A Haggadah is the script for the seder ritual on the first nights of Passover. The word means “telling,” and the seder is a ritual for the telling of the Passover story—the Exodus from Egypt—in a particular rabbinic fashion. 

This modest-sized Haggadah is beautiful testimony to the lives of Jews in Iraq in the 19^th century. It is written in a common journal-book, one that would have been available for purchase in a local store, with simple but beautiful decoration and fine Hebrew writing. It was written by a private individual for their own use at their seder table. 

The page in front of you includes an illustration of the Seder Plate, near the top. Below this are paragraphs with the first word highlighted in a colored frame. The first of each couple of paragraphs contains the text of the traditional Haggadah, in Hebrew or, in the first paragraph, Aramaic. The second paragraph of each pair is an Arabic translation, written in Hebrew letters. As was typical for Jews throughout history, Jews in this setting spoke the language of their neighbors.