Celebrating the Jewish Grammarians of Al-Andalus
Lately, much of my study has been dedicated to Hebrew and Arabic lexicography. I am fascinated by the close relationship between these two languages and how they create natural links between the Bible and the Qur’an. I am fascinated by how both texts use virtually the same vocabulary, share the same cultural milieu, and fundamentally share the same exhortation to submit to the one God and to serve the needy neighbor. It is a world that eschews divisive theologies and speculative philosophizing. It highlights religion, not so much as a worldview or philosophical system, but as al-din, which in Arabic comes from the same root as “judge”. It is an obligation, a duty to God and the needy neighbor. The charge when we study these texts is that we cease the glorification of politicians, ideologies, religions, nations, tribes, etc, and become just a little less nasty to those around us. When we study lexicography, a rabbi, a priest, and an imam can sit together under the palm tree, enjoy a Turkish coffee, and discuss triliteral roots. Oh, and for recreation, they can keep their brains sharp with a game of chess. Instead of killing each other in conquests and reconquests, they can utilize their strategic prowess in the nondestructive battle of calculation and intentionality. Of course, that sounds idyllic. I am not describing a utopia. Utopias have never and can never exist. What I am talking about is civilization. Not Western civilization, which is oftentimes not very “civilized” at all. I am speaking of the civilization that existed under the Córdoban Caliphate in modern-day Spain.
What is of import here is not the civilization per se but the scholarship that flowered there in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. The city of Al-Andalus was home to a major Jewish population who simply could not survive as Jews in Christian Europe. While life under Islamic rule was never “perfect”, Jews generally enjoyed considerable freedom, contributing to their intellectual development during this period, which historians call a “golden age” of medieval Jewry. In Spain, the Jewish people advanced work in the sciences, mathematics, philosophy, theology, esoteric spirituality, and best of all — lexicography.
The Discovery of the Semitic Triliteral
The crown jewel of Al-Andalus is the myriad of Hebrew dictionaries and grammar textbooks which were the first of their kind, and in many ways, unmatched even to this day. Whereas many groups before the Andalusians dabbled in philosophy and theology, this particular group was the first to systematically break the Hebrew language down to its triliteral roots. In fact, the first grammarian ever to do this kind of study was Judah ben David Hayyuj. As orientalist Morris Jastrow writes,
The influence exerted by Hayyuj upon his age was profound. Through his theory that all Hebrew stems consist of no less than three consonants and his recognition of the fact that the four vowel letters form ingredient parts of the stem, he cleared up the difficulties which the grammarians preceding him encountered when discussing the irregular verbs in Hebrew. Whatever may be the verdict regarding his fundamental proposition, when viewed in light of modern science, the impetus given by him to a methodical and rational study of Hebrew grammar resulted in the production during the following centuries, of an extensive grammatical literature — in Arabic and Hebrew — that is sharply marked off by a superior scientific spirit, from that produced before the days of Hayyuj. — Morris Jastrow, introduction to “The Weak and Geminative Verbs in Hebrew”
Hayyuj revolutionized the way Semitic languages in general are studied since they all more or less utilize the same root system. According to Jastrow, many of the grammatical terms still employed by Hebrew scholars stem back to his treatises on verbs. One of Hayyuj’s most prominent students was Abu al-Walid Marwan ibn Janah. Abu al-Walid made his contribution to triconsonantal theory with his book, Kitab al-Usul (the Book of Roots). This treatise included a list of the roughly 2,000 unique triliterals in the Hebrew language, with Arabic commentary studying the various functions the triliterals entail. The work is incredibly exhaustive and he spent much of his career defending Hayyuj’s thesis and furthering the scholarship in his own writings. As Adolf Neubauer writes of Abu al-Walid,
If Hayyuj is rightly called ‘the father of grammarians,’ Abu ’l-Walid deserves undoubtedly to be called ‘the father of the lexigraphers’. In fact his predecessors, such as Rabbi Sa‘adyah Gaon, M’nahem ben Saruq, David ben Abraham, and others, having no knowledge of the system of triliteral roots discovered by Hayyuj gave very inexact lexicographical notions. Ibn Janah was, besides, an accomplished Arabic scholar, and hence his dictionary is of the highest value for the purpose of comparing Hebrew and Arabic roots. — Adolf Neubauer, introduction to “The Book of Hebrew Roots”
Hayyuj also demonstrates a closeness with the Islamic tradition. His book begins with essentially the Hebrew version of al-Fatihah, the first surah of the Qur’an.
The Hebrew reads “in the name of Yahweh, God of ages”. The בינו is an abbreviation of בשם ה’ נעשה ונצליח — in the name of God, we will do and succeed. The inclusion of עולם ‘olam corresponds to al-Fatihah.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of God, the Almighty the Merciful
ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
All praise be to God, Lord of the Ages.
