The school that had been founded by Gershom in Mayence flourished for more than eighty years, and became the center of Talmudic activity for Germany, France and Italy. At the same time, about the end of the fourth century of the Hejira, when the Karaites expected the coming of the Messiah, persecution broke out against the Jews in the East and in Egypt, and lasted longer than that in Germany. The German Jews had been persecuted because they did not believe in Christ and the saints; the Eastern Jews were now oppressed because they would not believe in Mahomet and the immaculate Imam, in the heavenly guide (Mahdi).
This persecution was originated by the mad Egyptian Caliph Hakim, a Mahometan Caius Caligula, who believed that he was the incarnation of the divine power, and the vicegerent of God on earth. Hakim persecuted all who dared doubt his divinity – Mahometans, Jews, and Christians, without distinction. At first he decreed that if the Jews of his dominion did not become converts to the Shiitic Islam, they would have to wear round their necks the picture of a calf in commemoration of the golden calf of their ancestors in the wilderness. In addition, they were to be distinguished from the believers by their external appearance, as ordained by Omar. Those who transgressed were to be punished by exile, and by the loss of all their possessions (1008). A similar regulation was enacted against the Christians. When Hakim heard that the Jews evaded his decree by wearing a golden image of a calf, he added a further clause, viz., that they should wear in addition a block of wood six pounds in weight, and have little bells attached to their garments that they might be known at a distance as unbelievers (1010). He afterwards ordered the churches and synagogues to be destroyed, and drove both Jews and Christians out of his kingdom (1014). The Fatimide dominions at that time were very extensive. They embraced Egypt, northern Africa, Palestine and Syria, and since Hakim had adherents also in the Caliphate of Bagdad, there were but few places of refuge open to the Jews. Many, therefore, outwardly conformed to Islam, while waiting for better times to come. The persecution lasted till the Mahometans themselves grew tired of the half-witted Caliph, and assassinated him (1020).
Northern Africa, too, which had enjoyed a brief efflorescence under Isaac Israeli, Dunash ben Tamim, and the alien R. Chushiel, produced its last set of great men in the latter part of the eleventh century, and then sank into oblivion. Its two great authorities were Chananel, the son of Chushiel, the immigrant, and Nissim bar Jacob Ibn-Shahin (1015–1055). They lived in the same place, and are usually named together, but they do not appear to have been on friendly terms with each other. On the contrary, there appears to have been the same rivalry between them as there had been between Chanoch and Ibn-Abitur, Nissim, like the latter, being a native, and Chananel, like the former, the son of an alien. We are not even certain which of the two was the official rabbi of Kairuan; both of them, however, presided over the school. Chananel, in addition, had a large business; whilst Nissim was so poor that he had to be supported by the Jewish minister in Granada. They, however, showed remarkable similarity in their ideas; they pursued the same studies, and wrote works on the same subjects, but Chananel made use of the Hebrew language, and Nissim of Arabic.
A new element in the study of the Talmud, which established it on a firmer basis than that on which the Geonim had been able to place it, was added by the labors of these two men. The Jerusalem Talmud, although more ancient than the Babylonian, had suffered considerably by the fate to which books as well as men are exposed. Whilst the Babylonian Talmud was known and studied in the East to the boundaries of Khorasan and India, and in the West to the end of the ancient world, its companion remained for a long time unknown outside of its birthplace. The former had commentators, who explained and expounded it thoroughly; the latter was for a long time neglected. In consequence of the connection of northern Africa with Palestine, brought about through its conquest by the Fatimide Caliphs, the Jewish teachers of the two lands came into contact with each other, and the Talmud of the Holy Land (as it was called) became known in Kairuan. The two great Talmudists, Chananel and Nissim, were the first in Talmudic circles to busy themselves with it. In their Talmudical writings, which consisted partly of commentaries, explanations of separate words and the subject-matter, and partly of practical decisions, they gave prominence to the Jerusalem Talmud. Both wrote commentaries to the Pentateuch, in which they followed the path marked out by Saadiah for rational exposition of difficult passages in the Pentateuch.
They were both in constant communication with Babylonia on the one hand and with Spain on the other, and formed, so to speak, the link between the two lands. They lived to see the utter extinction of the Gaonate, but after their death the school of Kairuan sank into complete insignificance. One of its pupils, who afterwards became famous as a rabbinical authority, owed his fame solely to his emigration to Spain.
