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TilK

JEWISH KXCYCLOPEDIA

" 186), also in " The Itinerary of Benjamin of TudeUi (cd. Aslier, pp. 77 et net/. and in Sainbari, ed. Neu;

bauer, "Med. Jew. C'liron." i. l'2'i). where he figures as the master of David al-Hoi. the clever pseudciMessiah, w horn, under the name of Ai.Kov, Disraeli lias made the hero nf a romance (compare Orill/., "Ge.sch. i! Jud(n,"22; lIarkavy,"Zeit. f. Hehr, Hilil." ii. Vi't), which is preferred liy Stcin.schneider (" Jew. Quart. Kev." .i. 4H4). while others have it "Ali " (Epstein. "Monats schrift," ...i.. 512; Po/nanski. " Hev. £t. Juives." xx.xiii. ;il;

Kaufmann,

//'.

,vvii. 8(14).

set}., and 202). The diwan points to the early part of the thirteenth century as the date of its author, and contains two other (H'<iisi(inal poems address<'d to Ali, who, therefore, can not be identical with the gaon of the |)recediiig century. This, moreover, is confirmed by the fact that in an earlier poem(" Diwan Adier," No. (j) the poet apjuars to have lanicnte<l thedeath of a <laughler of the gaon Samuel ha-Livi. who, as mentioned above, succeeded Ali b. Solomon in the presidency of the academy. It is quite likely, therefore, that the Ali eulogized in thediwan, which speaks of him as "a descendant of the (ii'onim" (No. 17!(, vs. 7 and il).was the son of Samuel and grandson of the first Ali, and that he su( cedeii bis sires in the

et

<

which Samuel,

in particular,

had

in

vested with great dignity. v. M); LUeralurlilnll il. rnl. «<kH. loLs. ISKKiiiul HIIR;

niBi.ioc.RAPnv; ficleer's JIUI. Zrlt.

OnViiKvl.


 * t»: sleln.irliiiflitiT,

Idi-iii.. /H<l.

IMtr.,

3ft'»,

lu Krs<ti

and

(inilier,

F.muMninldit

no

uou.' iH.

.

x»vll.

E

IBN SAHL IBN RABBAN ALTABARI (ABU AL-HASAN) Physician an<l AXI



writer on medical subjects in Irak about the middle of the ninth century born in Taberistan. His father, Sahl, was well known as an astronomer and mathe matician. For a lime Ali lived al ISai. where Mo hammed al-Ha/i was his i)upil in inedi<ine. From Hai he went to Samarm. and for some years acted He became a as s<irelary to Mazyar ibii Kariii. Mohanniiedan through thi- elTorts of Ihi' Abbassid calif Al Mu't«!jim (H:t:!-K42). who took him into the service of the court, in whia " tise on Cupping): (7) " Kilab 11 Tart ib al 'Aril hiy ah '.Treatis<' on the Preparation of Food).

ItiBLIOGRAniv: The clilef auchijrii.v Is .tl-Nudliii iiibout 913KUll, in his FilirM, ed. KMlKer, I. asii, fnini which are dniwn the nuUees In Al-Klfli, II. 141, and In Ibn Abl (Jselbla, ed. Cenrpare Lwlea-, Hhit. ile la Midecine Mllller. I. WW. Wdsienfeld, tj(j<cli. tUr AraltOtchcn Atrzte^ -I r«/» I. ;i!ici BnN-lieltimnn, tiiitch. (Ur A raM^c/if « Lit. No. .5.5, p. -1



IfW, I. 211: St»'ln!<(hnelder. J<w. Lit. p. UH, and esp.-<lally Z. D. M. <i. Ilv. 4<1, where ether auihorllles are elted; (iriitz, Urwh. </. Jui/rn. v. 2S4. An exiiiu't (n)iii the " Klrdaus " Iti Klven by Shri-liier. iii yinnalstchriH, xlll. Wti.

