Tanhum of Jerusalem
Tanhum ben Joseph Tanhum ha-Yerushalmi | |
---|---|
Born | 1220 Mamluk Sultanate (present-day Egypt) |
Notable work | Murshid al-kāfī Kitāb al-Ijāz wal-Bayān |
Era | Medieval philosophy |
Region | Palestine |
Main interests | Philology, Linguistics |
Tanhum ben Joseph of Jerusalem, also known as Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi (1220–1291), was a 13th-century Hebrew lexicographer and biblical exegete who compiled several Hebrew works, the most notable of which being a lexicon on
Early life
Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi is thought to have been born in Jerusalem and lived for the greater part of his life in the Land of Israel. Towards the latter end of his life, he moved to Cairo, in Egypt, where he lived until his death.
The only information about him is from a eulogy written by his son, the Jerusalem poet Yosef Ben Tanhum. According to this eulogy, R. Tanhum died in the Fustat (now Cairo) in Egypt, on the 21st of Tammuz, 1291. From his writings it can be assumed that he also lived in the Land of Israel, although there is no clear evidence of this. Some suggest that he may have received his epithet "of Jerusalem" from his ancestors, whose origins were from that city.[3]
Tanhum authored two main works: Kitāb al-Bayān ("Book of Elucidation") - A Commentary on the Prophets and
Tanhum employed a style of writing in which he frequently makes use of a lyrical
Rediscovery and publication of Tanhum's works
Although studied in Yemen, it was not until the second half of the seventeenth century that Tanhum's writings became known to the western world, when the English orientalist, Edward Pococke (1604–1691), brought several manuscript copies of Tanḥum's writings to Europe from the Near East[4] and published extracts from them in several of his own works, particularly, in his Porta Mosis. In addition, fragments of Tanhum's commentaries have been published in various learned periodicals.
Tanhum combined his commentaries on the Bible in a book called Kitāb al-Bayān ("Book of Elucidation") or sometimes Kitāb al-Ijāz wal-Bayān ("The Book of Simplification and of Elucidation"), which he wrote in
Today, a handwritten manuscript of his Hebrew lexicon, al-Murshid al-kāfī, is preserved at the
Hebrew grammar
Tanhum's works on Hebrew grammar are mainly founded upon the writings of the Spanish grammarian, Jonah ibn Janah. He also draws from Moses ibn Gikatilla. In his commentary on the Hebrew scriptures, Tanhum occasionally divulges the etymological origins of words and compares them with what has been stated about the language in Halacha (sometimes while referring his readers to his own lexicon), as well as to the word's Aramaic and Arabic equivalents. Tanhum explains that the Hebrew and Aramaic are cognate languages, and, where applicable, he tries to find parallels between them.
Published works
- Ad Libros V. T. Commentarii Arabici Specimen una cum Annott. ad Aliquot Loca Libri Judicum (ed. Ch. F. Schnurrer, Tübingen, 1791);
- Commentarii in Prophetas Arabici Specimen, etc. Includes Book of Judges, Books of Samuel, Books of Kings, and Book of Jonah (ed. Theodor Haarbrücker, Halle, 1842–62);
- Commentaire sur le Livre de Habakkouk, Publié en Arabe avec une Traduction Française par OCLC 993876726);
- Commentarii Arabici in Lamentat. (Lamentations) (ed. G. Cureton, London, 1843);
- Arab. ad Libros Samuelis et Regum Locos Graviores, Edidit et Interpretationem Latinam Adjecit Th. Haarbrücker (Leipzig, 1844);
- Book of Joshua, by the same editor (published with the Blätter aus der Veitel-Heine-Ephraim Lehranstalt, Berlin, 1862);
- Book of Judges (extracts), published by Goldziher in his Studien, 1870;
- Book of Ecclesiastes(Commentary on Ḳohelet) (ed. Samuel Eppenstein, Berlin 1888);
- Psalms (idem, 1903).[7]
- Book of Jonah (ed. Kokowzow), in the Rosen-Festschrift, St. Petersburg, 1897;[8]
- Murshid al-kāfī (extracts), published by OCLC 234056592).
- Hadassa Shy, Tanhum Ha-Yerushalmi's Commentary on the Minor Prophets, The Magnes Press: Jerusalem, 1991 (OCLC 1124026990, 233062493)
- Hadassa Shy (ed.), Al-Murshid al-kāfī, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2005
Further reading
- Alobaidi, Joseph. Old Jewish Commentaries on the Song of Songs II: The Two Commentaries of Tanchum Yerushalmi – Text and Translation. (Peter Lang: 2014)
- Judeo-Arabic commentary on the Song of Songs, published anonymously, with a Hebrew translation].[9]
- .
- Wechsler, Michael G. (2021), "Tanḥum ben Joseph ha-Yerushalmi", in Norman A. Stillman (ed.), Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Leiden: Brill,
- Wechsler, Michael. Strangers in the Land, critical edition, English translation, and extensive introductory discussion of the commentaries on Ruth and Esther from the exegetical digest (Kitāb al-bayān).
- Zoref, Arye. Tanchum Yerushalmi’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes: Ch. I–V, Ch. XII and Additional Sections. (MA thesis; Hebrew University of Jerusalem: 2007)
References
- Jewish Encyclopedia.
- JSTOR 27943416.
- ^ OCLC 762411938., s.v. כאפי אלמרשד
- JSTOR 43298710.
- A. Neubauer's Catalogue). Oxford 1994
- )
- ^ Encyclopedia.com, s.v. Tanḥum Ben Joseph (Ha-)Yerushalmi
- ^ The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), ed. Wilhelm Bacher, Isaac Broydé
- ^ The same Judeo-Arabic commentary on Song of Songs made by Tanhum appears in Naḥum, Yehudah Levi, Mi-yeṣirot sifrutiyyot mi-teman. (Mifʿal ḥasifat ginze teman: 1981, pp. 1–27), with Hebrew translation by Yosef Qafiḥ.
External links
- Online Digital copy of Tanḥum ben Joseph Ha-Yerushalmi's Murshid al-Kāfī (Bodleian Library MS. Huntington 621), each page displayed in an individual digital frame