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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Life in Fragments: Stories from the Cairo Genizah

The Essay: Life in Fragments: Stories from the Cairo Genizah: Episode 1: The Discovery

Factual: History

Life in Fragments: Stories from the Cairo Genizah

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Discovery

The Discovery

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Esther-Miriam Wagner on discovering the Genizah, medieval manuscripts in a Cairo synagogue

Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner reveals how an eccentric scholar and two Scottish twins braved a legendary curse to uncover the Genizah, medieval manuscripts in a Cairo synagogue.

The Cairo Genizah is a treasure trove of manuscripts from the Ben Ezra synagogue in Old Cairo that portrays over 800 years of community life. Rediscovered in the 19th century, this vast communal paper-bin contained hundreds upon thousands of scraps of rag-paper and parchment. It's an unedited archive of prayers, letters, poems, magical spells, alchemical recipes, children's exercise books, divorce deeds and pre-nuptial agreements that paints a lively and intimate picture of daily medieval life in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean.

In this first essay, Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner of the Genizah Research Unit tells the story of the discovery of the Genizah inside the ancient and crumbling synagogue of Al-Fustat, a suburb of modern day Cairo. Featuring a legendary curse, a pair of intrepid Scottish twins, an eccentric scholar and one very generous rabbi.

Produced by Michele Banal and Miranda Hinkley.
A Nightjar production.

First broadcast in May 2013.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series about the Cairo Genizah, a collection of documents from the synagogue in Old Cairo

Series focusing on the Cairo Genizah - a collection of documents from the synagogue in Old Cairo that is thought to be one of the most signficant bodies of medieval texts being researched today

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