Cairo Genizah : Commentary; colophon; note

Saʿadya Gaʾon

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Leaf from Saʿadya’s commentary on the book of Isaiah. There is an owner’s note, written in large outline script, for Jacob he-Ḥaver b. Job. A smaller and neater colophon identifies the work and states that it was purchased by Josiah he-Ḥaver b. Aaron ‘the distinguished’ son of Josiah, Av. He bought it in the year that he was ordained into the Jerusalem Academy (בישיבה הקדושה ישיבת הצבי), the year 4791 of the Era of Creation (= 1030-1031 CE), in Acre. Later, presumably during the First Crusade, the book fell into Crusader hands and someone, holding the book upside down as if it was a Western book, wrote a short note in Latin identifying its contents: ‘[interpre]tacio esaya prophete’. During their conquest of the Holy Land, the Crusaders took not only prisoners for ransom but also Jewish books and scrolls. This leaf is presumably from one of the books that passed through Crusader hands but was eventually sold back to the Jewish community.</p>