SAMUEL
HA-NAGID Biography
Just as a vizier
was the Caliph's official serving the Muslim community, a nagid
served the Jews and was in fact elected
by them. Samuel devoted himself to assisting the Jewish community far
and wide. He also provided the Granadan Jews with an heroic example
that inspired pride and confidence they sorely needed, being constantly
vulnerable to the whims of the Arab, Slav, and Berber armies vying for
control of the Andalusian kingdoms. The Nagid's spectacular victories
were considered victories of the Jewish community as well, and the dramas
the Nagid played out on the Granadan battlefield were so central to
these Jews' lives that a special Purim was even declared to celebrate
one of his victories.[1]
Samuel's poems were recited aloud not only by the Andalusian
Jews, but also as far away as Babylonia.[2]
In the following
selection, 12th-century Jewish historian Abraham Ibn Daud[3]
describes the many services the Nagid performed on behalf of the Jews
that he represented:
"Now R. Samuel
was appointed as Nagid in 4787 (1026/7). He achieved great good for
Israel in Spain, the Maghreb (North Africa), Ifriqiya (Tunisia), Egypt,
Sicily, indeed as far as the academy in Babylonia and the Holy City.
He provided material benefits out of his own pocket for students of
the Torah in all these countries. He also purchased many books
copies of the Holy Scriptures as well as of the Mishna and Talmud, which
are also among the holy writings. Throughout Spain and the countries
just mentioned, whoever wished to devote himself full time to the study
of the Torah found in him a patron. Moreover, he retained scribes who
would make copies of the Mishna and Talmud, which he would present to
students who were unable to purchase copies themselves, both in the
academies of Spain as well as of the other countries we mentioned. These
gifts were coupled with annual contributions of olive oil for the synagogues
of Jerusalem, which he would dispatch from his own home. He spread Torah
abroad and died at a ripe old age after having earned four crowns: the
crown of Torah, the crown of power, the crown of a Levite, and towering
over them all, by dint of good deeds in each of these domains, the crown
of a good name."[4]
|
[1]
Encyclopedia Judaica, "Samuel ha-Nagid."
[back]
[2] Jefim Schirmann. "Samuel Hannagid,
the Man, the Soldier, the Politician." Jewish Social Studies,
2 (April, 1951), p. 109. [back]
[3] Jewish historian and philosopher Abraham
Ibn Daud (c.1110-1180, Toledo, Castile), also called Rabad I,
was the first Jewish philosopher to draw on Aristotle's writings
in a systematic fashion. He is most esteemed today for his history
Sefer ha-Kabbalah (Book of Tradition), in which he attempted
to demonstrate the unbroken chain of rabbinic tradition from Moses,
this in response to the attack of the Karaites on rabbinic authority.
Sefer ha-Kabbalah provides much valuable information about
contemporary Spanish Jewry, their synagogues, and their religious
practices. [back]
[4]
An allusion to Mishnah Avot 4:13. [back]
|
|
From:
Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands. Copyright ©
1979 The Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia), p. 213.
Permission of The Jewish Publication Society of America. |
SAMUEL HA-NAGID Biography
|