Jonah ibn Janah

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Jonah ibn Janah
Personal
Bornbetween 985 and 990
Córdoba, Caliphate of Córdoba (modern-day Spain)
Died1055
Zaragoza, Taifa of Zaragoza (modern-day Spain)
ReligionJudaism
OccupationPhysician

Jonah ibn Janah (

sacking of the city by Berbers. He then settled in Zaragoza, where he wrote Kitab al-Mustalhaq, which expanded on the research of Judah ben David Hayyuj and led to a series of controversial exchanges with Samuel ibn Naghrillah
that remained unresolved during their lifetimes.

His

Hebrew grammar for centuries"[3] and a foundational text in Hebrew scholarship. Ibn Janah is considered a very influential scholar in the field of Hebrew grammar; his works and theories were popular and cited by Hebrew scholars in Europe and the Middle East. His second seminal work of no less importance was a book entitled Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ ("Book of the Commentary"), being the oldest monograph on the nomenclature of simple drugs.[4]

Name

The name in which he is known in Hebrew, Jonah ("dove", also spelled Yonah) was based on his Arabic

Avraham ibn Ezra[7] referred to him as "Rabbi Marinus", a Latinization of his Arabic name Marwan.[5]

Early life

There is little information on his family or early life, mostly known from biographical details found in his writings.

Aramaic, the exegesis of the Bible and the Quran, as well as rabbinic literature.[5] Ibn Mar Saul was a master of poetry and ibn Janah attempted to write some Hebrew poetry himself, but was not very successful at it.[8][5] Ibn Gikatilla was an expert in both Hebrew and Arabic grammar, and under his tutelage ibn Janah became fluent in Arabic, familiar with Arabic literature and "acquired an easy and graceful" Arabic writing style.[8] Arabic became his language of choice for most of his writings.[2][9] Ibn Janah also mentioned Judah ben David Hayyuj as one of his major influences, but he was unlikely to have met him, because Hayyuj was active in Córdoba and died before ibn Janah returned there.[8]

Around 1012, he returned to Córdoba, where he studied and practiced medicine.

Córdoba was besieged and sacked by Berber rebels, who committed atrocities on its citizens, including the Jews.[5][10] The caliphate of Córdoba soon disintegrated into small states known as the taifas.[10] Ibn Janah and many other Jews were forced to leave the capital.[8] He moved to the Upper March region of Al-Andalus,[5] and – after a period of wandering there – settled in Zaragoza.[8] He had at least one son.[5]

Career in Zaragoza

He remained in Zaragoza until the end of his life, where he practiced medicine and wrote books.

Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul
, Turkey (MS Aya Sofia 3603, fols. 1v–90v).

Ibn Janah became known as a successful physician, often called by the epithet "the physician", and was mentioned by the 13th-century Syrian physician

Ibn Abi Usaibia in his collection of biographies, Lives of the Physicians.[8][5]

Aside from his work in medicine, he also worked on the field of Hebrew grammar and philology, joining other scholars in Zaragoza including Solomon ibn Gabirol.[6]

Kitab al-Mustalhaq

Ibn Janah was deeply influenced by the works of

triliteral.[2] In his work, Kitab al-Mustalhaq ("Book of Criticism", variously translated as the "Book of Annexation"),[12] or what is also known as Sefer HaHasagh in Hebrew, Ibn Janah strongly supported Hayyuj's work, but proposed some improvements.[2] Among others, he added 54 roots to Hayyuj's 467, filled some gaps and clarified some ambiguities in his theories.[5] A follow-up of this work was written by Ibn Janah, entitled Kitāb al-Taswi'a ("Book of Reprobation"), which he composed as a response to critics of his previous work.[13]

Dispute with Hayyuj's supporters

In Kitab al-Mustalbag, ibn Janah praised Hayyuj's works and acknowledged them as the source for most of his knowledge on Hebrew grammar.[7] He intended for this work to be uncontroversial, and to be an extension to the works of Hayyuj, whom he deeply admired.[6][5] However, the work caused offense among Hayyuj's supporters.[5] They considered Hayyuj the greatest authority of all times, worthy of taqlid or unquestioning conformity.[5] They were offended when ibn Janah, a relatively junior scholar at the time, leveled a criticism on their master and found his works incomplete.[5] One of the disciples of Hayyuj was Samuel ibn Naghrillah, the vizier of the Taifa of Granada, a Muslim state which emerged in the city after the fall of Córdoba.[5] Ibn Janah subsequently wrote the brief Risalat al-Tanbih ("Letter of Admonition"), which defended his views, as well as Risalat al-Taqrib wa l-Tashil ("Letter of Approximation and Facilitation"), which sought to clarify Hayyuj's work for beginners.[5]

