FARISSOL or FARIZOL &1Y'lE), ABRAHANI b. MORDECAI, a distinguished geographer, polemic, and commentator, was born at Avignon, in Italy, about 1451. He left his native place about 147o, went to Mantua, and thence to Ferrara, where he be came minister of the Jewish community, which office he held till 152o. Whilst ministering to the spiritual wants of the synagogue, Farissol most diligently em. ployed his time in the elucidation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and as the result of his labours, in r5oo, finished a commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled, DIN.ny +nnt, //ie./lower of lilies. This was followed by his great apologetic and polemic work called pn innzN, the shield of Abraham, consisting of three parts, the first of which is occupied with an apo logy for Judaism, the second is directed against Mohammedanism, and the third against Chris tianity. Shortly after this (circa 1516) he pub lished an excellent commentary on Job 63) r.,m+D 21'N.), and in the autumn of 1524 he gave to thr world his famous cosmography, called rorrva.
n9w, Itinera llfundi, in which he describes the abodes of his independent brethren, the ten tribes, the Sambation [ELDAD], and the garden of Eden, which he places in the mountains of Nubia (comp.
chaps. xviii. and xxx.) Twelve months after the appearance of this marvellous production, Farissol finished a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes 1DED v,Pr,m), and died about the end of 1526. Of his exegetical works the commentary on Job only is printed in the Rabbinic Bible, pub lished at Venice, r518, and in the famous Rabbinic Bible, edited by Frankfurter, 4 vols. fol., Amster dam, 1724-1727. His cosmography, which is inter spersed with curious matter well worthy of the at tention of the Biblical student, has been published no less than six times. One edition was published in England by Thomas Hyde, the celebrated Ori ental scholar, under the title D91.1) nvinIN 11,m, id est Itinera Mundi, Oxonii, 1691, with a Latin translation, and very elaborate and learned notes, which is alike an honour to English Oriental scholarship and typography of the seventeenth cen tury.—C. D. G.