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574 Bashuysen

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bashyazi

was assigned

royal household, and

Naphtali j.

(I

Kings

to the district of

C. F. K.

BASHUYSEN, HEINBICH JACOB Hebrew books and

Chris-



Orientalist



born

Hanau, Prussia, Oct. 26, 1679; died about 1750. He founded a printing-establishment in his native city between 1709 and 1712; and over 100 publications were issued from his press. He was a zealous promoter of Hebrew and rabbinical literature and, among other works, he translated extracts from the rabbinical commentaries to the Psalms (Hanau, at

In one of his dissertations he translated a 1712). part of the " Mishneh Torah " of Moses Maimonides (Hanover, 1705; Frankfort, 1708); and it was his intention to translate the whole work, as well as the

Hebrew grammar "Shoresh Yehudah," by Juda Neumark, director of Bashuysen's printing-office in Bashuysen published Abravanel's com Hanau. mentaries on the Pentateuch, and intended to edit the entire work in four volumes. He also entertained the idea of amplifying Otho's " Historia Doctorum Mishnicorum " by adding the Amoraim. Among Bashuysen's other works may be mentioned: "Panegyricus Hebr. de Ling. Hebr." (Hanover, 1706; also in German, ib. 1706); " Institutiones Gemarico-Rabbin." (Planover, 1718); "Exercit. Paradoxa de Nova Methodo Disccndi per Rabbinos Ling.

Hebr." (Servestse, 1720). In 1701 he was appointed ordinary professor of Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history at the Protestant gymnasium of Hanau, and in 1703 became professor of theology in that institution (Bashuysen's father was preacher in the Dutch Reformed Church of the city). In 1716 he accepted the position of rector and " professor primarius " at the gymnasium of Zerbst. Bashuysen was a member of the

London Society

Academy

of Berlin and of the the Propagation of the Gospel.

Bibliography: Bernhardi,

in

for

Allgemeine Deutsche Bingra-

phien, s.v. Baxhuifsen Steinsehneider, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 4521, 9338; idem, Bibl. Handlmch, p. 18; idem, in Zeit.f. Hebr.

Bibl.

ii.

51.

A. F.

6.

BASHYAZI, ELIJAH B. MOSES B. MENAHEM OF ADRIANOPLE: Karaite hakam; born at Adrianople about 1420 died there in 1490. After being instructed in the Karaite literature and theology of his father and grandfather, both learned

hakams

of the Karaite

community

of Adrianople,

Bashyazi went to Constantinople, where, under the direction of Mordecai Comtino, he studied rabbinical literature as well as mathematics, astronom}7 and philosophy, in all of which he soon became most ,

proficient.

In 1460 Bashyazi succeeded his father as hakam community at Adrianople. From the many letters addressed by him as repBecomes resentative of the Karaite community Hakam at of Constantinople, from 1480 to 1484, Adriato Karaite communities in Luska and Trok, Poland, Neubauer concludes that nople. Bashyazi resided for the most of the time in Constantinople. In these letters he appears as a warm-hearted defender of the Karaite faith. He urges his coreligionists to send young men to of the Karaite

Constantinople to study their religious authorities, and to lead a pious life otherwise he would pronounce an anathema on those dereHe devoted himself to the imlict in their duties. provement of the intellectual condition of the Karaite sect, which, in consequence of internal dissensions on religious matters, was at that time very low. In order to settle the religious laws he compiled a code

lest their faith die out,

iv. 15).

jr.

tian printer of

574



"Aderet Eliyahu" (The Mantle of Elijah). This code, which contained both the mandatory and prohibitory precepts, is rightly regarded by the Karaites as the greatest authority on those matters. In it Bashyazi displays a remarkable knowledge, not only of the earliest KaHis " Aderet raite writings, but also of all the more Eliyahu." important rabbinical works, including those of Saadia, Ibn Ezra, and Maimonides, whose opinions he discusses. The "Aderet" is divided into subjects and these again are subdivided into chapters. The subjects treated are: (1) the fixation of the months (42 chapters); (2) the Sabbath (22 chaps.); (3) Passover (10 chaps.); (4) unleavened bread (7 chaps.); (5) the Feast of Weeks (10 chaps.); (6) New-Year (2 chaps.); entitled

the Day of Atonement (5 chaps.); (8) the Feast This last subof Tabernacles (5 chaps.); (9) prayer. ject comprises three parts: theology; ethics; and laws concerning prayers, synagogues, slaughtering, clean and unclean, prohibited degrees in marriage, women, the years of release and jubilee, the prohibition of mingled seed, and oaths. The last three sub(7)

jects

were completed, after Bashyazi's death, by

Caleb Afendopolo. Bashyazi's theological system

his

disciple,

is

clearness and logic. Following the

a masterpiece of

example of Judah

Hadassi and probably of still older of Karaism, he set up ten arti-

His Theo- masters logical

System,

cles of belief, the veracity of

demonstrates

which he

philosophically as

fol-

lows: (1) All physical existence— that is to say, the spheres and all that they contain has been created. There are two kinds of creations: creation from something else, and creation from nothing. The things now existing are creations from something else, such as the chicken created from the egg but creation from nothing is by the will of God alone. All compound beings have been produced from the elements and the first matter by the movement of the spheres. But the question is whether the spheres and the first matter were created. The philosophers assert that they are eternal, because, they say, " nothing can be created from nothing." In Bashyazi's opinion this is an error arising from judging the past by the present. The philosophers, knowing of no creation from nothing in their own experience, conclude that such a creation never could His Views have been. Supposing then that they on had never seen the chicken emerge Creation, from the egg, they might as well main-

—



tain that the chicken was eternal, because they could not explain how it lived in the The fact is that inferior beings can not be egg. compared with superior ones which the reason is unable to conceive. In these things reliance must be placed upon revelation, which even philosophy