Ktav Ashuri

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This article is about the script used for ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. For other uses, see Writing Assyrian.

Pirkei Avot in the Ashurit script, with Babylonian vocalization according to Yemenite scribal custom

Ktav Ashuri (Hebrew: כְּתָב אַשּׁוּרִי‎, k'tav ashurí, lit. "Assyrian Writing") also (Ktav) Ashurit, is the traditional Hebrew language name of the Hebrew alphabet, used to write both Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is often referred to as (the) Square script. The names "Ashuri" (Assyrian) or "square script" are used to distinguish it from the Paleo-Hebrew script.

According to Halakha (Jewish religious law), tefillin (phylacteries) and mezuzot (door-post scripts) can only be written in Ashurit.[1]

Name

Assyrian script with Tiberian vocalization

Ktav Ashuri is the term used in the

Paleo-Hebrew script.[2]

The Talmud gives two opinions for why the script is called Ashuri:

  1. either because the Jews brought it back with them when they returned from exile in Assyria (called Ashur in Hebrew);[3]
  2. alternatively, this script was given at Mount Sinai and then forgotten and eventually revived, and received its name because it is "me'usheret" (Hebrew: מאושרת; beautiful/praiseworthy or authorized).[4]

The name reflects the fact that the Hebrew alphabet used by Jews (as opposed to the Ancient Israelites, or Samaritans) was derived from the Aramaic alphabet (Hebrew: אלפבית ארמי) used in Assyria and Babylonia and Imperial Aramaic was a lingua franca of both states' empires, it thus refers to "the Aramaic alphabet as used in Judaism",[5][6] and is sometimes referred to as the "Assyrian script."

The name contrasts with the name Libonaa (or Liboni) given to the Samaritan alphabet, and by extension the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. This name is most likely derived from Lubban, i.e. the script is called "Libanian" (of Lebanon), although it has also been suggested that the name is a corrupted form of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus.[7]

History

A sample of the Ashuri alphabet with tagin, written according to the Ashkenaz scribal custom on parchment (klaf)

Mention of the Ashuri script first appears in rabbinic writings of the

mezuzot, and the Five Megillot.[citation needed
]

According to the Talmud,

Samaritan Torah in Ktav Ivri, now commonly called the Samaritan script
.

See also

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 977686730, s.v. Megillah 1:8, p. 202 (note 20); Yadayim 4:5-6, (note 6
    )
  2. ^ Megillah 17a, Megillah 18a
  3. ^ Sanhedrin 22a
  4. ^ Sanhedrin 22a
  5. JSTOR 43076090
    .
  6. JSTOR 3155577
    .
  7. ^ James A. Montgomery, The Samaritans, the earliest Jewish sect (1907), p. 283.
  8. Tractate Soferim
    1:6
  9. Zevahim 62a; Sanhedrin 22a), Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah
    10a)


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