The institutions, too, and the traditions of Babylonian-Persian Judaism showed manifest signs of decay at this time. They possessed, it is true, two men of extraordinary ability, viz. Haï and Samuel ben Chofni, but these were not in a position to stay its dissolution, and could only throw a dim light upon the dying Gaonate.
Haï (or Haya, born 969, died 1038), who had in his eighteenth year been raised to the highest office next to the Gaon, at the age of thirty years succeeded his father Sherira in the Gaonate of Pumbeditha. At his installation the high honor was accorded him of having his name mentioned when a portion from the Prophets was publicly read, and he was compared to King Solomon. Foreign communities, as well as the Babylonians, showed him the highest respect. His character was noble, and he was a man of independent thought. He was versed in all branches of science as they were then taught, and displayed great literary activity. Haï reminds one of Saadiah, whom he took as his model, and whom he defended from attacks, but he was essentially a Talmudist, whereas Saadiah was a religious philosopher. Like him Haï was a thorough Arabic scholar, and made use of that language in many of his letters, and in numerous scientific treatises. Like the Gaon of Fayum he was free from that narrow-minded exclusiveness which permits men to see the truth only in their own religion, and causes them to look upon everything outside as untrue. He was on friendly terms with the head of the Eastern Christians of Bagdad, and on one occasion, when in his exegetical lectures he chanced upon a difficult passage, he did not hesitate to consult the Patriarch (Mar-Elia I.).
In his explanation of rare and archaic words in the Bible, Haï boldly sought assistance from the Koran and the old traditions of the Mahometans in order to confirm their meaning. He was an unprejudiced sage, who loved the light and avoided darkness. He often had disputations with Mahometan theologians about the relation between Judaism and Islam, and is said often to have silenced them by his eloquence. His main study, however, was the Talmud. In this he resembled his father Sherira, but his study was productive of better results. He wrote a terse commentary, in which he explained the words in the most difficult portions of the Mishna and the Talmud.
Haï treated of the civil law of the Talmud, of contracts, loans, boundaries and oaths, with systematic precision. He did this as no one before him had done, and he therefore became the model and authority for later generations. He did not enter upon the field of metaphysics, but although he was not a philosopher, he had sound opinions on mysticism. Surrounded with a halo of religion, a mystic belief often appears reasonable to those of weak reasoning powers, but Haï perceived its deceptive character.
The belief in miracles has, in every country, at all times, and in all creeds, befogged the intellect of unthinking men, and robbed them of the ability to form a rational view of divine wisdom and of life. This belief was fostered by the Jews in many ways, and took as firm a hold on them, as it had on the Christian and the Mahometan world. It was especially prevalent in Palestine and Italy. Its devotees believed that any one who is truly pious can perform at will miracles as great and surprising as those of the prophets of old. They thought, however, that for this purpose it is necessary to pronounce certain magical formulæ, consisting of various combinations of the letters in the name of God. Haï's true religious insight prompted him to write indignantly against this belief, which, despite the fact that his father was not free from it, he considered a desecration of religion. A pupil of Jacob ben Nissim of Kairuan once asked Haï what he thought of the magical power of the names of God, which, many boasted, they could use. Haï answered briefly and sensibly: – "If any one by the mere use of formulæ could perform miracles, and thereby alter the course of nature, wherein lay the distinction of the prophets?" God gave the prophets the power of temporarily altering the laws of nature that they might prove themselves His true messengers. Now, if pious persons could do the same, and if there happened to be many of them, miracles would become daily occurrences, and the motion of the sun from west to east would appear no more extraordinary than its common motion in the opposite direction – in short, miracles would cease to be miracles. "It is wrong," said Haï, "to make use of the name of God for such purposes," and he warned the people against this practice, in which there is much doubt and little truth; and a man must be indeed foolish who believes everything.
