Comparative Semitic Philology In The Middle Ages

This volume deals with medieval comparative Semitic philology (Hebrew/Aramaic/Arabic) as practised by Hebrew philologists in the Arabic speaking lands, from Iraq to Spain, discussing its development through the generations (10th-12th cent. CE), its technics and its theoretical basis.

In A Philosopher of Scripture: The Exegesis and Thought of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi, Raphael Dascalu presents a detailed intellectual portrait of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi (d. 1291, Egypt) – a Jewish philosopher and mystic, linguist and philologist, and a biblical exegete of singular breadth.

The peer-reviewed Journal of Religion in Japan (JRJ) constitutes a venue for academic research in the complex and multifaceted field of Japanese religion. The Journal takes into consideration Japanese religious phenomena through their historical developments and contemporary evolution both within and outside of Japan. The JRJ is committed to an approach based on religious studies, and is open to contributions coming from different disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, history, Buddhist studies, Japanese studies, art history, and area studies.

Beginning in 1172, Judah ibn Tibbon, who was called the father of Hebrew translators, wrote a letter to his son that was full of personal and professional guidance. The detailed letter, described as an ethical will, was revised through the years and offered a vivid picture of intellectual life among Andalusi elites exiled in the south of France after 1148. S. J. Pearce sets this letter into broader context and reads it as a document of literary practice and intellectual values. She reveals how ibn Tibbon, as a translator of philosophical and religious texts, explains how his son should make his way in the family business and how to operate, textually, within Arabic literary models even when writing for a non-Arabic audience. While the letter is also full of personal criticism and admonitions, Pearce shows ibn Tibbon making a powerful argument in favor of the continuation of Arabic as a prestige language for Andalusi Jewish readers and writers, even in exile outside of the Islamic world.

This critical edition and lexicological analysis of the first of the two glossaries of Book 29 of Shem Tov ben Isaac's Sefer ha-Shimmush contains more than 700 entries and offfers an extensive overview of the formation of medieval medical terminology in the romance (Old Occitan and in part Old Catalan) and Hebrew languages, as well as within the Arabic and Latin tradition.