While visiting his friend, Abu Sulaiman ibn Taraka, he met a stranger from Granada who enumerated various attacks on ibn Janah's views. Ibn Janah wrote Kitab al-Taswi'a ("Book of Reprobation") to counter the arguments.[5][a] Ibn Naghrilla then wrote Rasail al-rifaq ("Letters from Friends"), attacking ibn Janah, who then responded by writing Kitab al-Tashwir ("Book of Confusion").[5] Further pamphlets were exchanged between the two, which were later of great benefit to Hebrew grammarians.[14] The pamphlets were in Arabic and were never translated into Hebrew.[7] The debates were unresolved during their lifetimes.[7] Many were lost, but some were reprinted and translated into French.[7]

Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ

The Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ ("Book of the Commentary") is the only known medical treatise by Ibn Janah. It is divided into twenty-seven chapters corresponding to the letters of the Arabic alphabet except ẓāʾ. Most chapters are subdivided into three parts, the first on medicinal drugs (mainly plant-based), the second on weights and measures and the third on difficult terms. There are a total of 1,099 entries in the Talkhīṣ.[15]

Kitab al-Tanqīḥ

Judah ibn Tibbon
.

Towards the end of his life, ibn Janah wrote what is considered his magnum opus,

Judeo-Arabic
lexicon, al-Murshid al-kāfī.

Kitab al-Luma

Kitab al-Luma (the Book of Variegated Flower-beds) was the first complete Hebrew grammar ever produced.[2] During his time, works of Arabic grammar and Quranic exegesis had a large influence among Hebrew grammarians.[5] In this work, Ibn Janah drew from the Arabic grammatical works of Sibawayh, Al-Mubarrad and others, both referencing them and directly copying from them.[16] The book consisted of 54 chapters, inspired by how Arabic grammars were organized.[17] By using similarities between the two Semitic languages, he adapted existing rules and theories of the Arabic language and used them for Hebrew.[18] These introductions allowed the Bible to be analyzed by criteria similar to those used by Quranic scholars of the time.[5]

Ibn Janah also introduced the concept of lexical substitution in interpreting Classical Hebrew.[19] This concept, in which the meaning of a word in the Bible was substituted by a closely associated word, proved to be controversial.[20] Twelfth-century biblical commentator Abraham ibn Ezra strongly opposed it and called it "madness" close to heresy.[20]

Kitab al-Usul

Kitab al-Usul (The Book of Roots), the dictionary, was arranged into 22 chapters—one for each letter of the

North Africa, which all used examples from other languages to define Hebrew words.[22]

Legacy

Ibn Janah died in approximately 1055,

Iberian peninsula, the Middle East and southern France.[18]

In 1875 Kitab al-Usul was published in English as "The Book of Hebrew Roots", and a second printing with some corrections occurred in 1968. It was republished in Hebrew in 1876.[22]

His work, research and methodology are considered deeply important. The Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (EJIW) describes him as "one of the best-known, most influential, closely followed, and highly praised scholars" of Hebrew. Professor of Judaic Studies Michael L. Satlow writes that Kitab al-Tanqīḥ is "fundamental to the study of Hebrew grammar";

Jewish Encyclopedia, however, notes "serious gaps" in Kitab al-Tankih, because it does not discuss vowels and accents, and because it omits explaining Hayyuj's works on which it is based on.[26] The Encyclopædia Britannica calls him "perhaps the most important medieval Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer" and says that his works "clarif[ied] the meaning of many words" and contained the "origin of various corrections by modern textual critics".[9]

References

Notes

  1. ^ According to Martínez-Delgado 2010, p. 501, the stranger was an adversary who attacked his view, while Scherman 1982, p. 64 says that the stranger merely relayed what he remembered from ibn Naghrillah's plan to attack him.

Citations

  1. ^ a b Scherman 1982, p. 63
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Brisman 2000, p. 12
  3. ^ a b Zohar 2005, p. 46
  4. ^ Bos & Käs 2016, p. 154.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Martínez-Delgado 2010, p. 501.
  6. ^ a b c Scherman 1982, p. 63.
  7. ^ a b c d e Scherman 1982, p. 64.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Toy & Bacher 1906, p. 534.
  9. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica 1998.
  10. ^ a b Scherman 1982, p. 22.
  11. ^ Fenton (2016), pp. 107–143
  12. ^ Gallego (2000), p. 90
  13. ^ Gallego (2000), pp. 90–95
  14. ^ a b Scherman 1982, p. 64
  15. ^ Bos et al. 2020, "Introduction".
  16. ^ Becker 1996, p. 277.
  17. ^ Martínez-Delgado 2010, pp. 501–502.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Martínez-Delgado 2010, p. 502.
  19. ^ Cohen 2003, pp. 79–80.
  20. ^ a b Cohen 2003, p. 80.
  21. ^ a b c d Brisman 2000, p. 12.
  22. ^ a b c d e Brisman 2000, p. 13.
  23. ^ Scherman 1982, p. 65.
  24. ^ Satlow 2006, p. 213
  25. ^ Waltke & O'Connor 1990, p. 35
  26. ^ Toy & Bacher 1906, p. 535.

Bibliography

External links
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