SAADIA GAON (=REcroR), b. Yosefik Ila Pithomi orn-ocro, Ha-Mizri ("1=1), called in Arabic Said Ibn yaakub al-Faljumi. This famous founder of a new exegetical and scientific school among the Rabbins, as well as.of a system of moral philosophy, in the middle ages, was bom A. D. 892, at Fajum, in Upper Egypt. Very little is known of the events of his youthful life beyond the fact that he distinguished himself as a philosopher, Talmudist, theologian, orator, grammarian, and commentator, when scarcely more than twenty. When little more than twenty-two (914) he published his first production, written in Arabic, and entitled zNrin -114N, A Riutation of Anan, the founder of Karaism or Sadduceeism revived. This work has not as yet been found, but from Solomon b. Jerucham's (a celebrated Karaite) rejoinder to it, we learn that the import of it was to refute Anan's doctrines, and to show the necessity of the tradi tional explanation of the Scriptures as contained in the Rabbinic writings. He urged in support of tradition that the simple words of the Bible are insufficient for the understanding and the perform ance of the law, since many of the enactments in the Pentateuch are only stated in outline, and re quire explanation ; as in the case of the general prohibition to work on the Sabbath, where the nature of the labour is not defined ; that prayer-is not at all ordered in the Mosaic law, whilst the necessity of it is referred to an oral communication.; that the advent of Messiah and the resurrection of the dead are based upon traditional exegesis ; and that the history of the Jews is derived entirely front tradition (comp. Solomon b. Jerucham against Saadia, Alphabet iii. MS.) The rapid strides of Karaism, and the fact that the Karaites were now almost the sole possessors of the field of Biblical exegesis and grammatical research, whilst the orthodox Jews were satisfied with taking the Tal mud as their rule of faith and practice, determined Sandia to undertake an Arabic translation of the Scriptures, accompanied by short annotations. His Biblical works are— (1), rit•rylnt.; 1+Dn, d4 Translation of the Pentateuch, with annotations, which he completed A. D. 915-920. That this translation was accompanied by a commentary is evident from tbe fact that Ibn Ezra in the intro duction to his Comment. on the Pentateuth refers to it, and censures its digressions, and that Saadia himself mentions it in his work On Faith and Doc trine (nwil romt4). The commentary, hovv.ever, has not as yet come to light, and it is only the Arabic version which has been published, first with the reputed Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos, the Jewish Persian version of Jacob 'Hsi, the IIebrew text, and Rashi's Commentary, Constantinople r546 ; then in the Paris and London Polyglotts, with a Latin version. To the treatises on Saadia's translation of the Pentateuch mentioned in the article ARABIC VERSIONS in this Cyclopxdia, we must add the thorough critique on it by the learned Leopold Dukes in Beitrage zur Geschichte del aeltesten Auslegung des A. T., von Ewald und Dukes, Stuttgart 1844, vol. ii. p. 44, etc. (2), nvv, -ovcri, A Translation of Isrulzh, finished shortly after the preceding work. This translation was published by H. E. G. Paulus front a MS. in the Bodleian Library (Cod. Pococke, No. 32) of the year 1244, entitled R. Saadire Phijumensis .Versio Iesaice Arabia:, etc., Jena 1790-91. Dis sertations and criticisms on this version, as well as many corrections, appeared in Eichhorn's Allg. Bibliothek der bibl. Literatur, vol. iii. p. 9, ff., p. 455, ; Michaelis' Nene orient. Bibliothek, vol.
viii. p. 75, ff. ; Gesenius, Der Prophet Iesaia, vol. i. part i. p. 88, ff. ; Leipzig 1821. Rappaport, who possesses a MS. of this version, has published some corrections of Paulus' edition in his Biogrrzphy of Saadia, which appeared in the Hebrew Essays and Reviews, entitled Bikure Ha-Yitim, vol. ix. p. 32, etc., Vienna 1828. Munk, who thoroughly re-examined the Bodleian MS., has published some emendations of Paulus' text, and has also corrected sundry errors of Gesenius and Rosenmilller, comp. Caben's Bible, vol. ix. p. rot, etc., Paris 1838. [CAHEN.] (3), 11N1 "MT vann (rriv), A Trans lation of the Psalms of David, with annotations. Two MSS. of this commentary, the one written with Hebrew letters, and the other with Rabbinic characters, are in the Bodleian Library (Cod. Pococke, No. 281 [Uri 39], and Cod. Hunt. 416 [Uri 49]), and one is in Munich. Schnurrer pub lished in 1790 from the first-named Bodleian MS. Ps. xvi., xl., and cx., in Eichhorn's Allgemeine Bibliothek der bibl. Literatur, vol. iii. p. 425-438. Ps. lxviii., with the annotations, was published by Professor Haneberg from- the Munich MS. in his treatise entitled Ueber die in einer Manchner auftehaltene arabische Psalmiibersetzung- des R. Saaa'ia Gaon ; mit einer Probe, Munich 1841. VVhilst Ewald published from a collation of all the three MSS. the entire translation of Ps. i.-v., and excerpts of the commentary on the whole Psalter, with excellent critical remarks of his own, in the Beitrage zur Geschichte der aeltesten Anslegung ries A. T., vol. i. p. I-74. (4), vt: .-14tri, A trans lation of yob, with annotations, entitled zNrin 4.-1vriSt.t, The Book of Yustification, or Theodicarz. Excerpts of this version, and annotations from the only MS. extant (Bodleian Library, Cod. Hunt. 51 r), have been published by Ewald, with a Ger man translation by the learned editor in the same Bei/rage, etc., p. 75-115. (5), winm Lynn, ,4 Commentaly on the Song of Songs. This com mentary, which is a free translation into Hebrew of Saadia's Arabic work, was first published, to gether with Ibn Caspi's and Jacob Provinicali's expositions of the same book, by Isaac Akrish, Constantinople, circa 1579 ; then separately bv Solomon b. David Moses, under the title 1 V11.b iirWID, Prague 1608. Excerpts of the extremely rare Constantinople edition, with an English trans lation, have been published by Ginsburg, Histori cal and Crztical Commentary on the Song of Sonss, Longman 1857, p. 36, etc. Saadia also made trans lations of and wrote commentaries on the other four Megilloth —viz., Ruth, Lamentations, Ec clesiastes, and Esther—as well as the Minor Pro phets and the Book of Daniel, which are only known by quotations from them in the works of Ibn Ezra, Kimchi, Salomon b. Jerucham, and other Jewish expositors and lexicographers. Moreover, he was the first non-Karaite Jew who wrote gram matical and lexical works on the languarm of the Hebrew Scriptures. All these works, 'however, have become a prey to time, and are only knollm from quotations in other treatises on the same sub jects, with the exception of his work on the seventy Te-ybucva, entitled n-flthN, which has been published by Dukes in the above-named BeitraSe, etc., vol. ii. p. to-r r5, and again with important corrections in Geiger s IVissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, vol. v. p. 317-324, Leipzig 1844. The commentary on Daniel, printed in the Rabbinic Bibles under the name Saadia Gaon [RABBINIC BIBLES], is not his, as has been proved to demonstration by Rappaport in his bio graphy of Saadia, Bikure Ha- "'dim, vol. ix. p. 34, etc., Vienna 1828.