Nethanel ben Isaiah was a Yemenite Jewish rabbi, Biblical commentator and poet of the fourteenth century. He is best known as the author of a homiletic commentary on the Torah entitled Nur al-Zulm wa-Mashbah al-Hikm, or what is simply translated into Hebrew as Sefer Me'or ha-Afelah. The first notice of this work was given by Jacob Saphir, who saw a manuscript of it at Hirbah, a small town in Yemen, in 1863. But the beginning of the manuscript was missing, and Saphir's statement that the author's name was Isaiah and that the title was Al-Nur wal-Zulm depends only upon hearsay. Two other manuscripts, one in Berlin and one in the Bodleian Library, bear the author's name, Nethanel ben Isaiah, and the full title of the work, Nur al-Zulm wa-Mashbah al-Hikm wa-Ikhraj al-Ma'ani fi al-Wujud Ba'd al'Adm. Alexander Kohut published a monograph on this work, giving some extracts, under the title "Light of Shade and Lamp of Wisdom". This title is given by Kohut as the translation of the Arabic title, though "Light out of Darkness" would be a more fitting translation, since Nethanel's introduction shows that his object was to comment on the obscure passages so as to make sure that their meanings should not escape the student.
Māsarjawaih was one of the earliest Jewish physicians of Persian origin, and the earliest translator from the Syriac; he lived in Basra about 683. His name, distorted, has been transmitted in European sources; it has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Neuda compares the name "Masarjawaih" with the Hebrew proper name "Mesharsheya"; but the ending "-waih" points to a Persian origin. The form "Masarjis" has been compared with the Christian proper name "Mar Serjis"; but it is not known that Masarjis embraced either Christianity or Islam.
Ribi Ya'aqob ben Reuben ibn Sur was a Talmudist and rabbi of Fez. He was born in the latter part of the seventeenth century and died after 1750. That his reputation as a Talmudist stood high is apparent in the responsa of Abraham Ankava, where he is quoted as an authority recognized by all Moroccan Jewish communities. Ribi ibn Sur was the author of the following works, still extant in manuscript: "Hiddushim u-Derushim," casuistic and homiletic notes ; Leshon Limmudim, collection of epistles signed. Jacob was also a liturgical poet, and wrote many dirges on the destruction of the Temple which were incorporated in the "Kinot" for Tisha b'Av in use among the Moroccan Jews; and his name occurs in the approbations to various Talmudical works, the last of which is dated 1750.
David al-Hiti is the nickname of a Karaite Jewish chronicler who flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century CE. He was a native of Hīt, Iraq, on the Euphrates River about thirty leagues to the west of Baghdad. He is supposed by Margoliouth to be identical with David ben Sa'adel ben Joseph, the writer of a manuscript quoted by Pinsker. Margoliouth further assumes that al-Hiti was a son of Joshua ibn Sa'adel ibn al-Hiti, who is cited by Solomon ben Jeroham, the adversary of Saadia Gaon. Al-Hiti was the author of a chronicle in which he registered all the Karaite scholars and their works down to Israel al-Maghrabi. Although the author was misled in some important points, his work furnishes valuable information concerning well-known Karaite scholars, and mentions a great number of previously unknown names. Al-Hiti's chronicle was published by Margoliouth from a Cairo Genizah fragment.
Levi ben Japheth, born Abu Said al-Lawi ibn Hasan al-Basri was a prominent Jewish Karaite scholar who flourished in the first half of the 11th-century CE probably at Jerusalem or Ramleh. He is the author of Kitab an-Ni'ma, which is the earliest known Karaite compendium of Mu'tazilite thought.
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.
