Bali, Abraham ben Jacob
BALI, ABRAHAM BEN JACOB
BALI, ABRAHAM BEN JACOB (second half of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th century), Karaite author and physician living in Turkey. Bali was a pupil of the Rabbanite R. Shabbetai b. Malchiel ha-Kohen. Although disagreeing with the Rabbanites, Bali refers with respect to the contemporary Rabbanite scholars Mordecai *Comtino, Moses ha-Yevani Capuzato, and Solomon "Sharvit ha-Zahav" in his works. Most of them survived in manuscripts kept in various libraries. They include Iggeret Issur Ner Shabbat, upholding the Karaite prohibition against burning lights on the Sabbath (contrary to the reform introduced by Elijah *Bashyazi; non-critical print, Ashdod 2002); Iggeret ha-Kohanim, on the status of Rabbanites of priestly descent who become Karaites; Perush Inyan Sheḥitah, a commentary on the chapter dealing with ritual slaughter in *Aaron b. Elijah of Nicomedia's Gan Eden (non-critical print, Ashdod 2003); a commentary on al-*Ghazālī's Maqāṣid al-Falāsifa, in which Bali used a Hebrew translation of it and followed the commentary of Moses Narboni, which he much admired; and Perush al Ḥamishah Perakim min ha-Haysharah le-Abu Nasr, a commentary on the first five chapters of al-*Fārābī's Logic, translated into Hebrew under the title Iggeret le-Petiḥat Sifrei ha-Higgayon.
bibliography:
Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 1420; Danon, in: JQR, 15 (1924/25), 312–3; Steinschneider, in: HB, 20 (1880), 96–97; A. Neubauer, Beitraege und Documente Zur Geschichte des Karaeertums (1866); J. Gurland, Ginzei Yisrael (St. Petersburg, 1886); J-C. Attias, Le commentaire biblique: Mordekhai Komtino ou l'hermeneutique du dialogue (Paris, 1991), index.
[Isaak Dov Ber Markon]