ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn ben Jeshua ibn Faraj (Qara'im)

ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn ibn Faraj was a Karaite grammarian of Hebrew who lived in Jerusalem in the first half of the eleventh century. He was attached to the Karaite college (Ar. dār lil-ʿilm) founded by his teacher, Joseph Ibn Nūḥ (Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf), and succeeded to its leadership after his death.

The largest of Abū ʿl-Faraj Hārūn’s numerous works in Arabic on the Hebrew language of the Bible is a comprehensive study in eight parts on Hebrew morphology and syntax entitled al-Kitāb al-Mushtamil ʿalā al-Uṣūl wa ‘l-Fuṣūl fī ‘l-Lugha al-ʿIbrāniyya (The Comprehensive Book of General Principles and Particular Rules of the Hebrew Language), which was completed in 1026. The work’s eight parts may have originally been written as separate books. He subsequently produced a short version of this work known as al-Kitāb al-Kāfī fī al-Lugha ‘'l-ʿIbrāniyya (The Sufficient Book on the Hebrew Language). The earliest known manuscript of al-Kitāb al-Kāfī has a colophon dated 1037. This short version had a much wider circulation than al-Kitāb al-Mushtamil, judging by the large number of extant manuscripts in which it is found. There are, in addition, a few fragments of another work that appears to be an epitome of al-Kitāb al-Kāfī, referred to in the sources simply as al-Mukhtaṣar (The Abridged Version). A further work of Abū al-Faraj Hārūn, surviving only in manuscript fragments, is an introductory treatise on grammar entitled Kitāb al-Madkhal ilā ʿIlm al-Diqduq fī Ṭuruq al-Lugha al-ʿIbrāniyya (Book of Introduction into the Discipline of Careful Investigation of the Ways of the Hebrew Language). According to the preface, Abū al-Faraj wrote it after al-Kitāb al-Mushtamil and al-Kitāb al-Kāfī.

The grammatical works of Abū al-Faraj Hārūn are systematically organized studies of the Hebrew language as an independent discipline. Sometimes he goes beyond a description of specifically Hebrew grammar and discusses general principles of language. His theoretical understanding of grammar is largely drawn from the Basran school, the mainstream tradition of Arabic grammar in his day. Thus his grammatical theory differs in some respects from the views of earlier Karaite grammarians.

Also extant are manuscripts of a grammatical commentary on the Bible known as Tafsīr al-Alfāẓ (Interpretation of Words) that is attributed in the colophons to Abū al-Faraj. He also applied himself to a style of Bible exegesis that was only marginally concerned with grammatical issues. One surviving example is his reworking of a commentary on the Pentateuch by Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Nūḥ.

We are indebted to ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn as well for one of the most important treatises on the pronunciation and cantillation of the Tiberian Masoretic tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Known as Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ (Guide for the Reader), it was intended by ʾAbū al-Faraj to complement al-Kitāb al-Mushtamil and its shorter versions, which all focused on grammar and had little discussion of the pronunciation of the language. He produced two versions of the treatise. As was also the case with al-Kitāb al-Kāfī, the shorter version of Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ had a much wider distribution than the longer one, judging by the number of extant manuscripts.

The grammatical writings of Abū al-Faraj Hārūn were known to some extent in the West during the Middle Ages. Abraham Ibn Ezra (Abu Iṣḥāq) refers to him in the preface to his Mozne Leshon ha-Qodesh. Abū al-Faraj’s works were known also to Jonah Ibn Janāḥ (Abū 'l-Walīd Marwān) (11th century) and to Ibn Ezra, Moses (12th century), but they do not indicate the name of the author, no doubt because of his affiliation to the Karaite movement.

Abū Faraj’s treatise on biblical reading, Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ, appears to have been more widely known than his grammatical works outside Palestine. Adaptations of the original longer version were made in Yemen, apparently in the thirteenth century, one in Hebrew and the other in Arabic. Two Hebrew translations of the shorter version were made in Central Europe in the Middle Ages. One of these, produced in Mainz, Germany, was entitled Sefer Horayat ha-Qore (The Book of Instruction for the Reader). The other exists in several manuscripts of Italian provenance, which present it either with the title Tokhen ʿEzra or Sefer Ṭaʿame Ha-Miqra (The Book of Biblical Accents). Parts of the shorter version of Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ were paraphrased in Hebrew by the Byzantine Karaite Joseph ha-Qusṭandini in his eclectic ʿAdat Devorim (Swarm of Bees), composed sometime in the eleventh century.

Geoffrey Khan

Bibliography

Khan, G. “The Contribution of the Karaites to the Study of the Hebrew Language,” in Karaite Judaism, ed. M. Polliack (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 291–318.

———, M. A. Gallego and J. Olszowy-Schlanger, The Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Grammatical Thought in Its Classical Form: A Critical Edition and English Translation of “al-Kitāb al-Kāfi fī al-Lugha al-ʿIbrāniyya” by ʾAbū al-Faraj Harun ibn al-Faraj (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. xi–xxxii.

Maman, A. “Karaite Hebrew Grammatical Thought. State of the Art,” in Maimónides y su Época, ed. C. del Valle, S. García-Jalón, and J. Pedro Monferrer (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2007), pp. 429–438.

Citation Geoffrey Khan. " ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn ibn Faraj (Aaron b. Jeshua)." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2012. Reference. Jim Harlow. 11 July 2012 <http://www.paulyonline.brill.nl/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the...>