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JUDAH HALEVI's KITAB AL-KHAZARI, Translated from the Arabic with an Introduction

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JUDAH HALEVI's KITAB AL-KHAZARI, Translated from the Arabic with an Introduction JUDAH HALEVl's KITAB AL-KHAZARI. 513 these ideas to do with the choice of the beetle as the conventional form of a seal ? Mr. Newberry does not tell us; and, as what he does not know about scarabs is not likely to be knowledge, we may conclude that here is but one more of those mysteries which Ancient Egypt still keeps in store for us. F. L. JUDAH HALEVI'S KITAB AL-KHAZARI, translated from the Arabic with an introduction. By HARTWIG HIRSCHFELD, Ph.D. (London and New York: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1905.) The middle of the eleventh century finds the Muhamedan philosophical world in a state of great ferment. The philosophy of Al-Ashari, and, above all, that of Gazali, showed a decided reaction against the advance of the Aristotelian philosophy of Avicenna. This great spiritual excitement communicated itself also to the Jews, who were affected to a great extent by the doctrines of their Muhamedan contemporaries. Karaism assailed, moreover, the authority of the Oral tradition. It is then at that juncture that Judah Halevi undertook the defence of Judaism from a philosophical point of view, following in the main the lines of Gazali, yet sufficiently independent to give to his book the great merit of being one of the finest apologetic writings, strengthened by philosophical arguments, that has hitherto been written. In contradistinction to the prevailing tendency of starting with metaphysical problems, he bases his creed on the traditional accuracy of the various' revelations which make the existence of God a necessary postulate. The book bears the name of Al-Khazari, for Judah Halevi, true to his poetical genius, could not present a philosophical treatise in a dry manner as other writers on philosophy had done, as a chain of theorems and arguments. He needs must clothe it in a poetic garb, and he takes as Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University Library Frankfurt, on 22 Feb 2018 at 07:15:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00034705 514 : NOTICES OF BOOKS. background the history of the conversion to Judaism of the king and the people of the Khazars, who lived in what is now called South Kussia. The correspondence between the King Bulan and the Jewish Vizier, Hisdai b. Cheprut, at the court of the Muhamedan ruler in Spain, must have been known to Judah Halevi. He uses this historical event as a framework for his philosophical treatise, representing the king as the enquirer, who puts questions to Muhamedan, to Christian, and lastly to Jewish sages, and who tries to elicit the truth by constant questioning and argumentation. Thus in the form of a lively dialogue the whole philosophical theory of Judah Halevi is expounded. This book was originally written in Arabic, but was translated at an early period into Hebrew. It shared the fate of other philosophical works written in Arabic; the original was almost lost and forgotten until in modern times scholars began to turn their attention to the Arabic text. It fell to Dr. Hirschfeld to be the first editor of the Arabic, text, preserved in a unique MS. in the Bodleian Library. He accompanied that edition with the corrected and emendated Hebrew translation of Ibn Tibbon, and he then published a German translation of the book of Judah Halevi, based on the Arabic original. Dr. Hirschfeld has now turned to his old study of predilection, and no one was more fitted than himself to undertake the English translation of this classical book of Jewish philosophy, and he has accomplished his task in a thoroughly efficient and scholarly manner. The text reads very smoothly, and the literary and critical notes at the end of the volume, together with an elaborate and yet not discursive introduction, give all the bibliographical and historical information required for a fuller understanding of the " Khazari " of Judah Halevi. M. G. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University Library Frankfurt, on 22 Feb 2018 at 07:15:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00034705.
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