SAADIA, or Saadias (Heb. Se'adyah, Arab. Sa'îd ), was the most accomplished, learned, and noble gaon (head of the academy) of Sūrā (see Rab). MarRab Se'adyah b. Yoseph was born in the Fayyûm, Upper Egypt, in 892 and died at Sūrā in 942. Of his teachers only the Jew Abú Kethír is positively known by name, but he must have had at least three more . teachers of considerable learning, one a Karaite, one a Mohammedan, and one a Christian, as his acquaintance with the literature of these four religious bodies testifies. His pre-eminence over his contemporaries is indicated in the fact that he was the only gaon who had not been educated and then advanced by degrees in the academy, to the highest dignity of which he was called from a far-off country, but best appears in the excellence of his many works, which extend over most branches of learning known in his time. And his learning was exceeded by his manifold virtues. His love of truth and justice was made more conspicuous by the darkness of the corruption amid which he lived. When the rësh gäluthä (“prince of the captivity,” the highest dignitary of the Jews in Babylonia, and to some extent of those of the whole world) attempted to wrest judgment in a certain case, and first asked, then requested, and finally demanded the signature of the gaon of Sürä in a threatening manner, Se'adyah refused it, fearless of consequences. David b. Zakkai, the rësh gäluthä, deposed him and chose another gaon in his stead. A reconciliation took place some years afterwards, and Se'adyah was reinstated in his old dignity. And, although his health had been fatally undermined by the behaviour of the rësli gäluthä and his son, Se'adyah, when his former opponent died, was indefatigable in his endeavours to have this very son ...of his once mortal enemy placed on the throne of his fathers. But the new prince of the captivity enjoyed his dignity for little more than half a year. He left behind him a boy, twelve years of age, whom Se'adyah took into his own house and treated in every respect as his own child. This learning and these virtues endeared Se'adyah not merely to his contemporaries but also to the best men of succeeding ages. Behayye b. Yoseph (the author of the Hoboth Hallebabotlι), Rashi, Se'adyah (the author of the commentary on Daniel in the Rabbinic Bible), David Kimhi, Behayye b. Asher (the author of Had Hakkemalf), all appeal to him as an authority not to be questioned. Even Ibn 'Ezra defers more to him than to any other authority. To this day Jewish and Christian scholars alike express for him the highest admiration.
The numerous works which are ascribed to him may be conveniently divided into four classes.
I. Genuine and still extant Works.— (1) Arabic translations of, and in part commentaries on, books of the Bible: («) the Pentateuch (printed in Hebrew characters, Constantinople, 1546, fol., and in Arabic characters in the Paris and London polyglotte); (δ) Isaiah (printed in Arabic characters from Hebrew letters of the Bodleian MS. Uri 156, by Paulus, Jena, 1790-91, 8vo); (c) Psalms (Ewald, lieber die arabisch geschriebenen Werke jüdischer Sprachgelehrten, Stuttgart, 1844, 8vo); (d) Proverbs (Bodleian MS. Uri 15); (e) Job (Uri 45); (∕) Canticles (Merx, Die Saadjanische Ucber-setzung des Hohen Liedes ins Arabische, Heidelberg, 1882, 8vo). (2) Hebrew Lexicography: Seventy (90 or 91) aπaξ λeγl>μeva to be found in the Bible, published from the Bodl. MS. Hunt. 573, by Dukes (Z. K. Μ., v. 6) and by Benjacob (Debarim Attikim, i., Leipsic, 1844). (3) Talmudic Literature: (a) Decisions (incorpo rated in 'Ittur, Venice, 1608, fol.; and in the book of Responsa, Sha'are Sedek, Salonica, 1792, 4to); (5) On the laws of inheritance (Bodl. MS. Hunt. 630). (4) Liturgy, both in prose and poetry:
(a) Siddur (Bodleian MS. Uri 261); (δ) Arabischer Midrasch (!) zu den Zehn Geboten, in Hebrew letters (MS. Jellinek of Vienna, with Hebrew and German translation by W. Eisenstädter, Vienna, 1868, 8vo). (5) Religious Philosophy: (a) Commentary on the Sepher Yesirah, MS. Uri 370 (Opp. Add., 4to, 89), contains the earlier part of a Heb. trans, in a modern hand; (5) Kitab al-Amdnât wa'l-Γtiqdddt (Landauer, Leyden, 1880,8vo), translated into Hebrew by Yehudah Ibn Tibbon (editio princeps, Constantinople, 1562, 4to), and by R. Berekhyah Hannakdan, author of the Mishele Shu'alim (printed only in part; see Dukes, Beiträge, pp. 20, 22); nine chapters have been translated into German (Fürst, Leipsic, 1845, 12mo), and parts into English (Two Treatises, by P. Allix, London, 1707, 8vo).
II. Works now lost, but the existence of which is testified to by contemporary and later authors.— (1) An Arabic translation of, and in part commentary on, most, if not all, the other books of the Bible. (2) Lexical Treatises: Book of Interpretations (Sepher Pithronim, or Collection (Iggeron). s (3) Grammatical Treatises: (a) Elegancy of the Hebreλv Tongue—(a) Treatise on the Changes, (β) Treatise on the Combinations, (γ) Treatise on Dagesh and Rapheh, (δ) Treatise on the Letters]), Π, ∏, N; (b) Treatise on Punctuation; (c) Treatise on Right Reading;—it is not impossible that the first four constituted one work and the last two another work. (4) Talmudic Literature: (a) Translation of the Mishnah ; (b) Methodology of the (Babylonian) Talmud; (c) Treatise on Bills; (d) Treatise on Deposits; (e) Treatise on Oaths; (f) Treatise on Prohibited Degrees; (g) Treatise on Imprura et Pura, including Hilekhoth Niddah l β ;—it is very possible that those marked e to f constituted one book, just as the treatise marked g constituted one book. (5) Calendarie Literature: Sepher Haibbur (Treatise on Intercalation). (6) Apologetics: Treatise on Investigations. (7) Polemics: (αj against Karaism—(α) ‘Anan, (β) Ibn Sakkawiyyah, ° (γ) Ibn Zitta (or Zutta); (δ) against the Rabbanite Hivvi al-Balkhi; (c) against the Karaite Ben Asher (the completer of the Massoreth ; see L.-B. d. Or., x. 684). (8) The nature of the Sepher Haggalui cited by Rabad II. and Ab. b. Hiyya in his Sepher Ha'ibbur is not clear.
III. Works ascribed to Se'adyah the authorship of which is not sufficiently proven. —(1) The commentary on Canticles edited by Yishak Ibn 'Akrish (Constantinople, 1577, 4to), and that published by L. Margaliyyoth at Frankfort-ön-Oder, 1777. (2) The well-known piece of didactic poetry which gives account of all the letters of the Bible, how many times they occur, &c. (editio princeps, Venice, 1538, at the end of Elias Levita’s Massoreth Hammass f.
IV. Works ascribed to Se'adyah by mistake. — (1 ) The Commentary on Daniel commonly found in the Rabbinic Bibles belongs to another Rab Se'adyah, who lived at least two hundred years later, and was a native either of France or the south of Germany. (2) The Commentary on the Sepher Yesirah, printed with the text and three other commentaries at Mantua in 1562, 4to. (3) The Book on Lots (Sepher Haggoraloth), often printed separately and in conjunction with similar works. (4) Eben Happilosophim (Lapis Philosophorum), ascribed to him by R. Mosheh Butrial (Mantua edition of the Sepher Yesirah as above).
(S. Μ. S. - S. )
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 21, p. 120 [1,212 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]
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