Moses Nagari or Moses ben Judah (in Hebrew, Moshe ben Yehuda ha-Nagari was a medieval Jewish philosopher and writer. According to Steinschneider, he lived at Rome, Italy about 1300, and his name should be read "Na'ar", part of the Ne'arim family. Moses wrote Ma'amar ba-Ma'areket, an index to Maimonides' Moreh Nebukim, and explanations of philosophical terms, printed, together with Saul Cohen's philosophical questions on the "Moreh" addressed to Isaac Abravanel, at Venice in 1574. This being considered a fragment of a collective work on the Moreh, it was erroneously called Qetzat Bi'ure ha-Moreh.
Hophni and Phinehas or Phineas were the two sons of Eli. The first book of Samuel describes them as the officiating priests at the sanctuary of Shiloh at the time of Hannah. According to Josephus, Phinehas officiated as high priest because Eli had resigned as high priest at Shiloh because of his advanced age.
Joel ibn Shu'aib was a rabbi, preacher, and commentator who was born in Aragon and lived also at Tudela. He wrote the following works:
Alfandari was a family of eastern rabbis prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries, found in Smyrna, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The name may be derived from a Spanish locality, perhaps from Alfambra. The following is a list of the chief members of the family:
Judah ben Solomon Taitazak was a Talmudist who lived at Salonica in the 15th and 16th centuries. He was the brother of Joseph ben Solomon and a member of the Taitazak family. He was the author of She'erit Yehudah, commentating and supplementing Joseph Caro's Bet Yosef, on the second volume of the Ṭurim.
Abraham ben Judah ha-Levi Minz was an Italian rabbi who flourished at Padua in the first half of the 16th century. Minz studied chiefly under his father, Judah Minz, whom he succeeded as rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Padua. According to Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph, it was with Abraham Minz that Jacob Pollak had the quarrel which ended in their excommunicating each other; according to most other authorities, the quarrel was with Judah Minz. Ibn Yahya further says that the Italian rabbis believe that Polak and Abraham Minz died on the same day. Minz was the author of a number of decisions that were printed with those of R. Lewa of Ferrara. He was the author also of Seder Gittin ve-Chalitzah, a treatise on divorce and Chalitzah, printed with the responsa of his father and of his son-in-law Meir Katzenellenbogen.
Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives al-Lorqui was a Spanish-Jewish physician who lived at Alcañiz. In 1408, at the command of the rich and influential Benveniste ben Solomon ben Labi, he wrote a work in Arabic on the value and effects of various foodstuffs and of simple and composite medicaments. It was translated into Hebrew, under the title Gerem ha-Ma'alot, by Benveniste's son, Joseph Vidal.
Isaac ibn Sid was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer; he flourished at the Toledo School of Translators in the second half of the thirteenth century.
Gerson ben Solomon Catalan, also known as Gerson ben Solomon of Arles, was a French author who lived at Arles, France in the middle of the thirteenth century. He died, possibly at Perpignan, toward the end of the thirteenth century. According to Abraham Zacuto and others, he was the father of Levi ben Gerson (Gersonides).
Johanan ben Aaron ben Nathanael Luria was an Alsatian Talmudist. He lived successively at Niedernheim and Strasburg at the end of the fifteenth century and in the beginning of the sixteenth. After having studied for many years in German yeshivot, he returned to Alsace and settled in Strasburg, where he founded a yeshiva by permission of the government. Luria was the author of an ethical work entitled "Hadrakah" and of "Meshibat Nefesh", an aggadic and mystical commentary on the Pentateuch, founded on Rashi. To this commentary was appended a dissertation in which Luria refuted the arguments advanced by Christians against Judaism.
Mordechai ben Abraham Finzi was a Jewish mathematician, astronomer, grammarian and physician in Mantua.
Abraham Joseph ben Simon Wolf Menz was an eighteenth century rabbi and mathematician at Frankfurt.
Isaac ben Moses Eli ha-Sefaradi was a fifteenth century Spanish Jewish mathematician, born at Oriola, Aragon.
Abu al-Fadl ben Yosef Hasdai was an eleventh-century philosopher, poet, mathematician, physician, and political figure in Zaragoza, Spain.
