The Cairo Geniza is a collection of some 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that were found in the geniza or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt. These manuscripts outline a 1,000-year continuum (870 CE to 19th century) of Jewish Middle-Eastern and North African history and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world. The Genizah texts are written in various languages especially Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic mainly on vellum and paper, but also on papyrus and cloth. In addition to containing Jewish religious texts such as Biblical, Talmudic and later Rabbinic works (some in the original hands of the authors), the Genizah gives a detailed picture of the economic and cultural life of the North African and Eastern Mediterranean regions, especially during the 10th to 13th centuries. It is now dispersed among a number of libraries, including the libraries of Cambridge University and the University of Manchester. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of old documents bought in Cairo in the later 19th century. (From Wikipedia)
Solomon Schechter (above) a Cambrdige scholar after seeing samples of manuscripts in 1896 went to the Ben Ezra synagogue and brought back to England as many documents as he could. Geniza fragments can be found today at Cambridge University, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Oxford University, The Johh Rylands Library, the University of Pennsylvania and several other libraries.
http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Cairo_Genizah From Center for Online Judaic Studies
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/cairo-geniza-COM_0004800 From Brill Online Reference works
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07178.html From Jewish Virtual Library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Geniza Wikipedia article on the Cairo Geniza
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/genizah/about.cfm Article from the University of Pennsylvania
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/03/treasures-in-the-wall-the-riches-of-the-cairo-genizah.html Treausres in the Wall. Article from the New Yorker, 2013.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/genizah Relates to the world fo Jewish women as discovered in the Geniza. Article taken from the Jewish Women's Archives.