Auction 102 Part 2 Rare and Important Items
By Kedem
May 7, 2025
8 Ramban St, Jerusalem., Israel
The auction has ended

LOT 164:

Manuscript, Neviim and Ketuvim in Neo-Aramaic Translation – Kurdistan, 1922-1924

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Sold for: $2,200 (₪7,960)
Price including buyer’s premium and sales tax: $ 2,849 (₪10,307.68)
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Start price:
$ 1,000
Estimate :
$2,000 - $3,000
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Auction took place on May 7, 2025 at Kedem
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Manuscript, Neviim and Ketuvim in Neo-Aramaic Translation – Kurdistan, 1922-1924
Manuscript, Neviim and Ketuvim in Neo-Aramaic translation. [Kurdistan], 1922-1924.
Thick volume, semi-cursive Oriental script, vocalized. The volume contains all the book of Neviim and Ketuvim, including the Megillot, with a Neo-Aramaic translation. Only Shir HaShirim is written in the original, with no translation (and unvocalized).
After the Book of Kings, colophon of the writer: "I wrote this Neviim, the Books of Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel I, Shmuel II, Melachim I, Melachim II… I, Leve son of Chatan…. wrote the Neviim, 1922".
At end of volume, after conclusion of Divre HaYamim, appears a chart of "year-round haftarot, in accordance with the rite of all the Sephardic communities", followed by a colophon: "Completed… 1924, in the merit of Abraham and Sarah".
Another manuscript by the present scribe is Krupp Ms. 1330, including various works in Hebrew and Neo-Aramaic, including the translation of Shir HaShirim (which does not appear in the present anthology). At the end is written: "The Book of Shir HaShirim is concluded, translated from Targum to Iranian Kurdish. Written by my brother Levi son of Yechiel (Chatan)…" (the manuscript concludes with colophons of the above scribe: "Leve son of… Chatan… Rosh Chodesh Tevet… 1924…", "Leve… son of Chatan…").
The translation is to Neo-Aramaic, or Judeo-Kurdish, which is effectively a modern Aramaic dialect. Upon the Arab conquest and Islamization of the Middle East in the 7th century, the population gradually began to speak in Arabic, nearly entirely supplanting Aramaic, which survived only in small communities, mainly among the Jews of Kurdistan. Neo-Aramaic manuscripts are very rare.

[1421] pages (including several blank pages). 21 cm. Varying condition of leaves, good to fair. Stains, tears and wear. Open tears to several leaves, affecting text. Several leaves detached. Fabric-coated cardboard binding, with defects.

Formerly Michael Krupp Ms. 5088. This manuscript was published as a facsimile, Ein Karem, Jerusalem, 2025.

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