Page:Arabic Thought and Its Place in History.djvu/250

 (d. 331 A.H. = 942 A.D.), a native of Upper Egypt, who became one of the Geonim of the academy at Sora on the Euphrates, and is best known as the translator of the Old Testament into Arabic, which had now replaced Aramaic as the speech of the Jews both in Asia and in Spain. As an author his most important work was the Kitab al-Amanat wa-l-I'tiqadat, or "Book of the articles of faith and dogmatics," which was finished in 321–2 (= A.D. 933), and was afterwards translated into Hebrew as Sefer Emunot we-De'ot by Judah b. Tibbon. He was the author also of a commentary on the Pentateuch, of which only a portion (on Exod. 30, 11–16) survives, as well as other works; but it is in the first-named and in the commentary that his views appear most clearly. For the first time a Jewish writer shows familiarity with the problems raised by the Mu'tazilites, and gives these a serious attention from the Jewish stand-point. It does not seem, however, that we should class Sa'id as a Mu'tazilite; he more properly represents the movement which produced his Muslim contemporaries, al-Ash'ari and al-Mataridi, that is to say, he is one of those who use orthodox kalam and adapt philosophy to apologetic purposes. His position is shown most clearly in the "Book of the articles of faith and dogmatics" in dealing with the three problems of (a) creation, (b) the Divine Unity, and (c) free will. In the first of these he defends the doctrine of a creation ex nihilo, but in giving proofs of the necessity of a creator he shows in three out of