q ALI SULEIMAN. See David ok Fkz. ALIBI ililerally. "elsewhere"): A form of defense

by which the accused undertakes to show that he was elsewhere when the crime was committed. Such a defense could of course be made in the criminal procedure of the ancient Jews; for wilne.s.ses were admitted for the defense as well as for the prosecution and the rules concerning the competency of witnes.se8

and the mode of e.xamiinilion were pretty much the same for the witnesses on either side. It is therefore needless to speak here about the .libi of he accused. But there is another kind of Alibi which is peculiar to the Talmudic law, dealing as it does with the presence or absence of the witnesses of an alleged crirae from the place where it was committed. It is drawn from the passages about the "plotting witnes-scs" (D'OOIt D'ly): "If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man then shall ye do into him as he lia.s thought (plotleilj to do unto his brother" I

A poem a(Idres.sed to Ali, the head of anacatlemy, probably at Bagdad, on the occasion that his son, called Safi al Din Joshua, had finished the Torah at the .synagogue, was published by Steinschneider ("Ilellaluz," lH.")(j, iii. 1.">1 i-l xei/.) and has been thought to refer to the subject of this article (compare Kobak's "Jeschurun." Hebrew jiart. iv. 'J2, note). The same poem, however, has now been found again by Sleinsclin:alte<l ollice

Alibi

.

(Deut.

.

.

H. V.). against the " plotting witness" applied The uiulerlyiug well as to criminal ca.ses. principle is thus si-t forth in Mishnah Makkot, i. 4: " WUnesses an- net 'plotters' unless they are oonluted to .ix. lti-19,

The law

to civil

a.s

a.**

Iheir itwn |»ersons.

How

Ls

this?

iiL^ihist siti-b

The Plotting:

sonielMMly.'

.SupiMiseUley

'

.say,

We

testify

and siirh a man that lie ha^ kllleil Now, If others should say lo them,

How can you say so V f<pr the rnunlered man [i*t thesupjM'sed murderer] was al the lime of ihe sucti and sm-h a pUkv.' Tlils would not How pn)ve Ihem [iloiters.' Hut if the opjM»slnir wllne.-i.si's siiy can you testify so. seelni: that you were with us on thai day at such and sueii a place y This proviw them plotierti ; and upon such u-stlmony they may be put to death." "Witness.

deed

In

'

our coni|mny al



'



'

'

'

Two

witnes.ses. being re(piireil to prove any fact, three witnes.ses were no more set (03 than a set (iliitl. 7l; and a new set of wilnes.sis was deemed sutlicieiit to refute the former set and lo con-

were called a

'



vict them of "plotting," provided they could prove an Alibi as to the twoorthree wilnes.sesof the prosecution. But if these were at dilTerent J)laces, the absence of each from the place where the disputed act occurreil must be testirteil to by «l least two witnes.ses.

As to the casuistry of a case in which more than three witnesses (that is. more than one set) hail testified, or in which one of the original Effect of witnesses was found to be dis(|ualified Contradict- by kinship or bad chanieler. the balance of opinion is that the same set ory Testimony, of counter witnesses could refut<- and brand as plotters any niimlur of original witnes.ses as they came up in separate sct.s. The case is also put. in which witnes.s<>s (the first set) against the accu.sed are branded as plotters by n si'Cond.set. and those of the sefond s<a an'epixse<i in like manner by a thinl set; that theri'Upon the man originally accused and the second si't of wilni'S.ses would be punishable, and the first withes.se» would This pioeess. following the opinion stand justified. adopted in the Mishnah, may be continintl inilefi nilelv.as long as no execution of jiidgineiit has taken To this rule, however, H. Judah objects, on place. account of llie mischief that would result from such encouragement of informers (iV.. .'d. The Saddiicees maintiiined that the false witnesws could not be punisheil until the s<'ntence against the original defendant was carried into effect; but the