MASSOILAIT, variously derived from massar (to hand down to posterity—tradition), and assar (to bind, to fix within strict limits), denotes chiefly a certain collection of criti cal notes on the text of the Old Testament, its divisions, accents, vowels, grammatical forms, letters, etc.; all the more necessary for the more accurate preservation of the. sacred aocuments, as, according to the early mode of Shemitic writing, only the conso nants, and these without auy stop or break, were put down; a proceeding which, in the course of thne, must naturally have produced a vast number of variants, or rather dif ferent ways of reading and interpreting the same letters. by dividing them into different -words with different vowels and accents. The origin of the Massorali, which, by fixing an immutable reading upon each verse, word, and letter, put an end to the exercise of unbounded individual fancy—which, for hotniletical purposes alone, was henceforth free to take its own views—is shrouded in deep mystery. The first traces of it are found in certain Halachistic works treating of the synagog-ue rolls of the Pentateuch, and the mode of writing them. Some of the earliest works on the subject have survived in their titles only, such as The Book of the Crowns, The Book of the Sounds, etc., attributed to the Soferim, or masters of the Mishna (q.v.). There can hardly be a doubt that the Masso rah, like the Halacha and Haggada, was the work, not of one age or century, but of many ages and centuries, as, indeed, we fiud in ancient authorities mention made of dif ferent systems of accentuation used in Tiberias, Babylon (Assyria), aud Palestine. It was in Tiberias also that the Massorali was first committed to writing, between the 6th and 9th centuries A.D. Monographs, rnemorial verses, finally glosses on the margins of the text, seem to have been the earliest forms of the writtenMassorah,which gradually expanded into one of the most elaborate and minute systems, laid down in the " Great Massorah" (about the 11th c.), whence an extract was made known under the name of the " Small Massorah." A further distinction is made between Massorah textualis and finalis, the former containing all the marginal notes; the latter, larger annotations, which, for want of space, had to be placed at the end of the paragraph. The final arrangement of the Massorah, which was first printed in Bomberg's Rabbinical Bible (Vett. 1525), is due to Jacob ben Chajirn of Tunis, and to Felix Pratensis. The language of the Massorah is Chaldee, and besides the difficulty of this idiom, the obscure abbreviations, contrac tions, symbolical signs, etc., with which the work abounds render its study exceedingly
hard. Nor are all its dicta of the same sterling value; they are not only sometimes utterly superfluous but downright erroneous. Of its " countings," we may adduce that it enumerates in the Pentateuch 18 greater and 43 smaller portions, 1534 verses, 63,467 words, 70,100 letters, etc.—a calculation which is, however, to a certain degree at vari ance with the Talmud. An explanation of the Massorah is found in Elijah Levita's (q.v.) Masoreth Hammesareth (transl. into German by Semler, Halle, 1772), and Buxtorf's Tiberias (1620), a work abounding with exceedingly curious information on the text of the Old Testament.
liASIOWAH, or MASOTJA, an islet and t. on the w. coast of the Red Sea, in lat. 15° 36' n. , and long. 39° 21' e., close to the boundary between Nubia and Abyssinia. At pre,sent it is politically connected with Nubia rather than with Abyssinia. being in the passession of the viceroy of Egypt, and ruled by a governor appointed by him. The island is of coral, the soil partly formed from the rock, partly from sand and broken shells. It is only about a mile apd a, quarter in circumference, and is distant from the main-land only about 200 yards. "It is almost wholly occupied by the town, and contains a pop. of about 8,000, mostly Arabs. The Abyssinian coast is very destitute of harbors, and ..1fassowali is of great importance as a seat of commerce. It carries on a large trade by sea with Bombay and with the Arabian coast, particularly with Jidda!' and Yembo; and a large trade also by caravans with Cairo on the one hand, and with.Gondar and the whole interior of Abyssinia on the other. Caravans start at all seasons for Cairo and for Gondar; but most numerously in January-, at the end of the rains, and in June, before the swelling of the waters. Wheat, rice, maize, duira, salt, tobacco, gunpowder, sugar, cotton and silk goods, scarlet cloth, glass-wares, arms, and hardwares are among the principal imports from the more distant parts of the world. From Abyssinia and the coasts of the Red Sea, Massowah receives and exports ivory, rhinoceros horns, wax, ostrich-feathers, tortoise-shell, myrrh, senna, pearls, etc. Massowah has all the worst characteristics of an oriental town. Its streets are mere lanes, and excessively dirty. Massowah was originally chosen as the place of debarkation of the British expedition to A.byssinia (1867), and the starting-point of its operations; but it was soon found unsuita. ble, and Annesley bay, about 15 m. further to the south—the deepest inlet on the Abyssinian coast—was chosen for that purpose instead.