From the Middle Ages until the present, the development of astrology among Jews was associated mainly with the name of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). His scientific corpus deals with mathematics, astronomy, scientific instruments and tools, and the Jewish calendar; but especially with astrology. This volume is the first product of a larger enterprise--a scientific edition of all twelve Ibn Ezra's astrological treatises--and offers a critical Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra's Sefer ha-Te'amim, the Book of Reasons, accompanied by an annotated translation and commentary. The...

Translations of Hebrew and Aramaic sacred texts into Jewish languages, religiolects, and varieties have been widespread throughout the Jewish world. This volume is a study of the genre of these translations, known as the sarḥ, into Judeo-Arabic in Egypt in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The study places Judeo-Arabic along the Jewish linguistic spectrum, traces its history and offers insights to the spoken variety of Egyptian Judeo-Arabic, which set it apart from other Arabic dialects. The book also provides a linguistic model of the translation of the sacred texts. Rather than...

Winner of the Association for Jewish Libraries 2012 Judaica Bibliography Award This is the first comprehensive bibliography on the Karaites and Karaism. Including over 8,000 items in twenty languages, this bibliography, with its extensive annotations, thoroughly documents the present state of Karaite Studies and provides a solid foundation for future research. Special attention has been given to the organizational structure of the bibliography. A detailed table of contents and a complete set of indices enable the reader to easily navigate through the material. Translations of items from...

The biblical hermeneutics of the illustrious philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) has long been underappreciated, and viewed in isolation from the celebrated philological schools of "plain sense" (peshat) Jewish Bible exegesis. Aiming to redress this imbalance, this study identifies Maimonides' substantial contributions to that interpretive movement, assessing its achievements in cultural context. Like others in the rationalist Geonic-Andalusian school, Maimonides' understanding of Scripture was informed by Arabic learning. Drawing upon Greco-Arabic logic, poetics,...

Moses ben Abraham Darʿī, born in Alexandria into a family of Moroccan Jewish immigrants, lived in Egypt in the middle of the twelfth century. Though he visited Damascus and Jerusalem, he spent most of his professional life as a physician and poet in the Karaite community of Fusṭāṭ-Cairo. This study offers an annotated edition of secular poems taken from the earliest manuscript, NLR Evr. I 802, dated to the fifteenth century. The Hebrew text and Judaeo-Arabic heading of each poem are provided in the original order attested in the manuscript. The introduction to this...

Salmon b. Yeroham (fl. 930-960) - foundational figure in the Jerusalem school of Karaite exegesis - produced a substantial and influential corpus of polemical writing and biblical interpretation, including commentaries on Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Qohelet, Esther, Ruth, and Daniel. Asceticism, Eschatology, Opposition to Philosophy: The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Salmon ben Yeroham on Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) presents a first critical edition of the Judaeo-Arabic Qohelet commentary together with an annotated English translation. The introduction...