DAS BUCH AL-CHAZARI DES ABU-L-HASAN JEHUDA HALLEWI = SEFER HA-KUZARI = KITAB ALHUG'AH VA-ALDALIL FI NATSR AL-DIN AL-DALIL
Leipzig; O. Schulze, 1887. Item #33795
Original quarter calf and boards. 8vo. XLIX, 361 pages. 23 cm. First edition. In Judeo-Arabic (Arabic text in Hebrew characters) ; foreword and table of contents in German. The Kitab al Khazari, commonly called the Kuzari, is one of the most famous works of the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, completed around 1140. Its title is an Arabic phrase meaning Book of the Khazars, while the subtitle 'The book of refutation and proof on behalf of the most despised religion' shows its purpose and context in medieval Jewish thought. Divided into five parts ('ma'amarim' - articles) , it takes the form of a dialogue between the rabbi and a pagan, in this book the pagan was the then mythologized by Jews pagan king of the Khazars who was invited to instruct him in the tenets of the Jewish religion. Originally written in Arabic, the book was translated by numerous scholars (including Judah ibn Tibbon) into Hebrew and other languages. In 1887 the Arabic original was published for the first time by Hartwig Hirschfeld. Parallel to his Arabic edition, Hirschfeld also published a critical edition of the Ibn Tibbon translation of the text, based upon six medieval manuscripts. Hirschfeld published the first German translation from the Arabic original, and in 1905 his English translation from Arabic appeared. Hartwig Hirschfeld (1854-1934) “English Orientalist; born at Thorn, Prussia. He studied at Posen, at the universities of Berlin and Strasburg, and at Paris under Derenbourg. In 1887 he edited Judah ha-Levi's 'Cuzari' in Arabic and Hebrew, and translated it into German. Hirschfeld was professor of Biblical exegesis, Semitic languages, and philosophy at the Montefiore College, Ramsgate, England, from 1889 to 1896, and then became master in Semitic languages and sublibrarian at Jews' College, London” - 1906 JE. Attractively bound in original quarter leather, with gilt title, raised bands; marbled boards, decorative endpages. Subjects: Judaism - Apologetic works. Kuzari. Buch Al-Chazari. Light wear to edges, otherwise very clean and fresh. Very good condition. (GER-44-56).
Price: $500.00