Related Research Articles
Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson Anatoli was a translator of Arabic texts to Hebrew. He was invited to Naples by Frederick II. Under this royal patronage, and in association with Michael Scot, Anatoli made Arabic learning accessible to Western readers. Among his most important works were translations of texts by Averroes.
Hai ben Sherira better known as Hai Gaon, was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Pumbedita during the early 11th century. He was born in 939 and died on March 28, 1038. He received his Talmudic education from his father, Sherira ben Hanina, and in early life acted as his assistant in teaching. In his forty-fourth year he became associated with his father as "av bet din," and with him delivered many joint decisions. According to Sefer HaKabbalah of Rabbi Abraham ben David (Ravad), he was the last of the Geonim.
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, also known as Isaac Israeli the Elder and Isaac Judaeus, was one of the foremost Jewish physicians and philosophers living in the Arab world of his time. He is regarded as the father of medieval Jewish Neoplatonism. His works, all written in Arabic and subsequently translated into Hebrew, Latin and Spanish, entered the medical curriculum of the early thirteenth-century universities in Medieval Europe and remained popular throughout the Middle Ages.
Josippon is a chronicle of Jewish history from Adam to the age of Titus. It is named after its supposed author, Josephus Flavius, though it was actually composed in the 10th century in Southern Italy. The Ethiopic version of Josippon is recognized as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
Jacob ben Reuben was a Karaite scholar and Bible exegete of the eleventh century. He wrote a brief Hebrew language commentary on the entire Bible, which he entitled Sefer ha-'Osher, because, as he says in the introduction, the reader will find therein sufficient information, and will not need to have recourse to the many voluminous commentaries which the author himself had consulted. The book is, in fact, merely a compilation; the author's explanation of any given passage is frequently introduced by the abbreviations or ; and divergent explanations of other commentators are added one after the other and preceded by the vague phrase. It is, in fact, chiefly an extract of Yefet ben Ali's work, from whom Jacob borrowed most of his explanations as well as the quotations from various authors, chiefly on the Pentateuch. But Jacob also drew upon later Karaite authors, the last of whom is Jeshua ben Judah, who, so far as is known, flourished about 1054. This date points to the second half of the eleventh century as the date of composition of the Sefer ha-'Osher.
Jeshua ben Judah was a Karaite scholar, exegete and philosopher, who lived in eleventh-century Iraq or at Jerusalem.
Joseph ben Abraham was a Karaite philosopher and theologian who flourished in Babylonia or Persia in the first half of the eleventh century. He was the teacher of, among others, Jeshua ben Judah. By way of euphemism he was surnamed "ha-Ro'eh", on account of his blindness. This infirmity, however, did not prevent him from undertaking long journeys, likely as a Karaite missionary. In the course of his travels he frequented the religio-philosophical schools of the Mu'tazili, whose teachings he defended in his works. Of these the most important is the Muhtawi, translated from the Arabic into Hebrew, perhaps by Tobiah ben Moses, under the title Sefer ha-Ne'imot, or Zikron ha-Datot. It is divided into forty chapters, in which all the main principles of the Mu'tazili kalam are applied to the Karaite dogmas: the five principles of the unity of God; the necessity of admitting atoms and accidents; the existence of a Creator; the necessity of admitting certain attributes and rejecting others; God's justice and its relation to free will; reward and punishment; etc. The author often argues against the Christians, the Dualists, the Magians, the Epicureans, and various other sects, with whose tenets he shows himself well acquainted. He cites the founders of the Mu'tazili sects of al-Jabaiyah and al-Bahshamiyyah, Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Jabai, and his son Hashim Abd al-Salam, whose teachings he closely follows. The Muhtawi is still extant in manuscript, both in the Arabic original and in its Hebrew translation; the former in the David Kaufmann Library, the latter in the libraries of Leiden, Paris, and St. Petersburg.
