A Pentateuch and Haftarot codex from Bukhara

This article analyses a fifteenth-century Pentateuch and Haftarot codex (MS B2), copied in Bukhara in 1488 and preserved at the Bar-Ilan University Library. It is one of two medieval Bukharan Pentateuch manuscripts and the earliest to include the second half of Exodus through Deuteronomy with Haftarot according to the Bukharan rite. A systematic comparison with the Aleppo Codex and five traditions – Oriental Masoretic codices (considered accurate), as well as Yemenite, Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Italian manuscripts – shows that MS B2 preserves features of an alternative tradition. This is evident in textual variants (especially plene and defective spellings), section divisions and the layout of the Song of Haʾazinu. While MS B2 reflects partial conformity with the Oriental tradition, it also presents features like those found in Ashkenazi and Italian manuscripts. These correspondences, alongside its Masoretic elements, underscore the hybrid nature of the Bukharan tradition and illuminate dynamics of Pentateuch transmission in Central Asia.