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Moritz Steinschneider. The Hebrew Translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as Transmitters

Part of the book series: Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy ((ASJT,volume 16))

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Abstract

This chapter provides an English translation, revision, and bibliographical updating of the section of Die Hebraeischen Uebersetzungen that deals with the Hebrew translations of Arabic philosophical and theological works written by Jews. The principal authors considered are Abraham Ibn Daud, Baḥya Ibn Paquda, David al-Muqammaṣ, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Isaac Israeli, Judah ha-Levi, Judah Ibn Malka, Joseph Ibn Aqnin (as well as Joseph Ibn Simeon), Joseph Ibn Ẓaddik, Moses Abulafia, Moses Ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides, Saadia b. Joseph Gaon, Pseudo-Abraham ibn Ezra, and Karaites thinkers including, Al-Qirqisānī, Joseph b. Abraham al-Baṣīr, Jeshua b. Judah, and others. The Hebrew translations are described, important matters for the history of Hebrew translations are noted, and lists of manuscripts and their locations are provided.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Libri 1838, II, p. 153, stresses the commercial factor.

  2. 2.

    Steinschneider 1878, p. 443; Ibn abī UṢaybi‘a 1884, I, 163. On the Almagest and the Geography by Ptolemy, cf. p. 522.

  3. 3.

    [1] Joseph b. Todros (Halberstam and Steinschneider 1875f, p. 20) designates with הלועזים העלגים ארצות those countries in which Arabic is not understood (cf. Maimonides p. 417).

  4. 4.

    [2] Agobard, however, puts forward the ancestry from Abraham. Cf. Steinschneider 1857b, p. 345 n. 1b; cf. טיט היין p. 680.

  5. 5.

    [3] Identical prefaces to different translation are already encountered in Gundisalvi, certainly in Johannes of Capua, perhaps also in Abraham Abigedor (p. 797).

  6. 6.

    [4] Cf. in the index s.v. הזר ,הפך Zunz 1871, p. 435; Zunz 1876, III, 50.

  7. 7.

    [5] Gibbon, too, knows of Jews only “national pride”, even for the period of their struggle against oppression.

  8. 8.

    [1] He has treated the principles of the translator in the introduction to the Pentateuch, according to Harkavy 1880, p. 4, 24 n. 50 a.

  9. 9.

    [1] The copyist of ms. Paris 1298 [?] writes “Moses” in the khuṭba instead of “MuḤammad.” Jews have avoided, both from self-consciousness and fear, to call themselves MuḤammad.

  10. 10.

    [1] Sha‘ar ha-Shamayim, end of preface in Jellinek 1871, and chapter 46, ms. Mn. 46 f. 18; cf. Jellinek, 1862–1867, p. 3, 4.

  11. 11.

    [1] Gaffarell’s “exorbitant curiosities” indulge in fables about a Hebrew translation of one Ḥomer from the Persian of one Hamehalzel (Wolf 1715 I, p. 363); Carmoly (1839 I, 191, cf. Lb. IV, 667 [?]) associates him with Ḥammai Gaon, an equally fabricated figure!

  12. 12.

    [1] Even from the extremely small scientific material registered by Zunz 1875, p. 166: cf. Steinschneider 1889, some items must be omitted.

  13. 13.

    [2] When Rose designates the Germans as “barbarians,” he does so from the standpoint of the Latin authors.

  14. 14.

    [3] Cf. Gottschall’s verdict on that poetry; cf. further Steinschneider 1871.

  15. 15.

    [4] Gelbhaus 1887, cf. p. 73–83; 1889.

  16. 16.

    On the lullaby, fabricated by Zappert himself, cf. Zunz 1876, III, 107 (cf. ibid. 266: “jüdisch und deutsch”); Steinschneider 1863, p. 148.

  17. 17.

    Delitzsch ad ms. Lp. 263 recognized that this is not a translation (in the normal sense).

  18. 18.

    Steinschneider 1865, p. 17; 1874b, p. 28, cf. 1876, p. 90. French translation of poems in Hirschfeld 1883, p. 173 ff.

  19. 19.

    The enormous number of 90 is curiously to be found for Averroes’ Middle Commentary to the Logic (p. 59), despite the predominant hermeneutics which is peculiarly Talmudic. In view of the greater number of manuscripts of the Canon of Avicenna various translations are conceivable; the printed edition belongs in the [immediate] neighborhood of our period.

  20. 20.

    Moses b. Joshua of Narbonne 1852, ad Moreh, fol. 2, 17b, 38; Ḥanokh al-Konstantini in Steinschneider 1872, p. 109; but cf. Zerahiah ha-Levi’s sermon in Schorr 1865, 96, and Abravanel 1739, ch. 7 fol. 9b, against the philosophical preachers.

  21. 21.

    Comparable to this would be the polemics of a Karaite in ms. Brit. Mus. 2575.

  22. 22.

    Perhaps in connection with the tree maidens (Clouston 1887, I, 182)?

  23. 23.

    Lea 1869, p. 427–30; cf. Moed Qatan 17 in Landau 1884, p. 242.

  24. 24.

    Gibbon 1854–1855, III, p. 243 (ch. 25 n. 46) talks about a Jewish and a Christian system of the infernal demons, without furnishing a reference for the former.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Charles H. Manekin

  2. Department of Arabic, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Y. Tzvi Langermann

  3. Seminar für Orientalistik und Islamwissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Charles H. Manekin

  2. Dept of Arabic, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Y. Tzvi Langermann

  3. Seminar für Orientalistik und Islamwissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt

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Manekin, C.H., Langermann, Y.T., Biesterfeldt, H.H. (2013). General Remarks. In: Manekin, C., Langermann, Y., Biesterfeldt, H. (eds) Moritz Steinschneider. The Hebrew Translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as Transmitters. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7314-1_5

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