عنوان

The religious and legal thought of Samuel ben Hofni Gaon:

TLpq303969975

انگلیسی

The religious and legal thought of Samuel ben Hofni Gaon:

[Thesis]

D. E. Sklare

Texts and studies in cultural history

I. Twersky

Harvard University

1992

733

Ph.D.

Harvard University

1992

During the period of their decline in the tenth and early eleventh centuries, the Jewish Academies of Baghdad, the Gaonic Yeshivot, saw a spurt of literary creativity on the part of their heads, the Gaonim. Samuel ben Hofni Gaon, the head of the Academy of Sura, was particularly prolific. The little known of Samuel ben Hofni's life is reviewed and his literary output is described. His writing was motivated in part by the need to maintain the financial and intellectual integrity of the Yeshivot. In this effort, Samuel ben Hofni and other heads of the Yeshivot reached out to the highly-Arabicized Jewish population which did not have a Rabbinic education, but which looked to the Gaonim for intellectual leadership. The cultural context of his literary efforts is therefore surveyed, including the decline of the Yeshivot and the character of Jewish intellectual life outside of them. His works show a deep participation in the Arabic intellectual life around him. His theology was largely Mu'tazilite in nature. This can be seen in his epistemology and his conceptions of the obligation imposed by reason and revelation, the universality of law, and tradition. The delineation of his intellectual portrait is based largely on two of his works, reconstructed from manuscript fragments preserved by the Cairo Genizah. They are his Treatise on the Commandments and a collection of essays entitled Ten Questions. The Judeo-Arabic text and an annotated English translation are provided.

Judeo-Arabic

Language, literature and linguistics

Persia

Philosophy, religion and theology

Religious history

religious thought

D. E. Sklare

I. Twersky

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y