PROTO-PRAYERBOOKS: Liturgical Scrolls from the Cairo Genizah as an Early Type of Siddur.

This paper seeks to interpret the liturgical role of a rare form of horizontal scrolls found in the Cairo Genizah. These liturgical fragments all share a unique combination of features: the scrolls follow the Palestinian textual and codicological tradition, focus exclusively on holiday prayer services, and incorporate a very narrow selection of liturgies based entirely on biblical passages and psalms. It is suggested that these liturgical scrolls may represent an early form of prayer books -- an intermediate phase between Scriptural scrolls used in liturgical context and standard prayerbooks, emerged at times when only biblical liturgy was recorded in writing. Alternatively, the scrolls may be counted among other biblical scrolls used publicly for liturgical purposes (such as Haftarah and Targum scrolls), and might have served for the ceremonial reading of liturgical passages of special significance to the Palestinian prayer tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]