Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/98

94 harshness, and artificiality of Kalir’s. Perhaps his mastery of Hebrew is best seen in his “Book of the Exiled” (Sefer ha-Galui), compiled in Biblical Hebrew, divided into verses, and provided with accents, As the title indicates, this book was written during Saadiah’s exile from Sura.

Saadiah’s Arabic version of the Scriptures won such favor that it was read publicly in the synagogues. Of old the Targum, or Aramaic version, had been read in public worship together with the original Hebrew. Now, however, the Arabic began to replace the Targum. Saadiah’s version well deserved its honor.

Saadiah brought a hornet’s nest about his head by his renewed attacks on Karaism, contained in his commentary to Genesis. But the call to Sura turned Saadiah’s thoughts in another direction. He found the famous college in decay. The Exilarchs, the nominal heads of the whole of the Babylonian Jews, were often unworthy