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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 3: Women

Factual: History

Life in Fragments: Stories from the Cairo Genizah

Episode 3

Episode 3: Women

Women

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Melonie Schmierer-Lee discovers the varying fortunes of women in medieval Cairo.

Melonie Schmierer-Lee examines ancient deeds of marriage, divorce and pre-nuptial agreements to reveal the varying fortunes of women in medieval Cairo.

Melonie Schmierer-Lee of the Genizah Research Unit reveals the fortunes of women in medieval Cairo by looking at marriage and divorce deeds, as well as some incredibly detailed pre-nuptial agreements.


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 - 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.


Produced by Michele Banal and Miranda Hinkley

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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