Judah Ibn Abas

Abas

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Judah Ibn Abas, birth Fez, Morocco, died 1163 Mosulin, Iraq
ABBAS, JUDAH IBN, OF FEZ: (back to article)

By : Hartwig Hirschfeld

A poet, and author of the piyyu? "Et Sha'are Ra?on." He was the first Jew known by the name of Abbas; died at Mosulin 1163. His Arabic name was Abu al-Baga ibn Abbas al-Maghribi. Al-?arizi (Ta?kemoni, Mak. iii.) states that Judah left the Maghre b and went to the East, where he lived now in Bagdad, and now in Aleppo, and that he had a son who was refractory. Judah is evidently identical with the father of Samuel, who became a convert to Islam, and who speaks of his father as Judah b. Abun . The latter is mentioned in the "Poetics" of Moses ibn Ezra. He is said to have been a friend of Judah ha-Levi. The collector of Ha-Levi's "Diwan" has preserved one of the poems of Judah which called forth an answer from Ha-Levi.Bibliography: Luz zatto, Betulat bat Yehudah, p. 15; Landshuth, Ammude ha-'Abodah, p. 300; Grèatz, Gesch. d. Juden, vi. 133; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2442; Brody's Zeit. f. Hebr. Bibl. iii. 178; Monatsschrift, xlii. 124, 411.H. Hir. to:
N.N.

1) Samuel Abu Nasr ibn Abas
Samuel Abus Nasr Ibn Ab(b)as: a son of Judah Ibn Ab(b)as of fez. Lived in the twelfth century.
Joseph Sambari and the "Yuhasin" call him Samuel ben Azariah ("Rev.Et. Juives" iv. 188,v.52), wich Steinschneider believes yo be a mistake originate in his Arabic name - "Abu Nasr".
Ab(b)as studied philosophy, mathematics and medicine. And for purposes of study he traveled in Irak, Syria, Azerbaijan and Kohistan.
In the city of Maragha he clamed to have had two visions ( on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah 558 = 8 November 1163, though this date seems to be too late), in wich Mohammed appeared to him. He therupon embraced Islam, taking the name of Samau'al Yahya al -Maghrabi.
He composed a polemical treatise, " Ifham al-Yahud" (Confutatio of the Jews), called also "Kitab-al-nakd-wal-ibram" (Hirschfield, " Das Buch al-Chazari," p.v.).
In this work he points out that from time to time the abrogation of the law is necessary and that, in fact, it has often occurred in Judaism. He tries to prove the profetic character of Jesus and of Mohammed; claiming that the first of these is re ferred to in Gen. xlix. 10 and the latter in Gen. xvii. 2 (ÔaÒiáaõa Òiáaõa has nummerially the same value as ÒiðcÒiõa Mohammed).
He affirms that the Jews of his time possess the Torah of Ezra and not that of Moses, and that too many laws have been added by the sages of the Mishnah and the Gemara.
Kaufmann has shown that Abraham ibn Daud, in1161, knew of this treatise (" Rev. Et. Juives," x 251) and Maimonides seems to refer to it in his "Iggeret Teman"; but otherwise it exercised no influence on Jewish literature ("Z.D.M.G." xlii.530)
For reference to less known philosophical worksof Ab(b)as, see Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl. " xix.35, "Cat. Bodl."col. 2442. Upon the basis of his "Ifham al-Yahud" there was compiled in the fifteenth century the celebrated anti-Jewish writing
called "Epistola Samuelis Marcoccani," which is said to have been translated from the Arabic by Alfonsus Bonihominis. Including the first edition of 1475, this tract went trough at leas nine editions in Latin, five in German and one in Italian . In the Escurial there exists a Spanish translation in manuscript (see Jacobs, "Sources," No. 1267; compare Kayserling, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." viii. 497; Steinschneider has called attention to this in his "Cat.Bodl." col 2438).
A Russian version was issuedin 1855 by the Kiev Pecherskaya Lavra (Monastery). An English version appeared at New York in 1649 under the title of "The blessed Jew of Morocco; or, the black Moor Made white." There exists also, in manuscript, a "D isputatio Abutalib Saraceni et Samuelis Judaei." consisting of seven epistles , translated from Arabic into Latin by Alfonsus Bonihominis.
Its connection with the subject of this article has not yet been ascertained.
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Bibliography:
Steinschneider, Polem. und Apolog. Lit. pp.26,137: Schreiner, in Monatsschrift, xlii. 123-133, xliii. 521.- M.Wiener in "Emek ha-Baka, p. xxv., has published a portion of the Ifham, wich deals with David Alroy; compare also ibid., p. 168; Rev.E t Juives, xvi. 215; Zeit.-f. Hebr.Bibl., 1897. ii. 189; Jew. Quart. Rev. xi. 332; G?deman, DasJ?d. Unterrichtswesen w?hrend d. Spanish- Arabischen Periode, p. 38
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