The word in question is ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ from the root عالم ‘alam — world/age. This shows the interconnection between the Jewish scholars of Al-Andalus and their Islamic neighbors.
Another scholar who made much progress in this field was David ben Abraham al-Fasi who wrote the Kitab Jami al-Alfaz (The Book of Collected Meanings). This was a comparative dictionary of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic triliterals. In a similar vein, Abu Ibrahim Ishaq ibn Barun did his own lexicographical work in his “Book of Comparison between the Hebrew and Arabic Languages”. This intense scholarly work focused on hundreds of equivalent Hebrew and Arabic triliterals. The import of this work cannot be overstated, because he was a pioneer in outlining the links between the two languages, and therefore a pioneer in outlining the links between the Bible and Qur’an. The Islamic culture of Al-Andalus provided a cultural and linguistic milieu which provided a gold mine for Jewish scholars to study their own scriptures. Being bilingual in Hebrew and Arabic, and possibly trilingual in the case of Aramaic, they were equipped with a deep understanding of both scriptures.
The Quagmire of Modern Scholarship
Modern scholarship has often downplayed or just outright ignored the use of Arabic in Hebrew studies. If it is addressed at all, it is only to provide additional examples but is hardly invoked to disambiguate difficult passages. Most Hebrew students don’t even learn Arabic while at school, and barely study the Hebrew language itself beyond the basics. This presents a huge problem with understanding the Hebrew text as it was written. The fact is, Hebrew is a Semitic language and all extant Semitic languages use the same system of roots. The mutual correspondence among them is also quite high. Because Hebrew is so limited (the Bible being the only real source for the language), there are so many ambiguities within the language that can only be solved with help from other similar languages. An example of this at play was the work of Mitchell Dahood in his exegesis of the Psalms. There, he incorporated his knowledge of Ugaritic, an ancient Semitic language closely related to Hebrew and Arabic, in his disambiguation of certain passages. As such, he totally revolutionized the use of Ugaritic in Biblical studies, and many scholars have followed suit ever since.
This holistic study of Semitic languages in biblical scholarship really isn’t a new phenomenon. In the 19th century, this type of work was extremely common among German orientalists. The foremost lexicographer during this period was Wilhelm Gesenius, who produced the monumental “Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon”, which became the source of the famous Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) dictionary. Gesenius, inspired by the Spanish grammarians, employed Abu al-Walid’s comparative methodology. He was an incredibly learned Semitic philologist who employed a strictly scientific, nonreligiously compromised study of the language. In this sense, he furthered the mission of Hayyuj discussed above. His main field was the ancient Phoenician language, but on top of Hebrew, he was also highly educated in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ethiopian (Ge’ez). Very seldom does he discuss a Hebrew word without referencing a correspondence in one of these languages. Here’s an example from the root עבר, whence the word “Hebrew” derives.
On top of Gesenius’ monumental work, Franz Delitzsh of the Keil and Delitzsch Commentary Series was another powerhouse in the field of Semitic languages. The introduction to the series features an entire crash course on Semitic languages and how they work in Semitic triliterals. He also frequently invokes Arabic and other Semitic languages in his exegesis. Here’s an excerpt from his commentary on Isaiah,
Another important 19th century scholar was Arabist Alfred Guillaume who also produced a book on Hebrew/Arabic lexicography, again emulating the comparative method of Ibn Janah and Ibn Barun,
Today, this type of scholarship is quite rare. It has been revitalized by scholars like Paul Nadim Tarazi and his pupil, Iskandar Abou-Chaar who wrote a fantastic commentary on Isaiah 40–55, utilizing his native Arabic in his exegesis of character names and other relevant words. Abou Chaar represents the hope for closer investigation of the Hebrew language, utilizing Arabic to provide a greater depth of understanding. Lexicography is precisely what biblical scholarship needs right now, as narratives and ideologies pervade the scholarly landscape. Lexicography provides a much-needed scientific and “objective” matrix of scholarship that anyone, no matter their creedal orientation, can equally participate in. Semitic languages offer an immensely robust pool of semantic depth that could greatly elevate our understanding the Bible, as well as the Qur’an. The two complement each other in that way. Biblical scholarship benefits from knowledge of the Qur’an and how Arabic is used therein, and Qur’anic scholarship would benefit from the Bible and how Hebrew established the terminology found in the Qur’an. In the present day when the Jewish and Islamic worlds appear to be at their most hostile, the emphasis on the immense common ground that these two traditions share could not be overstated. This group includes the vast array of Semitic Christians, from the Ethiopians and Eritreans in Africa, to the Coptic, Arab, and Syrian Christians in the Middle East. This is work that all of them can do, despite their theological traditions. This is something that the Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the Middle East intimately share. The grammarians of Al-Andalus paved the way, and if we can do the same, we might contribute to a better future.
إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ
