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Manuscript Number 193 Christ Church Cathedral Library

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Manuscript Number 193 Christ Church Cathedral Library Christ Church Library MS 193 Brian Deutsch * Some months ago I had a chance to examine the collection of Hebrew manuscripts at the Christ Church Library. They include several cabalistic works including a large work on the Book Of Creation by a known 16th century cabalist,1 a transcript of Nachmanides’ treatises on Cabala,2 a book on mathematics being a translation of a famous Arabic scholar into Hebrew,3 a book on medicine,4 a treatise on the laws of the Talmud by Mordecai in abridged form,5 a copy of Gersonides’ translation of Averroes, Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle into Hebrew with his commentary.6 There is a further large manuscript on philosophy from an as yet unidentified source,7 and an unpublished commentary on the Bible.8 Several of the manuscripts are signed by the scribes and dated, the earliest of these is from 1410. Little is known as to how these volumes came to the Library, although the recent discovery by Dr David Rundle of an entry in the Donors Book 9 records the gift of thirteen Hebrew manuscripts in 1683 by John Fell, Dean of Christ Church and Bishop of Oxford. The first part of MS 193 is not dated but has the name of the scribe10 at the end and is only a fragment. Bound together in the same volume and is also a most interesting copy of a famous correspondence between the head of the Jewish community in Cordova, Spain, and the king of the Khazars. It was originally written around the year 960, as by the end of that decade the great fear of King Joseph in his letter had indeed happened and the Russians had overrun his land (which is the present day Ukraine, a prequel to todays events maybe?)... The letter is the basis of a later celebrated philosophical work by R. Yehuda Halevi11 called the Kuzari, written some two hundred years after this correspondence.12 These letters were printed in many editions of the Kuzari translated by Ibn Tibun into Hebrew and differ somewhat from the text of this manuscript. The piyut or verse preceding the letter and the letter from R. Chasdai ibn Shaprut13 is much the same with small variations, but the reply from King Joseph has several important variations. The Christ Church codex is the only known manuscript of the first letter.The reply of King Joseph is a shorter version than the one in the St Petersberg public library,14 * The study will be published in May 2015 in Christ Church Library Newsletter (Vol. 10, Issue 1‐3: 2013‐14). 1 Shlomo Shmuel Turiel (MS 188). 2 MS 198 (Amsterdam, 1636). It contains 12 treatises signed by the scribe Jacob b Simon Franco. 3 MS 189 Sefer Hacheshban (1476). 4 MS 194 Sefer Harefuoh 5 MS 196 Mordecai Bekitsur by Shmuel Shlitsat written by Yehudah b Yitzchok (1410). 6 MS 190 written in 1448. 7 MS 187 from 1472 to 1476. 8 MS 197 Sefer Dovev Mayshorim. 9 LR 1, p. 194. 10 Joshua di Viano. 11 Famous poet and scholar (1075-1141), born in Toledo died in Jerusalem. 12 Halevi wrote in Arabic around 1140. 13 Shaprut (915-970) ser.ved under both Abd-al-Rahman III (912-961) and his successor Hakem II (961-976) 14 MS Heb. 157 (Firkovitch collection). bequeathed by Abraham Firkovitch.15 D M Dunlop, who examined this manuscript, contends that the Russian text is the more authentic but I have to disagree. Aside from the fact that anything that passed through Firkovitchs’ hands was often forged or tampered with, in order to fit in with his Karaaite beliefs, this is a more credible version of the original even although there are several copying errors.This is also the only manuscript of both the letters, and as a consequnce,is more likely to be correct. The style of the reply is certainly from a different pen to the more effusive letter of R. Chasdai. The latter was probably written by his secretary, R. Menachem ben Saruk,16 whose name appears as an acrostic at the end of the introductory piyut.17 R. Chasdai b Yitchok ibn Shaprut was a man of great learning and initially the physician to Abd al-Rahman III, ruler of Cordova, and one of the greatest kings of his time. He was mathematician and astronomer, as well as an accomplished linguist, translating medical texts from Latin to Arabic. As a medical practitioner he was sent by his master to cure King Sancho IV of Leon of his obesity and helped restore him to his throne. He also brought him as a suppliant back to Cordova to the great satisfaction of the Caliph. When in 956 Otto I, Emperor of Germany, sent an embassy to negotiate with the Caliph, R. Chasdai carried out the negotiations successfully and as a result became the virtual vizier of the Caliph. In his letter to the King of the Khazars, R. Chasdai recounts how he was in charge of all customs and charges for importers and exporters, basically all trade tax collection (these revenues amounted to 100,000 gold pieces annually). R. Chasdai's curiosity about the kingdom of the Khazars had been sparked by reports he had heard of a Jewish kingdom in what is the Ukraine today and he was curious to find out whether this was true. He first financed a trip with two Jewish traders going through Constantinople, but they returned after six months without venturing further due to the dangers involved in the journey. He then succeeded in sending his epistle through two trusted merchants, Master Saul and Master Joseph, who seem to have succeeded in having the letter delivered. R. Chasdai was also instrumental in bringing scholars from the diaspora to Spain to educate the Jewish population and enable them some independence from the overarching control of the Babylonian institutions18 and of scholars. It is no doubt that due to his kindling of the spirit of Jewish learning, Cordova became one of the most important centers of Torah study in the Western world. The greatest of all medieval Jewish scholars, Maimonides,19 was born and educated there. Below is my translation of King Joseph's reply, as it appears in the manuscript: “The letter of Joseph ben Aaron, the King the Togarmi to Rav Chasdai, Head of the Diaspora, the son of Isaac, son of Ezra the Spaniard, who is both dear and esteemed by us. I would like to acknowledge receipt of his esteemed letter by the hand of R. 15Abraham Firkovitch (1786-1874), a Karaite follower and apologist, who caused much controversy and was the first to see and pick from the Cairo Geniza. He claimed the Khazars were also Karaites. He was a great scholar but was accused by others of using forgery to prove a point. 16 Famous scholar and grammarian. 17 Piyut – Hebrew for poem. 18 The yeshivas of Sura and Pumpedisa headed by the Gaonim. 19 Moses b Maimon (1138-1204), renowned Jewish scholar of the middle-ages. Author of a commentary on the Mishna, the Guide to the Perplexed, on philosophy, and the Yad Hachazoko, on the code of Jewish law. Yaakov ben Eleazar from the land of Nimets20, which pleased us. We were duly impressed by your understanding and wisdom. I found in your letter the location and dimensions of your country and the lineage of Abd al Rahman, the reigning king and his great magnificence and majesty, and the Divine assistance in his conquest of the oriental domains so that his great sovereignty is renowned in all the land and his fear instilled in all other rulers. About the carelessness of the messengers from Constantinople, who falsely made you doubt the veracity of my kingdom in which you did not believe possible. Then you asked for verification about our rule our lineage and how our fathers adopted Jewish law, that the Lord opened our eyes and suppressed our enemies. Further you asked for the measurement of our land, its length and breadth and the islands surrounding us, those people that are our allies and those with whom we are at war. If our messenger succeeds in reaching you to appear before your magnificent and just king who through his good deeds draws the hearts of his subjects to love him. And because the people say that there is no longer a remnant of Israel and no longer a kingdom and that there will be an uplifting of heart and an answer and praise and glory in the eyes of those who had said there was no future and no kingdom of the Jews. I will now answer you on each of the items you asked in your letter in joyfulness to you and in appreciation of your wisdom. Where you mention your land and the kings’ ancestry we have already touched upon this and there were already letters of friendship between our fathers in times gone by and this was recorded and known to our elders and let us renew this link between our fathers and pass it on as an inheritance to our children. You asked in your letter from which nation we come from and from which family and tribe. Know that we are of the children of Japhet21, the children of Togarma22 his son. We have found in the books of ancestry of our forebears that Togarma had ten sons and these are their names. The first was Agiar, Tirus, Avar, Ogin, Bizel, Tarna, Khazar, Janor, Bilgad, and Sovir. I am of the children of Khazar, who was the seventh.
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