The earliest "piyyutim" date from the Talmudic () and Geonic periods (). They were "overwhelmingly or its neighbor Syria, [because only there was the Hebrew language sufficiently cultivated that it could be managed with stylistic correctness, and only there could it be made to speak so expressively." The earliest Eretz Yisrael prayer manuscripts, found in the Cairo Genizah, often consist of "piyyutim", as these were the parts of the liturgy that required to be written down: the wording of the basic prayers was generally known by heart, and there was supposed to be a prohibition of writing them down. It is not always clear from the manuscripts whether these "piyyutim", which often elaborated the themes of the basic prayers, were intended to supplement them or to replace them, or indeed whether they originated in a time before the basic prayers had become fixed. The "piyyutim", in particular those of Eleazar Kalir, were often in very cryptic and allusive language, with copious reference to Midrash.