Maimonides biography
- •
Samuel HaNagid
Samuel HaNagid was born Samuel Idn Naghrilla in Merida, Spain in 993. A member of the genetically distinct ethnic group in Southern Spain known as the Andalusian people, he was thoroughly educated by his father and was a Talmudic scholar, statesman, poet, soldier, philologist, and generally one of the most influential people in Muslim Spain. He began his Talmudic life as a student of one of the most respected Rabbis at the time, Rabbi Enoch, and was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin.
Samuel was a poor merchant in Cordova, barely making ends meet until the Amrid Kingdom collapsed when the Berbers sacked Cordova in 1013. The violence of the Cordova Civil War in 1013 caused Samuel to leave along with many other Jewish residents, as the Berbers tore through their city persecuting Jews and other ethnic groups. Eventually he settled in Malaga, currently the 6th largest city in Spain. With it's large Andalusian population Samuel felt at home, and opened up a spice shop that happened to be near the palace of the vizier of Granada, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. A
- •
Samuel ibn Naghrillah
Spanish poet and polymath (993–c. 1055)
Shmuel ibn Naghrillah[1] (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל הַלֵּוִי בֶּן יוֹסֵף, Šəmuʿēl HalLēvi ben Yosēf; Arabic: أبو إسحاق إسماعيل بن النغريلةʾAbū ʾIsḥāq ʾIsmāʿīl bin an-Naġrīlah), mainly known as Shmuel Hanagid which means Samuel the Prince (Hebrew: שמואל הנגיד, romanized: Šəmūʿel HanNāgid) and Isma’il ibn Naghrilla[2] (born 993; died 1056), was a medieval Sephardic JewishTalmudic scholar, grammarian, philologist, soldier, merchant, politician, and an influential poet who lived in Iberia at the time of the Moorish rule.[3] He held the position of Prime Minister of the Taifa of Granada and served as the battlefield commander of the Granadan army,[4] making him arguably the most politically influential Jew in Islamic Spain.[5]
Life
Shmuel was a Jew of al-Andalus born in Mérida to a wealthy family in 993. He studied Jewish law and became a Talmudic scholar who was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and one of the Berber languages.[3][6&# SAMUEL HA-NAGID Biography In the year 1027, Samuel was recognized as the chief rabbi, the spiritual head of Spanish Jewry. Ten years later, the last great Gaon in Babylonia, Rav Hai, died. Samuel, the chief rabbi and head of the Spanish academies, became in fact the spiritual heir of the Geonim of Babylonia. When, following Rav Hai's death, the well of Talmudic knowledge in Babylonia dried up (the academy in Sura was closed in 1034 and the one in Pumbeditha in 1040), the academies in the West under the supervision of Rabbi Samuel became the new, living spring that watered the field of Jewish knowledge. His Mevo Ha-Talmud (Introduction to the Talmud), in
Copyright ©bilders.pages.dev 2025•
Samuel ha-Nagid was educated in one of the Talmudic academies which Hasdai Ibn Shaprut established in Spain under the supervision of Rabbi Moses and his son Rabbi Enoch; the latter, scholars from Babylonia, had laid the foundations of Talmudic and Judaic study in Spain. Samuel was the first significant product of these academies. He was the first expert in the Talmud, the first Jewish scholar who grew up on Spanish soil.