

No ISBN on record, so the Amazon link searches by title and author. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Subjects

12 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

Colenda
  • ark:/81431/p39k4604k

Cataloged from

Cataloging notes

  • Penn Libraries catalog identifier: 9977893549003681
  • Physical location: Library at the Katz Center, Rare Book Manuscripts, CAJS Rar Ms 434
  • Provenance: Sold by Kestenbaum & Company, auction 53 (December 8, 2011) lot 300.
  • Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0
Catalog id
colenda:81431-p39k4604k
Edition coverage
Colenda source record
Retrieved