THE EPISTLE OF RABBI SAMUEL THE ISRAELITE,TO RABBI ISAAC
Rabbi Samuel
Numéro d'objet: |
492 |
Date: |
1885 |
Genre: |
Livre |
Lieu: |
Londres |
Sujet: |
Iconographie |
Recherche dans "Notes":
Important texte contre les Juifs, inspiré d'une oeuvre de Rabi Samuel Abu Nasr Ibn Abbas, juif marocain converti à l'Islam, et traduit librement de l'arabe par le dominicain espagnol Alfonso Buenhombre (originaire de Tolède et mort en 1353) qui a transformé en polémique chrétienne le texte original pro-musulman. Paru pour la première fois en 1475 à Mantoue, cet ouvrage devint l'un des fleurons de la littérature antisémite, réimprimé pendant plus de 2 siècles, traduit en plusieurs langues et diffusé à travers toute l'Europe.
The Epistle of Rabbi Samuel is a widely-disseminated fabrication designed to convert Jews to Christianity. Supposedly composed in
Arabic by a Moroccan Jew (“Samuel Marochitanus”) at the beginning of the 11th-century, the book went through several editions and
translations.
“The Epistle of Rabbi Samuel” was one of the most influential anti-Jewish treatise of the Middle Ages. Allegedly translated from the Arabic by the Spanish Dominican Orientalist, Alfonsus Bonihominis (d. 1353).
The Epistle was supposedly composed by a Moroccan Jew (“Samuel Marochitanus”) at the beginning of the 11th-century in which he shares with his colleague, Rabbi Isaac, the thinking which led him to be baptized and convert to Christianity.
According to the introduction here by the Latin translator, Bonihominis, the text was originally written in Arabic in order to conceal it, since few Jews and even fewer Christians were familiar with that language. While Bishop of Marrakech, Bonihominis discovered the text in 1338 and translated it from Arabic into Latin in order to bring it to wider public attention.
The Epistle itself appears following this introduction. Most copies are divided into twenty-four, or occasionally twenty-five sections. The present version contains additional chapters.
Since the original Arabic text from which Bonihominis allegedly translated the Epistle has never been found, scholars are now clear that the translator composed the text himself. It subsequently grew to become a deeply influential anti-Jewish tract influencing such theologians with deep anti-Semitic tendencies as Anton Margaritha and Martin Luther.
See O. Limor, The Epistle of Rabbi Samuel of Morocco: A Best-Seller in the World of Polemics. In: Contra Iudaeos.
Ancient and Medieval Polemics between Christians and Jews