Samaritans

In religion, since they recognize no sacred book but the Pen tateuch, they agree with the Jews in such doctrines and observ ances only as are enjoined in the law of Moses. They do not therefore observe the feast of Purim, nor the fast of the 9th of Ab, nor any of the later rabbinical extensions or modifications of the law. Briefly summarized, their creed is as follows: (a) God is one, and in speaking of Him all anthropomorphic expres sions are to be avoided : creation was effected by his word : divine appearances in the Pentateuch are to be explained as vicarious, by means of angels (so as early as the 4th century A.D.) ; (b) Moses is the only prophet : all who have since claimed to be so are deceivers; (c) the Law, which was created with the world, is the only divine revelation; (d) Mt. Gerizim is the house of God, the only centre of worship; (e) there will be a day of judg ment. Closely connected with this are the doctrines (also found in the 4th century) of a future life and of a messiah (Ta'eb), who shall end the period of God's displeasure (Fanuta) under which his people have suffered since the schism of Eli and the disappearance of the Ark, and shall restore Israel to favour (Re'uta, Ridwan).

The Samaritan language properly so called is a dialect of Pales tinian Aramaic, of which the best examples are found in the literature of the 4th century A.D. An archaic alphabet, derived from the old Hebrew, was retained, and is still used by them for writing Aramaic, Hebrew and sometimes even Arabic. After the Muslim conquest of Syria in 632 the native dialect of Aramaic gradually died out, and by the II th century Arabic had become the literary as well as the popular language. In the Liturgy Hebrew was no doubt used from the earliest times side by side with Aramaic, and after the iith century it became, in a debased form, the only language for new liturgical compositions.

Literature.

Their literature is, like that of the Jews, chiefly of a religious character. (For an account of it see Montgomery, The Samaritans.) Reference has been made above to Samaritan Hellenistic works which have perished except for a few frag ments. According to Samaritan tradition, their books were de stroyed under Hadrian and Commodus, but of the language and contents of them nothing is recorded. There can be no doubt that some, perhaps much, of the literature has been lost, for noth ing is extant which can be dated before the 4th century A.D. The Targum, or Samaritan-Aramaic version of the Pentateuch was most probably written down about that time, though it was clearly based on a much older tradition and must have undergone various recensions. To the same period belong the liturgical compositions of Amram Darah and Marqah, and the latter's midrashic commentary (called the "Book of Wonders") on parts of the Pentateuch, all in Aramaic. With the possible exception

of one or two hymns there is nothing further till the i i th century when there appears the Arabic version of the Pentateuch, usually ascribed to Abu Said, but perhaps really by Abu'l-hasan of Tyre, who also wrote three Arabic treatises, still extant, on theological subjects, besides some hymns. Of the same date (1053) is an anonymous commentary on Genesis, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MS. Opp. add. 99), interesting because it quotes from books of the Bible other than the Pentateuch. In the 12th century, Munajja and his son Sadaqah wrote on theology; the earlier part of the chronicle called al-Taulidah was compiled in Hebrew ; and about the same time treatises on Grammar by Abu Said and Abu 'shag Ibrahim ibn Faraj. Ghazal ibn-al-Duwaik, who wrote on the story of Balak and on the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, is said to have lived in the 13th century, and another chronicle (in Arabic), called the book of Joshua, is dated about the same time by T. W. J. Juynboll. In the second half of the 14th century lived three important liturgical writers, Abisha b. Phinehas (ob. 1376), Abdallah b. Solomon and Saed-allah (or Saccl-ed-din) b. Sadaqah : Abu'l-fath, who composed his chronicle in 1355 : a high priest Phinehas, author of a lexicon : and the anonymous writer of the commentary on the Kitab al-asatir, a work, ascribed to Moses, containing legends of the Patriarchs. Another famous liturgist was Abraham Qabazi, whose pupil Ismall Rumaihi in 7 537 wrote a work on the praise of Moses. Several members of the Danfi family were prominent in the 18th century as liturgists, among them Abraham b. Jacob, who also wrote a commentary on Gen. Num.; and of the levitical family Ghazal ibn Abi Sarur, who commented on Gen.-Exod. Another Ghazal ( =Tabiah b. Isaac), priest-levite, who died in 1786, was a considerable writer of liturgy. Of subsequent authors mention need only be made of the Hebrew chronicle by Ab Sakhwah ( = Murjan) b. As'ad, of the Danfi family, in 1900, chiefly on the basis of al-Taulidah and Abu'l-fath; an Arabic chronicle by Phinehas b. Isaac (ob. 1898) of the levitical family; and an Arabic theological work, by the late priest-levite, Jacob b. Aaron.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See

Montgomery, The Samaritans (Philadelphia, 19c7). Since then the Pentateuch has been edited with critical apparatus by August von Gall (Giessen, 1914-18), The Samaritan Liturgy, text and introduction, by A. Cowley (Oxford, 19°9), The Asater, with introduction, translation and notes by M. Gaster (London, 1927). • (A. CY.)