Solomon Schechter's discovery of the Cairo Geniza in 1896, a collection of discarded Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, revealed a trove of Jewish historical and literary treasures, including writings from the Exilarchs, Jewish philosophers like Saadya Gaon and Maimonides, and poets such as Shmuel Ha-nagid and Yehuda Halevi.