IBN KOREISH JEHUDAH, one of the ear liest Jewish lexicographers, who flourished about A. D. 870 tO goo in Tahart or Tahort in Africa, and may be regarded as the first who wrote on comparative philology. So little is known abont his life, and so thoroughly have all the endeavours to ascertain his history been baffled, that it still remains a doubtful question whether he was a Karaite or a Rabbinic Jew. He wrote (I) a Hebrew Lexicon, to which Ibn Koreish himself refers in his ii9t.tD1, p. 45, and which has not as yet come to light. (2) pripi ltD, a Hebrew Grammar, which has also not been found yet ; and (3) 4Ntr-1, (711 .Epistle addressed to the Jewish community at Fez, in which he rebukes his brethren for neglecting to study the Chaldee para phrases of the O. T., and tries to show that it is impossible to understand some portions of the Bible without the help of the cognate Semitic idioms. The treatise is divided into three parts.
In the first part Ibn Koreish arranges in alpha betical order all the Hebrew words which can only be explained with the help of the Chaldee para phrases of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uziel ; in the second part he explains in alphabetical order those Biblical words which also occur in the Mishna and the Talmud ; and in the third part he most minutely and carefully collects all the Hebrew roots, forms of expressions, prefixes, and suffixes, which have their analogy in the Arabic. In his illustrations and parallels Ibn Koreish shews that he had not only an intimate acquaintance with the Targumim and the Talmudic works, but also with the Koran and the Arabian poets (comp. pp. So, SI, 82), and that he had sound judgment and fine grammatical tact. The work is an important con tribution to Hebrew grammar and lexicography, and it is only to be regretted that it has not come down to us entire, since the first part breaks up with letter and does not begin again till letter 11. It has lately been published in the Arabic
under the title R. yehuda ben Kareisch Tiharenten sis Africani ad Synagoganz .ea'ecortrin civitatis Fez epistola de studii Targune utzlitate et de linguee chala'aice, misnica, tcelmudica,, ambicer, vocabu lorzem item nonnullorum barbaricorzem convenientiez cum hebrcea ; edia'erunt y. L. Barges et D. B. Goldberg, LutetLe Parisiorurn 1857. The intro duction, with specimens from the work, have been published in Arabic, with a German translation by Schnurrer, in Eichhozn's Allgemeine Ezbliothek der Biblischetz Literatur, Leipzig 179o, vol. iii. p. 98o ; the introduction has also been published with a German translation by Wetzstein in Literatur Hatt a'es Orients 1845, vol. iii. No. 2 ; and extracts are given by Ewald and Dukes, .Beitrage zur Geschichte der Aeltesten Azeslegung- und Spracher Harung des Alten Testantentes, Stuttgart 1844, i.
6-x23 ; 117, 118. The influence which Ibn Koreish exercised upon the development of Biblical exegesis and lexicography must have been very great, judging from the fact that lie is quoted by the best grammarians and interpreters, ex. gr., Men achem b. Saruk (Lexicon under ;*ti, 11.ZN Dunash Raschi (comment. on Jer.
xii. lo), Ibn Ezra (comment. on Amos vi. To), Kimchi (Lexicon, art. MI:I), etc. As for the so called work nNi ZN, which Ibn Ezra quotes in the preface to his 1:'')11Nn, and which has been taken by many to describe a distinct lingual treatise, this is nothing else than the third part of the r6N,01, as has rightly been remarked by Graetz. Comp. Pinsker, Likute Kadmonioth, Vienna 186o, p. 1°7, etc. ; and additions to this work, p. 179, etc.— C. D. G.