Haï was universally acknowledged as an authority, and through his influence the school of Pumbeditha somewhat recovered its prestige. The great scholars Nissim and Chananel of Kairuan, the community of Fez, the vizir Samuel Nagid, Gershom of Mayence, the authority of the German Jews, and the other authorities of the communities of three parts of the world, submitted questions to him, and honored him as the chief representative of Judaism. He was called "the father of Israel." The Exilarchate had been practically extinct since the death of the grandson of David ben Zaccaï, and Haï stood at the head of Judaism. No fitter man could have been found to represent it. Unlike the former Geonim of Pumbeditha, who all looked askance at the sister academy, unlike his father, who felt a keen delight when Sora was without a chief, Haï did his best to give it a leader in the person of Samuel ben Chofni, who filled his office during Haï's Gaonate. Samuel was his father-in-law, and his equal in learning and character. He wrote several systematic works on the ritual, and a commentary on the Pentateuch, in which he set forth the same philosophical views about the unity of God as the followers of the Mutazilist school. His commentary on the Pentateuch, indeed, is not very much praised. It was, like the Karaite commentaries, diffuse, and contained discussions on irrelevant questions. But although his exegetical works mark no distinct progress, yet they show the important fact that the Geonim followed the scientific lines laid down by Saadiah. Samuel ben Chofni's interpretations of the Bible are all rationalistic. He always endeavors to explain the miraculous events narrated in the Bible as if they were natural. He explained the story of the witch of Endor, and of Balaam, as dreams. Like Saadiah, he attacked Karaism, the occasion being a keen controversy which broke out at that time between the Karaites and the Rabbanites. Samuel ben Chofni died four years before his son-in-law Haï (1034), and thus ended the line of the Geonim of Sora.
This school does not appear to have made any effort to continue after his death. The times were in every way unfavorable to the Gaonate, and it was impossible for it to regain its pristine vigor. When Haï died, in 1038, mourned by all the Jews, and eulogized by the greatest poet of the time, Ibn-Gebirol, and by his admirer Chananel, in Africa, the time for the dissolution of the school of Pumbeditha had also come. It is true that the college immediately chose a successor, who acted at once as Gaon and as Exilarch, it seems only in order to have the two offices buried together in the same grave with his person.
Chiskiya, the great grandson of the quarrelsome Exilarch David ben Zaccaï, was appointed head of the school. But the glory which it was thought he would shed upon the school could not make itself visible. Chiskiya had many implacable enemies who were jealous of his elevation. They slandered him at court, for what reason or under what pretext is unknown. The political power of the Eastern Caliphate was at that time in the hands of Jelal Addaulah. He had wrested from the phantom caliph the title of "King of kings," and exacted tribute from both Jews and Christians. The great Sultan may have made use of the just or unjust complaint against Chiskiya for his own profit. The last Gaon was imprisoned, tortured probably, that he might discover his treasures, robbed of all his property, and then executed (1040). Thus the Gaonate came to an end through the oppression of the weak Caliphate. Babylonia had played its part in Jewish history, and for a long time it sank into complete oblivion. Chiskiya's two sons were also in danger of arrest, but they escaped, and after traveling about for a long time, settled in Spain, where they were respected as the last members of the House of David, and under the name Ibn-Daudi, devoted themselves to the cultivation of the muses.
Jewish Spain thus became the heir of Judæa, Babylonia, and northern Africa, and greatly increased its inheritance for succeeding generations. There the exiled sons of the Jewish-Chazar princes, and of the Exilarchs, found a refuge. At the head of the community of Andalusia was Samuel Ibn-Nagrela (or Nagdela), a man distinguished for wisdom, virtue and position, the first of the succession of Jewish teachers coming after the Geonim. He united in his person all the virtues of the three men who had made Jewish Spain famous. He was like Chasdaï, a generous chief and a patron of learning, like Moses ben Chanoch, a thorough Talmudist, and like Dunash ben Labrat, a poet and grammarian.
The life of Samuel (Ishmael) Halevi Ibn-Nagrela was remarkable. He was born in Cordova (in 993), whither his father had emigrated from Merida, and studied the Talmud in the school of Chanoch. Jehuda Chayuj, the father of Hebrew philology, instructed him in the subtleties of the Hebrew language, and the Andalusian capital, which was then the center of culture, offered him sufficient opportunity to make himself master of Arabic. When he was 20 years old, in consequence of civil war, he and many others were obliged to quit Cordova. The Barbary chieftain, Suleiman, having defeated the Arabs and the Sclavonian body-guard of the Caliphs in battle, destroyed the beautiful buildings of the capital with African fury, permitted the women to be violated, and reduced the richest families to beggary (April, 1013).
The noble Jewish families emigrated to Granada, Toledo, and even to Saragossa, to escape this persecution. Samuel Ibn-Nagrela settled in the port of Malaga.
