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Yitzhak Ha-sangariAccording to medieval Jewish sources, the name of the rabbi who converted the Khazars to Judaism. According to D.M. Dunlop, "the name Isaac Sangari is perhaps not attested before the 13th century, when he is mentioned by Nahmanides." In Sefer ha-Emunot ("Book of Beliefs"; early 15th c.), Rabbi Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov wrote: "I have been preceded by Rabbi Yitzhak ha-Sangeri, companion haver to the king of the Khazars, who converted through that sage a number of years ago in Turgema of Togarmah, i.e. the Turks, as is known from several books. The rabbinic responsa and the valuable and wise sayings of this sage, which show his wisdom in Torah and Kabbalah and other fields are scattered in books in Arabic. The sage Rabbi Yehudah ha-Levi, the poet, of Spain, found them and put them into his book, in Arabic, and it has been translated into our language Hebrew..." Shem Tov's work was cited by Judah Moscato in his work Kol Yehuda. If the medieval sources are to be believed, Yitzhak was a famous rabbi of the Middle Ages. A learned man, he was versed in Arabic as well as Hebrew and Aramaic. D.M. Dunlop tentatively identified him with the region of Sangaros, in western Anatolia (not far from the ancient site of Troy). Yitzhak's historiocity is difficult to determine. A great deal of discussion among scholars has not yet conclusively established when or even if he lived, nor are any details of his ministry among the Khazars given in the Khazar Correspondence or the Schechter Letter. In some Hebrew works he is referred to as Yitzhak al-Mangari. Avraham Firkovitch claimed that Yitzhak was a Karaite scholar, and "discovered" tombstones in the Crimea of Yitzhak and his wife. This is unlikely given the esteem in which he was held by Rabbinic authors and the fact that Khazar Judaism was almost certainly not Karaite. In any event, the ha-Sangari tombstones were later determined to be forgeries. Among the documents in Firkovitch's collections are poems allegedly written by Rabbi Yitzhak. Israeli scholars such as Menashe Goldelman of the Hebrew University have declared these to be authentic. Sources - Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
*Norman Golb and Omeljan Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.
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