Hasun ben Mashiach was a Karaite scholar who flourished in Egypt in the first half of the tenth century. According to Steinschneider, "Hasun" is a corrupted form of the Arabic name "Hussain," the ו being easily confounded in manuscript with the י Hasun, or, as he is generally quoted by the Karaite authorities, ben Mashiah, was a younger contemporary of Saadia Gaon, whom, according to Sahl ben Matzliah in his Tokahat Megullah, he once challenged to a religious controversy. Hasun was the author of a polemical work, written probably in Arabic, in which he refuted one of Saadia's unpublished anti-Karaite writings, which came into his possession after the death of the author. Owing to a misunderstanding of a passage in the Eshkol ha-Kofer of Hadassi, Ḥasun was erroneously credited with the authorship of the anonymous chapter, on the theodicy, entitled Sha'ar Tzedek, in the religio-philosophical work "Zikron ha-Datot," and of Quppat ha-Rokelim. Simḥah Isaac Luzki attributes to Ḥasun also a work on the precepts. Abraham ibn Ezra, in his introduction to the commentary on the Pentateuch, quotes a Karaite scholar named Ben Mashiah, who is probably identical with Hasun.
Joseph ben Shem-Tov ibn Shem-Tov was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de Leon (1441); Alcalá de Henares (1451); and Segovia (1454).
Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov was a Spanish kabbalist and fierce opponent of rationalistic philosophy.
Shabbethai Donnolo was a Graeco-Italian Jewish physician, and writer on medicine and astrology.
Jacob ben Nissim ibn Shahin was a Jewish philosopher and mathematician who lived at Kairouan, Tunisia in the 10th century; he was a younger contemporary of Saadia. At Jacob's request Sherira Gaon wrote a treatise entitled Iggeret, on the redaction of the Mishnah. Jacob is credited with the authorship of an Arabic commentary on the Sefer Yeẓirah.
Samuel ben Jacob ibn Jam or Samuel ben Jacob Jam'a was rabbi of the North-African community of קאבס (Gabès?) who flourished in the 12th century. He was on intimate terms with Abraham ibn Ezra, who dedicated to him his Ḥai ben Meḳiẓ and mentioned eulogiously three of his sons — Judah, Moses, and Jacob.
Mordecai ben Eliezer Comtino was a Talmudist and scientist.
Moses ibn Tibbon was a Jewish physician, author and translator in Provence. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon suggest that he reached a great age.
Abraham Abigdor, born 1350, was a Jewish physician, philosopher, kabbalist, and translator. He should not be confused with Maestro Abraham Abigdor, who in 1386 was the proprietor of a house at Arles.
Shem-Tob ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist. He is often confused with the physician Shem-Tob ben Isaac of Tortosa, who lived earlier. He may also be confused with another Ibn Shaprut, Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, who corresponded with the king of the Khazars in the 900's.
Shem-Ṭob ben Isaac of Tortosa was a Provençal rabbi and physician.
Nathan Judah ben Solomon was a Provençal Jewish physician and scholar of the fourteenth century. His Provençal names were En Bongodas and Bonjues and he was probably a native of Avignon, where lived many other members of the Nathan family. Judah, like all the other members of his family, added to his father's name the formula "of the race of Ben Jesse," which is probably an allusion to the house of David, from which several Provençal families claimed to be descended.
Zerahiah ben Shealtiel Ḥen, also called Zerahiah ben Shealtiel Gracian or Serachja ben Isaac Ben Shealtiel Halevi was a Spanish Jewish physician, philosopher, translator, and Hebraist. He flourished about the end of the thirteenth century. He was born either at Barcelona, or at Toledo. He is sometimes confused with Zerahiah ben Isaac ha-Levi Saladin, also a translator.
References
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 667;
- idem, Hebr. Uebers. §§ 206, 348, 581;
- idem, Bibliographisches Handbuch, No. 164, Leipsic, 1859;
- T. Willesz's dissertation, Budapest, 1895