He had a small business, and at the same time pursued Talmudic and linguistic studies. Besides Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldee, he understood four languages, including Latin, Castilian and the Berber tongue. Unlike most other Jews, who wrote Arabic in Hebrew characters, Ibn-Nagrela was a master of Arabic calligraphy, an art highly esteemed among the Arabs. To his knowledge of languages and calligraphy he owed the high position which he held, and which had not been attained by any Jew since the destruction of the Jewish state.
Civil wars and the ambition of the Emirs had broken up the empire of the Ommiyyade Caliphs into small principalities. Andalusia, after the fall of the last Ommiyyades, was subdivided like Germany and Italy of the past. The Arab historians call the regents of this period the "Kings of Anarchy." One race of Berbers, the Sinhajas, founded a kingdom of their own in the south of Spain, under a leader named Maksen (1020). Granada, largely populated by Jews, became the capital of this kingdom, and Malaga was also a part of it. In Malaga, Abulkasim Ibn-Alarif, the vizir of Habus, the second king of Granada, had a palace next to Samuel's little shop. This brought good fortune to the poor scholar, and raised him above want, and ultimately exalted him to a height worthy of his greatness.
A slave of the vizir who frequently furnished information to her master, regularly had her letters written by the poor Jew. These letters displayed so much linguistic and calligraphic skill that the vizir Ibn-Alarif became anxious to know the writer. He had Ibn-Nagrela called into his presence, and took him into his service as his private secretary (1025). The vizir soon discovered that Samuel possessed great political insight, and consulted him on all important affairs of state, and as his advice was always sound, the vizir at length undertook nothing without Samuel's approval.
When Ibn-Alarif fell ill, King Habus was in despair as to what to do about his complicated relations with neighboring states. The dying vizir referred him to his Jewish secretary, confessed that his successful undertakings had been mainly due to Samuel's wise suggestions, and advised Habus to employ him as a counselor. The Berber king of Granada, who had fewer prejudices against the Jews than the Arab Mussulmans, raised Samuel Ibn-Nagrela to the dignity of minister (Katib), and put him in charge of the diplomatic and military affairs (1027). Thus the shopkeeper of Malaga lived in the king's palace, and had a voice in all matters concerning the Pyrenean peninsula. For a Mahometan who chose a vizir ruled, but did not govern. This was the affair of the chief minister, who was answerable to the king with his life. Habus had no reason to regret his choice. His kingdom flourished under the rule of the wise and active Jewish vizir. Samuel knew how to occupy the king, and how to please him. He composed a poem of praise to Habus in seven different languages. Diplomatic, wise, and always master of himself, Ibn-Nagrela knew how to employ circumstances, and had the art of disarming his opponents. He drew a masterly picture of a worthy governor, which seems to have been his own guide: "He whose counsel is as pure as sunlight, who is free from base desires, whose eyes do not close in sleep, whose thoughts are firm as towers, whom dignity encompasses like shining armor, who knows how to subdue the will of others, and keeps aloof from what brings disgrace, is worthy to rule." His wisdom and piety preserved him from the pride peculiar to those that have risen from low estate, making them hateful. The gentleness with which he opposed his enemies is shown by an anecdote. Near the palace of Habus there lived a Mussulman seller of spices, who no sooner beheld the Jewish minister in the company of the king, than he overwhelmed him with curses and reproaches. Habus, indignant at such conduct, commanded Samuel to punish this fanatic by cutting out his tongue. The Jewish vizir, however, knew how to silence him who cursed. He gave him money, and converted the curses into blessings. When Habus again noticed the seller of spices, he was astonished at the change, and questioned Samuel about it. He replied, "I have torn out his angry tongue, and given him instead a kind one." The seller of spices, however, was not his only enemy; there were several others, and very dangerous ones. The fanatical Mahometans beheld in the elevation of an unbeliever to so high a rank a mockery of their religion. It aroused their displeasure to see the numerous Jews of the kingdom of Granada hold their heads aloft as though on an equality with the Moslems. Two officers of state, Ibn-Abbas and Ibn-Abi Musa, plotted to depose him. But their plots failed, and they were condemned to death. Fortune ever smiled on this Jewish vizir, although he was at one time in danger of losing his position and his life. When King Habus died in 1037 there arose two parties in Granada, who rallied round two princes. Most of the Barbary grandees, and some of the influential Jews, Joseph Ibn-Migash, Isaac ben Leon, and Nehemia Ashkafa, sided with the younger son, Balkin (or Bologgin); a smaller party (amongst them Samuel) desired that the elder son, named Badis, should be the successor. The