Aleppo Codex

For the 2012 book about the codex, see The Aleppo Codex.
Closeup of Aleppo Codex, Joshua 1:1
Page from Aleppo Codex, Deuteronomy

The Aleppo Codex (Hebrew: כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: Keṯer ʾĂrām-Ṣōḇāʾ, lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate,[1] and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. Together with the Leningrad Codex, it contains the Aaron ben Moses ben Asher Masoretic Text tradition.

The codex was kept for five centuries in the Central Synagogue of Aleppo, until the synagogue was torched during 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo.[2] The fate of the codex during the subsequent decade is unclear: when it resurfaced in Israel in 1958, roughly 40% of the manuscript—including the majority of the Torah section—was missing, and only two additional leaves have been recovered since then.[3] The original supposition that the missing pages were destroyed in the synagogue fire has increasingly been challenged, fueling speculation that they survive in private hands.[4][3]

The portion of the codex that is accounted for is housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.[4]

  1. ^ "Fragment of ancient parchment given to Jewish scholars". Archived from the original on 2009-07-07. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
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  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference holy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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