SAADIAH OF FAYUM
Translation of the Bible into Arabic.--Foundation of a Jewish
Philosophy of Religion.
Saadiah was born in Fayum (Egypt) in 892, and died in Sura in 942. He
was the founder of a new literature. In width of culture he excelled all
his Jewish contemporaries. To him Judaism was synonymous with culture,
and therefore he endeavored to absorb for Judaism all the literary and
scientific tendencies of his day. He created, in the first place, a
Jewish philosophy, that is to say, he applied to Jewish theology the
philosophical methods of the Arabs. Again, though he vigorously opposed
Karaism, he adopted its love of philology, and by his translation of the
Bible into Arabic helped forward a sounder understanding of the
Scriptures.
At the age of thirty-six Saadiah received a remarkable honor; he was
summoned to Sura to fill the post of Gaon. This election of a foreigner
as head of the Babylonian school proves, first, that Babylonia had lost
its old supremacy, and, secondly, that Saadiah had already won
world-wide fame. Yet the great work on which his reputation now rests
was not then written. Saadiah's notoriety was due to his successful
championship of Rabbinism against the Karaites. His determination, his
learning, his originality, were all discernible in his early treatises
against Anan and his followers. The Rabbinites had previously opposed
Karaism in a guerilla warfare. Saadiah came into the open, and met and
vanquished the foe in pitched battles. But he did more than defeat the
invader, he strengthened the home defences. Saadiah's polemical works
have always a positive as well as a negative value. He wished to prove
Karaism wrong, but he also tried to show that Rabbinism was right.
As a champion of Rabbinism, then, Saadiah was called to Sura. But he had
another claim to distinction. The Karaites founded their position on the
Bible. Saadiah resolved that the appeal to the Bible should not be
restricted to scholars. He translated the Scriptures into Arabic, and
added notes. Saadiah's qualifications for the task were his knowledge of
Hebrew, his fine critical sense, and his enlightened attitude towards
the Midrash. As to the first qualification, it is said that at the age
of eleven he had begun a Hebrew rhyming dictionary for the use of poets.
He himself added several hymns to the liturgy. In these Saadiah's
poetical range is very varied. Sometimes his style is as pure and simple
as the most classical poems of the Spanish school. At other times, his
verses have all the intricacy, harshness, and artificiality of Kalir's.
Perhaps his mastery of Hebrew is best seen in his "Book of the Exiled"
(_Sefer ha-Galui_), compiled in Biblical Hebrew, divided into verses,
and provided with accents. As the title indicates, this book was written
during Saadiah's exile from Sura.
Saadiah's Arabic version of the Scriptures won such favor that it was
read publicly in the synagogues. Of old the Targum, or Aramaic version,
had been read in public worship together with the original Hebrew. Now,
however, the Arabic began to replace the Targum. Saadiah's version well
deserved its honor.
Saadiah brought a hornet's nest about his head by his renewed attacks on
Karaism, contained in his commentary to Genesis. But the call to Sura
turned Saadiah's thoughts in another direction. He found the famous
college in decay. The Exilarchs, the nominal heads of the whole of the
Babylonian Jews, were often unworthy of their position, and it was not
long before Saadiah came into conflict with the Exilarch. The struggle
ended in the Gaon's exile from Sura. During his years of banishment, he
produced his greatest works. He arranged a prayer-book, wrote Talmudical
essays, compiled rules for the calendar, examined the Massoretic works
of various authors, and, indeed, produced a vast array of books, all of
them influential and meritorious. But his most memorable writings were
his "Commentary on the Book of Creation" (_Sefer Yetsirah_) and his
masterpiece, "Faith and Philosophy" (_Emunoth ve-Deoth_).
This treatise, finished in the year 934, was the first systematic
attempt to bring revealed religion into harmony with Greek philosophy.
Saadiah was thus the forerunner, not only of Maimonides, but also of the
Christian school-men. No Jew, said Saadiah, should discard the Bible,
and form his opinions solely by his own reasoning. But he might safely
endeavor to prove, independently of revelation, the truths which
revelation had given. Faith, said Saadiah again, is the sours absorption
of the essence of a truth, which thus becomes part of itself, and will
be the motive of conduct whenever the occasion arises. Thus Saadiah
identified reason with faith. He ridiculed the fear that philosophy
leads to scepticism. You might as well, he argued, identify astronomy
with superstition, because some deluded people believe that an eclipse
of the moon is caused by a dragon's making a meal of it.
For the last few years of his life Saadiah was reinstated in the Gaonate
at Sura. The school enjoyed a new lease of fame under the brilliant
direction of the author of the great work just described. After his
death the inevitable decay made itself felt. Under the Moorish caliphs,
Spain had become a centre of Arabic science, art, and poetry. In the
tenth century, Cordova attained fame similar to that which Athens and
Alexandria had once reached. In Moorish Spain, there was room both for
earnest piety and the sensuous delights of music and art; and the keen
exercise of the intellect in science or philosophy did not debar the
possession of practical statesmanship and skill in affairs. In the
service of the caliphs were politicians who were also doctors, poets,
philosophers, men of science. Possession of culture was, indeed, a sure
credential for employment by the state. It was to Moorish Spain that the
centre of Judaism shifted after the death of Saadiah. It was in Spain
that the finest fruit of Jewish literature in the post-Biblical period
grew. Here the Jewish genius expanded beneath the sunshine of Moorish
culture. To Moses, the son of Chanoch, an envoy from Babylonia, belongs
the honor of founding a new school in Cordova. In this he had the
support of the scholar-statesman Chasdai, the first of a long line of
medieval Jews who earned double fame, as servants of their country and
as servants of their own religion. To Chasdai we must now turn.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SAADIAH.
Graetz.--III, 7.
Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. XXI, p. 120.
M. Friedländer.--_Life and Works of Saadia_. _J.Q.R._,
Vol. V, p. 177.
Saadiah's Philosophy (Owen), _J.Q.R._, Vol. III, p. 192.
Grammar and Polemics (Rosin), _J.Q.R._, Vol. VI, p. 475;
(S. Poznanski) _ibid._, Vol. IX, p. 238.
E.H. Lindo.--_History of the Jews of Spain and Portugal_
(London, 1848).