influential party were ready to hail Balkin as king, when he abdicated in favor of his brother. Badis became king (October, 1037), and Samuel not only retained his former position, but became the actual king of Granada, as the pleasure-loving Badis gave but little attention to affairs of government. Later on Balkin repented of his generosity to his brother, and put obstacles in the way of his government. Badis therefore hinted to the physician of Balkin to refrain from giving him medicine during an illness, and this led to his death. After his death the government of Badis and the position of Ibn-Nagrela remained undisturbed. Balkin's partisans were forced to leave Granada, and amongst them the three Jews mentioned above. They emigrated to Seville, and were there received in a friendly manner by the king of that country, Mahomet Aljafer, who was an opponent of the king of Granada. One of the fugitives, Joseph Ibn-Migash, was raised by the king of Seville to a high position, and became the ancestor of a prominent personage. It is interesting to see in the writings of a contemporary historian the form used by the Jewish minister in the royal decrees addressed to the Mahometan people. Samuel, or as he was called, Ismael Ibn-Nagrela, did not shrink from using the formulæ of Moslem rulers. He opened with the words, Chamdu-l-Illahi (praised be God), and added, when mentioning the name of Mahomet, the sentence, "May God pray over him and bless him." He exhorted those to whom the circulars were addressed to live according to the principles of Islam; and in general his ordinances were couched in the Mahometan style.
Without doubt both Habus and Badis permitted the Jewish vizir to exercise authority over the Jewish congregations of Granada, similar to that which Chasdaï and Ibn-Jau had possessed in Cordova. Samuel was named chief and prince (Nagid) of the Jews, and this title is used by Jewish authors. The minister of state was also the rabbi; he presided over the school, where he delivered lectures on the Talmud to his disciples. He gave judicial decisions on religious questions, and in fact completely filled the functions of a rabbi of the time. The same pen which wrote the decrees of the government was used for treatises and discourses on the Talmud. Samuel Nagid compiled a methodology of the Talmud (Mebo ha-Talmud), in which he clearly explained the technical expressions of the Talmud. As an introduction, he added a list of the bearers of tradition from the men of the Great Assembly through the successive authorities of the Tanaite, Amoraite, Saburaite, and Gaonic schools down to Moses and Chanoch, his teachers. He afterwards composed a commentary to the whole Talmud for religious practices, which was afterwards highly prized, and was recognized as the standard authority (Hilchetha Gabriatha). Samuel Ibn-Nagrela was also a neo-Hebraic poet, and employed both rhyme and meter skilfully. He composed prayers in the form of psalms, full of religious depth and submission, and called the collection the Young Psalter (Ben Tehillim). He wrote thoughtful aphorisms and parables, the fruit of his deep observation of men and manners, and called this composition the younger book of Proverbs (Ben Mishle). Last he compiled a book of philosophy modeled on that of the Preacher (Ben Kohelet). The latter, written when he had attained an advanced age, was the most successful of his works, and is full of deep thought and eloquence. He also composed epigrams and songs of praise, but his poetic compositions, both secular and spiritual, are heavy and dull, full of thought, but devoid of beauty of form. It became proverbial to say, "Cold as the snow of Hermon, or as the songs of the Levite Samuel."
It is not remarkable that a man of such pure integrity and deep appreciation of wisdom and religion should spread blessings around him, should advance science and poetry, and should support learning with princely generosity. Samuel was in communication with the most prominent men of his time, in Irak, Syria, Egypt, and Africa, especially with the last of the great Geonim, Haï and with Nissim. He gave rich gifts to the learned, he had copies of books made to be presented to poor students, arousing dormant talents and becoming the protector of his countrymen, far and near. The greatest poet of the time, Ibn-Gebirol, he comforted in his distress. A writer of the following generation aptly describes him in the words, "In Samuel's time the kingdom of science was raised from its lowliness, and the star of knowledge once more shone forth; God gave unto him a great mind which reached to the spheres and touched the heavens, so that he might love knowledge and those that pursued her, and that he might glorify religion and her followers."
The position of the Jews in a country in which one of them held the reins of government was naturally high. In no country of the world did they enjoy so complete an equality as in the city of Granada. It was as a ray of sunshine after days of gloom. They were, in fact, more highly favored by the ruling race, the Berbers, than the Arab population, who bore the yoke of the Sinhajas with silent anger, and whose glances were always directed to the neighboring city of Seville, in which a king of pure Arab race wore the crown.
