The Feats of History

In a recent New York Times Article entitled, "Illuminating Jewish Life in a Muslim Empire," it discussed the first piece of physical evidence of Jewish life within an Iranian culture of the eleventh century. This evidence of a Jewish community in the Persian part of the Muslim Empire were manuscripts found in an Afghani cave inhabited by foxes, and the said manuscripts reported upon the details of this Jewish society, things such as their culture, religious practices, and economic life. These documents are incredibly well-preserved for their millennium of survival, mostly due to the dry, arid landscape of Afghanistan. Other historical sources of the Middle Ages have suggested that there were Jewish communities in the Persian part of the Empire, yet verification of such societies was required up until the discovery of these manuscripts.

These documents are known as the Afghan Geniza, and were written in a variety of languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Arabic, and some even used the Babylonian system for vowels. The source of these manuscripts is something yet to be determined, yet there is speculation of their origin. They are speculated to have come from an area near the borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, seeing as the migration of Jews to that area was probable in the Middle Ages due to the trade along the Silk Road. The documents are being bought and acquired by the National Library, and are then to be scanned and digitalized, so as that they are accessible to all who wish to look at them and attempt to understand their complexities.

It is here that I am plagued with confusion; why computerize documents so as that they are available to all, and bring technology to such beautiful, historic manuscripts. Excuse me if I am being redundant, for I did write my picture book on how technology is awful and should only be used in moderation, yet in this case I feel that it is more destroying the beauty and excitement of seeing these documents first hand and experiencing their fragility, and all that they hold. It is my belief that computerizing suc historic things ruins that exhilaration you feel when you see them in person; that pang in your chest, that wondrous gaze that many of us find upon our faces when looking at such a historic artifact. I don't see the point of putting such things on the internet or digitalizing them; there should not be "previews" of art or historic artifacts; people should experience them first hand.