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222 JEbop

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Afgrhanistan

of Kybiscs); and six others can be pamlleled in Greek, but Imvc not hitherto been traced t(i India. Wliere similar fables exist in Greece, Talmudic, India, and in the Talmud, the Tab Indian, niudic form aiinrnaebes more nearly and Greek the Indian, wbcnever this ditlers from Tbus. the well known Fables. the Greek. fable of The AV'nlf and the Crane " is AVlieii Joshua told in India of a lion and a crane. ben Ilananiah told that fable to the Jews, to prevent their rebellinj; against Home and once more putting their heads into the lion's jaws (Gen. ]{. Ixiv.), bespoke of the lion and not of the wolf, showing that he was familiar with some form deThe Talmudic fables are, thererived from India. fore, of crucial importance in distinguishing between the later ,Es and India in their time; nevertheless there is, in the Uible. evidence of fable literature among the early Hebrews

—

—

(see

Fable).

is found written in Hebrew cliargave rise to Landsberger's theory the fable was invented by the Hebrews.

Syriac of Pyntipas

which

aclers,

that

fact

LumUtiergiT, PiV FViJ<f/ii ilcn S<ii)li<w. 1RJ9; Bini.lO(:K.pnv Ha.k, In M'-nalKschrift. IsrO-Nl; HainliunfiT. /{. B. T. 8.V. FoUl jHiiilis. The FiOiUKiif .Kmp, Itifll, I. llO-il, 1((i*-;h.



J.

AFANASTEV CHTJZHBINSKI, ALEXANDER STEPANOVICH: Christian Russian -

author and ethnographer (INIT-To); he was an enlightened writer w ho did justice to the Jews. In his " Poyezdka v Yuzhnuyu Rossiyu " (2 vols.. St. Petersburg. is(il-ti:i) he gave a faithful jiicture of Jewish life in South Ru.ssia, and defended the Jiws against the accusations of the prejudiced masses. BlBLiOfiRAPHV Sithrnnii: i^itcliinrnt, ed. H. Hoppe. vols. vlll. and Ix., St. Petersburif, 1S93; EntziMoiKdichciiki Slmar,

vol.

11.,

St.

Petersburg,

188:).

IT

R

AFENDOPOLO, CALEB B. ELIJAH B. JUDAH: I'olyhistor, brother of Samuel ha Ramali, hakam

nt the Karaite congregations in Constantinople ami of Jtidah Bali, brothcrin-law and di.sciple of Elijah Basliyat/.i born at Adiiaiiople before 1430; lived some lime at lielgrade, and died about 14Ui) at Constantinople. According to a notice found in a Paris manuscript, he supported himself by giving private instruction; but this is (juestioned by Steinschneider. A i>u])il of Mordecai Comtino at Adrianople, Afendojiolo attained great proficiency in science, and. while lacking depth and originality of thought, distinguished himself by prolific literary production, for which his large library, that included rare manuscripts, jiartly bought, jiartly copied liy

Throughout the Middle Ages, ^Esop's Fables were

known mainly from

the Latin prose versions of Pha'drus, which were translated into Old French and other languages. The Medieval number of additional fables, however, are found among those of JIarie de .2!sop. France (about 1200); and these show Here again Jewish littraces of Oriental origin. erature helps to solve the problem of the sources There is extant a collection of of these new fables. one hundred and seven fables, with the Talmudic " Jlishlc Shu'alim," compiled by one Berechiah title ha-Nakdan, containing fifty-three stories found in the work of >Iarie dc France; of these, fifteen are peculiar to her and are not to be found in the classical ^Esop. Hence, there can be no dimlit that Berechiah derived these fables from the same source as Marie de France; and it has been suggested that this common source was an English translation by Alfred Anglicus of an Arabic version of the fables. He is known, from Roger Bacon's reference to him, to have tmnslated from the Arabic. Marie de France declares that the source from which she derived her fables was an English versiim of ^Esoj) made by King Alfred, which claim, being based on a mistake that could easily have arisen through confusion of Brrechiah, as has the two Alfreds, is not tenable. been proved, lived in Oxford al)out 1190, and was known there as Bcnedictus le Punctetn-. further suggestion has been made that Alfred and Benedict worked together Alfred producing the

A

A



English version, from which Marie de France derived her fables, and Benedict, the Hebrew set. A careful collation of Benedict's fables with those of Marie de France should solve this problem in much the same manner as the Talmudic fables decided the question of the provenience of the classical ones (see

222

Beheciiiah nA-XAKDAN).

Berechiah's fables seem to have been the chief source from which the Jews of the >Iiddle Ages derived their knowledge of jEsop's Fables; and versions of Berechiah's faljles exist in JudsBO-German (see Abr.^ham ben Mattatiiias and !Moses Wai.Licn).

The only version of ^Esop in Hebrew was first published at Constantinople in l.ilG, together with the Midrash on the death of Moses; and from the title it appears to be derived from one of the French versions, since JEsop is there called Ysopet. The

him rare o]iporliinities. He continued " Adderet Eliyahu " (Elijah's Mantle), a work on Karaite law left unfinished in his charge by his teacher, Elijah Bashyat/.i, in 1400. The wife of Bashyat/.i, who was Afendopolo's sister, having died before her husband, Afendopolo lui longer referred himself, offered

to Basliyatzi as his brother-in-law, Afendopolo died before teacher.

but called liim completing Ba-

shyatzi's treatise.

Afendopolo's own works give a fair insight into Fragments only of the eriulition of the Karaites. many of them have been brought to light by Gur" Ginze Yisrael " (L.vck, 1865), ami less land in his exactly by A. Fiikovitch. His writings are: (1) An introductory index to Aaron ben Elijah's "Kz haHayyim " (1497). giving the contents of each chapter und<'rthe title. " Derek Ez ha-Havvim." published by Delitzsch in his edition (1840) of this work. (2) A similar introductory index to Judah His Iladassi's "Eshkol." under the title Writings. "Nahal Eshkol" (Koslov. 1836). (3) "Gan ha-Mclek" (Garden of the

King), his princijial work, finished in 140.5. a diwan, or collection of poetical essiiys on love, medicine, and the active intellect. (4)" 'Asjirah-Mamarot" (Ten Discourses), containing homilies on the Passover les-son (Ex. xii. 14); on the Song of Songs as read oit the seventh Passover Day on Psidm cxix, read, according to Karaite custom, on the seven Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost; and on the Pentecost lesson dealing with the Sinaitic

revelation.

The

introductory

chapter,

much

of

reproduced by Mordecai ben Xissim in his "Dod Mordecai." dwells on the origin of the Karaite schism and the main questions at issue between the Karaites and the Rabbinites (see especially Steinschneider, "Leyden Catalogue," pp. 127 et ser/.). Afendopolo's view of Jesus given therein is remarkable for itsimpartial tone. He places him,

which

is