From Persia with Love

The Judaeo-Arabic Translation and Commentary of Salmon ben Yerōḥām on the Book of Esther

Michael G. Wechsler (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

520 Seiten

2025
Brill (Verlag)
9789004191334 (ISBN)

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This volume comprises an edition and translation of the oldest-known programmatic Karaite commentary on the book of Esther. This mid-10th-century work offers fascinating insight—explored in our introduction—into the exegetical method and homiletical mindset of one of early’s Karaism’s central figures.

This volume comprises an edition and translation of one of the earliest specimens of Jewish programmatic commentary on the book of Esther. The commentary’s author, Salmon b. Yerōḥām, is a central early figure in the “Golden Age” of Karaism (late-9th–11th cent.), a Jewish scripturalist and penitential movement centered at that time in Jerusalem. Among the various facets of Salmon’s commentary that we explore in our introduction are his translation technique, exegetical method, homiletical emphases, and polemical concerns. We also explore his use of sources, both explicit and tacit (in the latter case to a surprisingly broad degree as regards rabbinic sources and Saadia), as well as the reception of Salmon’s commentary in subsequent Jewish exegetical tradition.

Michael G. Wechsler, Ph.D. (2006), University of Chicago, is co-editor of Brill’s Karaite Texts and Studies series and, in addition to authoring numerous articles on pre-modern Jewish Bible exegesis, has edited and translated the commentaries on Esther by Saadia Gaon (Brill, 2015) and Yefet ben ʿEli (Brill, 2008), as well as the commentaries on Ruth and Esther by Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi (Magnes, 2010).

Preface

Transliteration Tables

Introduction

Overview: Salmon’s Exegetical Enterprise

Methods and Themes in Salmon’s Commentary on Esther

1 The Linguistic-Contextual Foundation

2 Homiletical Themes

3 Polemics in the Service of Piety

4 Circumspect Use of Previous Sources

The Reception of Salmon’s Commentary on Esther

1 In Judaeo-Arabic Exegetical Tradition

2 In Hebrew Exegetical Tradition

Written Witnesses Employed for the Present Edition

1 Primary Witnesses to Salmon’s Commentary on Esther

2 Secondary Witnesses to Salmon’s Commentary on Esther: Judaeo-Arabic Reworkings, Citations, and Shared Sources

3 Relationship of the Manuscript Witnesses

Editorial Method

1 The Basic Text and General Principles

2 The Apparatuses

Some Methodological Remarks on the Annotated English Translation

Signs, Sigla, and Abbreviations

English Translation

English Translation

Appendix1: Two Judaeo-Arabic Reworkings of Salmon’s Commentary on the Book of Esther

Appendix2: Salmon’s Linguistic Terminology: A Preliminary Inventory

Appendix3: Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Qirqisānī, Kitāb al-anwār wa-ʾl-marāqib, SectionIX, Chapters15–17

Bibliographical Abbreviations

Index of Manuscripts

Index of Hebrew Bible

Index of Rabbinic Literature

Index of Medieval and Early-Modern Authors and Works

General Index

Plates

The Edited Text

The Edited Text

Erscheint lt. Verlag	24.4.2025
Reihe/Serie	Karaite Texts and Studies ; 47/16
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	986 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
ISBN-13	9789004191334 / 9789004191334
Zustand	Neuware