Dunash

DUNASH, the name of two Jewish scholars of the I oth cen tury.

I. DUNASH BEN LABRAT, grammarian and poet, belonged to the brilliant circle attracted to Cordova by Hasdai, and took a large share in promoting the Jewish "Golden Age" under the Moors in Andalusia. Dunash not only helped in the foundation of a school of scientific philology, but adapted Arabian metres to Hebrew verse, and thereby gave an impulse to the neo-Hebraic poetry, which reached its highest level in Spain.

2. DUNASH IBNT TAMIM

was, like the preceding, a leader in the critical study of language among Arabic-speaking Jews. Professor Bacher says of him : "In the history of Hebrew philology Ibn Tamim ranks as one of the first representatives of the systematic comparison of Hebrew and Arabic."