The Aleppo (Syria) Codex is a manuscript set of the Tanach. It was at one time the oldest complete manuscript of the Tanach*; however approximately one–third of it, including nearly all of the Torah, has been missing since 1947.
It is considered by many to be the most authoritative document in the masorah (“the Jewish transmission”), the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures, law and tradition have been preserved and passed–on from generation to generation.
After its creation in the tenth century, the codex was given to the Jewish community of Jerusalem during the mid–eleventh century. However, it was among the works held ransom by the Crusaders during the First Crusade.
After being rescued by the elders of Ashkelon (Judea), it was transported to Egypt along with Jewish refugees. It later resurfaced in the Rabbanite synagogue in Cairo, where it was referenced by Maimonides; Maimonides’ descendants brought it to Aleppo, Syria, at the end of the fourteenth century.
The Codex remained in Syria for five hundred years, until Muslim anti–Jewish riots desecrated the synagogue where it resided. The Codex disappeared, and re–emerged in 1958, when it was smuggled into Israel by Syrian Jew Murad Faham, and presented to the president of the state, Itzhak Ben–Zvi.
On arrival, it was found that parts of the codex had been lost. The Aleppo Codex was entrusted to the Ben–Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. As noted, the beginning (nearly all of the Torah) and end of the manuscript are missing, as well as are some pages in between.