The minister of state and rabbi, Ibn-Nagrela, also occupied himself with researches into the structure of the holy language, but this was his weak point. He did not get beyond the rules laid down by Chayuj. He was so partial to this master that he could not appreciate new efforts. Samuel composed twenty-two theses on Hebrew grammar. Only one, however, Sefer-ha Osher, the "Book of Riches," is worthy of mention. The rest were only polemic treatises directed against the great Hebrew linguist, Ibn Janach, towards whom Samuel was unfriendly. Ibn Janach, the greatest Hebraist of his time – no less an ornament of Spanish Judaism than the vizir Ibn-Nagrela – deserves a special page in Jewish history, more especially because for a long time he was unknown and then misunderstood. Jonah Marinus (in Arabic, Abulvalid Mervan Ibn-Janach, born about 995, died 1050), was educated in Cordova, where after the death of Chasdaï all hearts were filled with enthusiasm for knowledge and a devoted love for the holy language. Isaac Ibn-G'ikatilia, of the school of Menachem, taught him Hebrew grammar, and Isaac Ibn-Sahal was his teacher in prosody. He studied medicine in the high school of Cordova, founded by the Caliph Alhakem. In his youth Ibn-Janach, like everybody at that period, made verses, which even later on, when his taste was developed, did not appear to him entirely bad. But he gave up versifying in order to devote himself entirely to the study of the Hebrew language in all its ramifications. He lived entirely for this study, and obtained such mastery of it that up to the present day he has not been surpassed. Posterity has learnt much from Ibn-Janach, but students of the Hebrew language can yet learn much more. Like his opponent Ibn-Nagrela, he also was compelled to leave Cordova after its destruction by Suleiman of Barbary (1013), when he settled in Saragossa. The Jews of Saragossa were for the most part still laboring under the delusion that rabbinical Judaism would be injured by research, and especially by grammatical investigations. Ibn-Janach nevertheless devoted himself to the study of the structure of the Hebrew language and to the explanation of the text of the Bible. He also pursued the study of medicine both theoretically and practically; but his chief attention was directed to a thorough exegesis of the Bible, and grammatical research with him was not an end in itself, but simply the means for a better comprehension of Holy Writ. Ibn-Janach, in his researches, reached conclusions not discovered by Chayuj. The alterations which on this account he necessarily had to make in the grammatical system of Chayuj, were made modestly and with due recognition of its merits. He had the greatest admiration for the founder of Hebrew philology, but like Aristotle, "his love of truth was greater than his love of Plato." This independence of Chayuj's teaching aroused the anger of the latter's followers, chief amongst whom was Samuel Ibn-Nagrela, and the disputes that arose ended in bitter personalities. The two chief exponents of the Jewish culture of this period, the noble-minded prince and the master of the Hebrew language, thus became bitter, irreconcilable enemies.
Feeling the approach of old age, which with Plato he calls "the mother of forgetfulness," Ibn-Janach devoted himself to his greatest work, wherein he summed up his researches, and deposited the treasures of his soul life. Ibn-Janach was not only the creator of the science of Hebrew syntax, but he also developed it almost to perfection. None before him, and but few since his time, have entered into all the niceties of the holy language with so much discrimination as Ibn-Janach. He first drew attention to the ellipses, and to the misplacement of letters and verses in the Holy Scriptures, and he was sufficiently daring to explain that various dark and apparently inexplicable expressions were due to the change of a letter or a syllable. He explained over two hundred obscure passages by means of the supposition that the writer had substituted an inappropriate word for a more fitting one. By the insertion of the correct word, Ibn-Janach often gives the intended meaning to a number of verses which up to his time had been interpreted in a childish way. He was the first rational Bible critic. Although convinced of the divinity of Holy Writ, he did not, like others, rate the language so highly as to accept sheer nonsense; but he assumed that, even though inspired, words addressed to mankind must be interpreted according to the rules of human language. Ibn-Janach did not, indeed, assert that the copyists and punctuators had altered or corrupted the holy literature from want of understanding, but that being human they had erred. He justly called his chief work (which with five others he wrote in Arabic) "Critique" (Al Tanchik), and divided it into two parts – into grammar with exegesis ("Al-Luma', Rikmah"), and lexicon ("Kitab Al-Assval").