Joseph ben Noah

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JOSEPH BEN NOAH

JOSEPH BEN NOAH (Abu Ya ʿǭub Yūsuf ibn Nūh ; early 11th century), Karaite scholar. According to a report by *Ibn al-Hītī, he lived in Jerusalem and was principal of an academy of 70 scholars (possibly to conform with the number of members of the *Sanhedrin). His contemporaries were *Sahl b. Maẓli'aḥ and *Japheth b. Ali, who opposed him on certain questions. Joseph b. Abraham ha-Kohen ha-Ro'eh (Abu Yaʿqūb al-Baṣīr) and *Abu al-Faraj Harun ibn al-Faraj refer to him as their teacher. Judah *Hadassi, who mentions Joseph several times in Eshkol ha-Kofer, reports that he rejected one of the basic tenets of Karaite doctrine, deduction by analogy. Joseph's works are no longer extant. They included a commentary on the Pentateuch, which Abu al-Faraj is supposed to have summarized and which Ali ibn Suleiman used for his commentary on Deuteronomy. He also wrote a grammatical work, likewise quoted by Abu al-Faraj.

bibliography:

Steinschneider, Arab Lit, 76, no. 38; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 33f.; Z. Ankori, Karaites in Byzantium (1959), index; L. Nemoy, Karaite Anthology (1952), 231ff., 374ff.

[Isaak Dov Ber Markon]

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