HistoryFigure882-942

Saadia Gaon

History register · custodian, not owner

Gaon of Sura, the first great Jewish philosopher. His Book of Beliefs and Opinions (Emunot ve-Deot) founds rational Jewish philosophy. He translated the Bible into Arabic (Tafsir) and combated Karaism. A major intellectual figure of medieval Judaism.

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Sources & resources

J.L. Fishman (ed.), Rav Sa'adyah Ga'on – Kove? Torani Madda'i (1924)
E.I.J. Rosenthal (ed.), Saadya Studies (1943)
Saadiah Anniversary Volume (1943)
« Saadiah (ben Joseph) Gaon », Encyclopaedia Judaica (2ᵉ éd.) (2007) ↗
A. Marx, ibid.
L. Finkelstein (ed.), Rab Saadia Gaon, Studies in his Honor (1944)
H. Malter, Life and Works of Saadiah Gaon (1921)
S. Bernfeld, Rabbenu Sa'adyah Ga'on (1892)
N. Lamm, in: jqr, 55 (1964/65), 208–34 (1964)
Z. Broshi, Rav Sa'adyah Ga'on, ?ayyav Mishnato u-Mifalav (1942)
A. Hollaender, Sa'adyah Ga'on ben Yosef Ge'on Sura (1958)
A. Marmorstein, Le-Toledot Rav Sa'adyah Ga'on, Parashah bi-Tekufat ha-Ge'onim (1951)
M. Zuker, Al Targum Rasag la-Torah (1959)
S.K. Mirsky, Rav Sa'adyah Ga'on (1912)
D. Kahana, Sefer le-Toledot Rasag (1892)
Jacob Guttmann, Die Religionsphilosophie des Saadiah (1882)
I. Efros, in: jqr, 33 (1942/43), 33–70 (1942)
Husik, Philosophy, 23–41
S.L. Skoss, Saadia Gaon, the Earliest Hebrew Grammarian (1955)
G. Vajda, in: rej, 126 (1967), 135–89, 375–397 (1967)
M. Ventura, La Philosophie de Saadia Gaon (1934)
D. Druck, Saadya Gaon, Scholar Philosopher, Champion of Judaism (1942)
Z. Diesendruck, Saadya's Formulation of the Time Argument for Creation (1935)
A. Altmann, Saadya's Conception of the Law (1944)
L. Klaperman, The Scholar-Fighter, The Story of Saadia Gaon (1961)
H. Ben-Shammai, Pe`amim (1997)
Aleph (2004)
A. Firkowitsch, Ha-Meli? (1868)
S.B. Urbach, Ammudei ha-Ma?ashavah ha-Yisre'elit (1969)
L.E. Goodman (tr.), The Book of Theodicy: Translation (1988)
Y.T. Langermann, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages (1999)
G. Freudenthal, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (1996)
H.A. Davidson, in A. Altmann (ed.), Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies (1987)
S. Stroumsa, in: D.H. Frank and O. Leaman (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (2003)
H.A. Wolfson, Repercussions of the Kalam in Jewish Philosophy (1979)