The Aleppo Codex In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books
The Aleppo Codex In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books
- ISBN 13:
9781616202781
- ISBN 10:
1616202785
- Format: Paperback
- Copyright: 05/14/2013
- Publisher: Algonquin Books
List Price $19.99 Save $0.70
Usually Ships in 2-3 Business Days
We Buy This Book Back!
Free Shipping On Every Order
Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
Extend or Purchase Your Rental at Any Time
Need to keep your rental past your due date? At any time before your due date you can extend or purchase your rental through your account.
Summary
“A brilliant non-fiction thriller about an ancient copy of the Torah. Highly recommended.”
—Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist
Winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it was housed in a dark grotto in Aleppo, Syria, and had become known around the world as the Aleppo Codex.
Journalist Matti Friedman’s true-life detective story traces how this precious manuscript was smuggled from its hiding place in Syria into the newly founded state of Israel and how and why many of its most sacred and valuable pages went missing. It’s a tale that involves grizzled secret agents, pious clergymen, shrewd antiquities collectors, and highly placed national figures who, as it turns out, would do anything to get their hands on an ancient, decaying book. What it reveals are uncomfortable truths about greed, state cover-ups, and the fascinating role of historical treasures in creating a national identity.