Img. ID: 577632

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

In the area of Yemen, there was no Hebrew printing press until the late 19th century. Hebrew books for prayer and study were either imported, a difficult and expensive task in isolated Yemen or were produced as manuscripts. These were copied either from the few printed books that were available or from earlier manuscripts. Texts of the biblical scrolls, the "Megillot", were a popular subject for writing in Yemen.  They were sometimes decorated on the title pages.  This example is dated to the 18th century and very delicately rendered in subtle colors, all in all, a much finer artistic composition than those normally found. The manuscript contains the scrolls of the "song of Songs", "Ruth" and "Job". There are decorations on the initial words before each individual scroll text as well as on the title page. Written commentaries appear within each section of the manuscript. Another manuscript in the gross family collection has so many similarities in the decorated title page that it may well be by the same skilled scribe from Sana’a, the largest city in Yemen and usually considered the capital. There are a few other manuscripts known from the same hand and they are considered to be the finest examples from the time.

Jews are considered to have been in Yemen for at least two thousand years. When the state of Israel was created in 1948 almost, the entire Jewish population left Yemen. Some 50,000 Jews were brought to Israel in a massive airlift called "the magic carpet". Today no more than a few hundred Jews remain in Yemen.

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