The third period reaches from 135 to 475 A.D. Instruction in the Halacha and Hagada now became the principal employment of the flourishing schools in Galilee, Syria, Home, and since 219 A.D. in Babylonia; the most distinguished men were the masters of time Mishna (q.v.) and the Talmud (q.v.)—viz., Eleazar-ben-Jacob, Jehuda, Jose. ,heir, Simeon-ben-Joehai, Jehuda the Holy, Nathan, Chija, Rab, Samuel, Jochanan, Hanna, Rabba, Hava, Papa, Ashe, and Abina. Besides expositions, additions to Sirach, ethical treatises, stories. fables, and history were also composed: the prayers were enriched, the targiun to the Pentateuch and the Prophets completed. and the calendar fixed by Hillel the second, 340 AM. After the suppression of the academies in Palestine, those of Persia—viz., at Sum, Pumbeditha, and Nehardea—became the center of Jewish literary activity. On Sabbaths and festal days, the people heard, in the schools and places for prayer, instructive and edifying discourses. Of the biblical literature of the Greek Jews we have only fragments, such as those of the versions of Aquila and Synunit.3hus. With this period terminates the age of direct tradition. • The fourth period (from 475 to 740 A.D.). By this time the Jews had long abandoned the use of the Hebrew, and instead had adopted the language of whatever country they happened to dwell in. During the 6th c. the Babylonian Talmud was concluded, the Palestinian Talmud having been redacted about a hundred years before. Little remains of the labors of Jewish physicians of the 7th c., or of the first geonim or presidents of the Babylonian schools, who first appear 5S9 A.D. • On the other hand, from the 6th to the 8th c. the Masora was developed in Palestine (at Tiberias); and, besides a collec tion of the earlier baggadas (e.g., Bereshith rabba), independent commentaries were likewise executed, as the Pesikta; the Pirke of Eliezer (700 A.D.), etc. See 3IIDRAS11; IIAGGADA.
In the fifth period (from 740 to 1040 A.D.), the Arabs, energetic, brilliant, and victo rious in literature as in war, had appropriated to themselves the learning of Hindus. Persians, and Greeks, and thus excited the emulation of the oriental Jews, among whom now sprung- up physicians, astronomers, grammarians, commentators, and chroniclers. Religious and historical liaggadas, books of morality, and expositions of the Talmud, were likewise composed. The oldest Talmudic compends belong to the age of Anan (circa 750 A.D.), the earliest writer of the Karaite Jews. The oldest prayer-book was drawn up about 880 A.D. ; and the first Talmudic dictionary about 900 A.D. The most illustrious geonim of a later time were Sandia (d. 941 A.D.), equally famous as a com mentator and translator of Scripture into Arabic, a doctor of law, a grammarian, theo logian, and poet; Scherira (d. 99S), and his son Hai (d. 1038), who was the author, among other things, of a dictionary. From Palestine came the completion of the 3Iasora and of the vowel-system; numerous midrashim, the hagiographical targums, and the first writings on theological economy, were also executed there. From the 9th to the 11th c. Kalman and Fez, in Africa, produced several celebrated Jewish doctors and authors. Learned rabbins are likewise found in Italy after the 8th c.—e.g., Julius and Pavia, etc. Bari and Otranto were at this time the great seats of Jewish learning in Italy. After the suppression of the Babylonian academies (1040) Spain became the
central scat of Jewish literature. To this period belong the oldest Hebrew codices, which go back to the 9th century. Hebrew rhyme is a product of the 8th, and modern Hebrew prosody of the 10th century.
The sixth period (from 1040 to 1204 A.D.) is the most splendid era of Jewish mediaeval literature. The Spanish Jews busied themselves about theology, exegetics, grammar, poetry, the science of law, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine. They wrote sermons and ethical and historical works. The languages employed were Arabic, Rabbinical Hebrew, and ancient or classical Hebrew. We can only mention here the great doctor. Samuel Halevi (d. 1055), etc.; and lastly, the renowned Matmonides (q.v ), whose death closes this epoch. The literature of the French rabbius was more natural in its character, and kept more strictly within the limits of the halacha and haggada. In Provence, which combined the literary cliaracteristics of France and Spain. there were celebrated Jewish academies at Lunel, Narbonne, and Nimes, and we find Talmudists, such as Berahja Halevi, Abraham-ben-David, etc. The fame of the Talmudists of Germany, especially those of Mayence and Ratisbon, was very great. Among the most illustrious Jewish writers of this period, belonging to that country, are Simeon, the compiler of Yalkut, Joseph Kara, Petachja, etc. Only a few names belong to Greece and Asia; still the Karaite Jews had a very able writer in Juda Hadassi (1144 The greatest part of the feast-day prayers was completed before Maimonides. Many of the works, however, produced between 740 and thy, close of this period are lost.
The seventh period (from 1204 to 1492 A.D.) bears manifest traces of the influence exercised by Maimonides. Literary activity showed itself partly in the sphere of theologlco-exegetic philosophy, partly in the elaboration of the national law. With. the growth of a religious mysticism there also sprung up a war• of opinions between Talmudists, Philosophers, and Cabbalists. The most celebrated Jews of this period lived in Spain; later, in Portugal, Provence, and Italy. To Spain belongs (in the 18th c.) the poet Jeltuda Charisi, etc. In the 15th c. a decline i3 noticeable. Books written in Hebrew were first printed in Spain, at Isar in Aragon (1485), at Zamora (1487), and at Lisbon (1489).—During this epoch the chief ornaments of Jewish literature in Provence were Moses-ben-Abraham, David Kinichi, Jeruham, Farissol, Isaac Nathan, the author of the Hebrew Concordance.—ln Italy Jewish scholars employed themselves with the translation of Arabic and Latin works. Works of an asthetical character were written by Immanuel-ben-Solomon, the author of the first Hebrew sonnets; Moses de Rieti, who wrote a Hebrew Divina Commedia, etc.—While France could show a few notable authors, such as the collectors of the Tosafot. Moses de Coney, and Jeluel-ben-Joseph, the poet and exegete Berachja, Germany produced a multitude of writers on the law, such as Eleazar Halevi, Meyer from Rothenburg, Asher, Isserlin, Lippmann. The most of the extant Hebrew MSS. belong to this period; but a great part of mediaeval Jewish literature lies unprinted in Rome, Florence, Parma, Turin, Paris, Oxford, Leyden, Vienna, and Munich.