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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Yemen. In the middle of the fourteenth century Nathanael ben Isaiah compiled

literature belongs to

a kind of Midrash under the title " Nur Thulm," specimens of which are still extant (idem, xii. 59 Alexander Homilies. Kohut, "Light of Shade and Lamp of Wisdom," New York, 1894; Hirschfeld, "Arab. Chrestom." pp. 11-14). The physician Yahya b. Sulaiman (Zakariyya, about 1430) was the author of the Midrash Hefez, written in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic (Steinschneider, "Cat. Berlin," i. 64, 71), a commentary on which exists under the title " Al-Durrah al-Muntakhaba " (MS. Brit. Mus. Or. 2746). A few decades later Sa'id b. Da'ud al-Adani wrote homilies on the Pentateuch under the title "Kitab najat al-gharikin" (ib. 2785). Abu Mansur al-Dhamari was the author of the "Siraj al-'Ukul" (see Kohut, "Aboo Manzur al-Dhamari, " New York, 1892) and, finally, David al-Lawani composed a Midrashic work, " Al-Wajiz al-Mughni." Glosses on the Decalogue were written by Moses b. Joseph al-Balidah (MS. Brit. Mus. Or. 2746). Various anonymous compilations, belonging to the same class and written in vulgar

Midrashim and

al





dialect, also exist (Hirschfeld,

I.e.

His

"

Risalah

community of Fez not Targum, embodies the

" (Epistle),

exhorting the

to neglect the study of the first attempt at a compara-

He is, however, tive study of Semitic languages. far outranked by Saadia, who was the first to make Saadia's first philological studies a special science. work, styled " Agron," of which only Philology, some fragments have been preserved,

was

partly

lexicographical,

Bal'am wrote on the accents of the first three books of the Hagiographa, on homonyms ("Kitab al-Tajnis "), and several smaller treatises. Prominent alike as commentator of the Bible and grammarian was Moses Gikatilla, who wrote on the " Masculine and Feminine " but this work is lost. To the same century belongs Isaac b. Jashush, who was the author of a work on Inflections ("Kitab al-Tasarif "). The twelfth century shows further development. Abu Ibrahim b. Barun wrote " Kitab al-Muwazana, a treatise on comparative Hebrew and Arabic philosophy (ed, with a Russian introduction and annota;

tions, by P. v. Kokovzow, St. Petersburg, 1893). Judah ha-Levi's "Alkhazari" has a grammatical

chapter with interesting features (ed. Hirschfeld, pp. 128-138). After this pei'iod Hebrew preponderated over Arabic for philological pursuits. In the fourteenth century there is only Tanhum of Jerusalem, who wrote a dictionary on the Mishnah (" Al Murshid ") in connection with Maimonides' commentary on the same. In the fifteenth century the African, Saadia ben Danan, composed a grammatical work and a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary. Another glossary on Maimonides' Mishnah commentary was compiled

by David ben Yesha ha-Lewi

pp. 14-19).

Linguistics: Jewish philologists modeled It is, therefore, their works on those of the Arabs. not surprising that many of them were written in Arabic. The earliest Jewish grammarian is Judah b. Koraish, of Tahort, in North Africa (ed. BargSs, 5.

Paris, 1859).

Arabic Literature of the Jews

partly

More details on the latter subject grammatical. were to be found in his chief work, " Book on the [Hebrew] Language," in twelve parts; but unfortunately this is not now in existence. The only two works of his that have been preserved are his etymological essay on "Ninety [seventy] Unique or Rare Words in the Bible," and his commentary on the "Sefer Yezirah," which contains grammatical paragraphs. In the middle of the tenth century there flourished in Kairwan Dunash ben Tamim. Soon after Saadia, Abu al-Faraj Harun of Jerusalem, the Karaite, composed a work on grammar and lexicography under the title Al Mushtamil" (Poznanski, "Rev. Et. Juives," xxx. 24-39, 197-218). The oldest linguistic studies in Spain were not written in Arabic, but in Hebrew; and there is none of real importance till Judah Hayyuj (of Fez), who, at the beginning of the eleventh century, witnessed the famous struggle between the pupils of '.'

Menahem and Dunash hen Labrat. Hayyuj was followed by Abu al-Walid Merwan (Jonah) b. Janah, whose writings are of a more comprehensive The latter not only criticized and supplenature. mented Hayyuj, but wrote important grammatical works and a dictionary ("The Book of HebrewRoots," ed. A. Neubauer, Oxford, 1875; Hebrew Judah b. version, ed. W. Bacher, Berlin, 1894).

of

Aden

(Steinschnei-

No. 113). Of anonymous writings mention may be made of a grammatical compendium attached to a Karaite prayer-book (MS. Brit. Mus. Or. 25-36), an Arabic-Persian vocabulary (MS. Brit. Mus. Add. 7701), a treatise on diffider, "Cat. Berlin,"

words

cult

in

Bible

and Mishnah (Hirschfeld,

"Arab. Chrestom.," pp. 31-34), and a chapter on Biblical

Aramaic

(ib.

pp. 54-60).

Talmud and Halakah

6.

that in the

come

so

It was but natural Talmud and Halakah Arabic did not be:

popular as in other branches of Jewish

The rabbinic Halakah was too firmly

lit-

discussions on established to suffer the intrusion of Arabic and much that has been written on such subjects in Arabic has either perished, or has been chiefly studied in Hebrew versions. There is no sufficient evidence to prove that an Arabic version of the Mishnah by Saadia was ever written, since the short notice given by Pethahiah of Regensburg is too scant to admit of any definite conclusions. Some of his Arabic responsa have been preserved. erature.

dialect

for



made by Saadia's Spanish contempoJoseph ben Abi Thaur, was not made to supply a want felt by Jews, but at the request of a bib-

The

translation

rary,

It is therefore not surprising that, it should have been lost, as probably not more than one copy of it ever existed. Joseph b. Abraham b. Sheth and Isaac al-Faz wrote responsa in Arabic. Maimonides, while wri-

liophile ruler.

ting his commentary on the Mishnah in Arabic, left the text untranslated and it was the Hebrew version of this commentary which became popular, although the original was also freMaimon- quently copied. Many portions of the same exist in print and its study is ides. of the utmost importance in the verification of the version attached to present-day ediMaimonides also wrote a tions of the Talmud. " Sefer ha-Mizwot " in Arabic, to serve as a kind of



introduction to his Mishnah Torah (introduction and the first three paragraphs edited, with German trans-