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First independent printing of this grammatical work on linguistic correctness with a brief outline on Hebrew meter by R. Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (c. 1089-c.1168). Many consider it to be his best grammatical work. The title page states that it is the second printing, the first was in 1546 with other grammatical works of Ibn Ezra, with annotations by the youths R. Reuben Aronsfeld and R. Aaron Yaraslov. The title page is dated from the verse, “Does not wisdom call?” (Proverbs 8:1). There are approbations from R. Aaron ben Moses [מאזעסזאהן], R. Joel ben Jekutiel, and R. Zenvel Ni’ia Gas. Zahut, is an intensive review of the field of Hebrew grammar. There are entries for each of the vowels and another section on the letters (sha’ar ha-ottiyot), and also chapters on prosody (versification) and metre.
Ibn Ezra, born in Tudela, Spain, was a person of considerable scholarship and accomplishments, as reflected by his commentaries on the Bible, poetry, grammars, philosophy, science, mathematics, and astrology. Ibn Ezra’s grammatical books are the first systematic works on the subject in Hebrew. In these works he transmits, in an original style, the works done in Arabic by his predecessors to a larger community not fluent in that language. Ibn Ezra’s other grammatical works include Safah Berurah (Constantinople, 1530) on grammatical problems and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; Sefat Yeter (Pressburg, 1838), primarily a defense of Rav Sadiah Gaon against Dunash ben Labrat, but also including some of ibn Ezra’s own grammatical work; and Yesod ha-Dikduk on the elements of grammar (in manuscript). In his other books, for example, the Bible commentaries, there is also considerable grammatical comment. Ibn Ezra translated, also while in Rome, three of Judah ben David Hayyuj’s (10th cent.) grammatical works into Hebrew from the Arabic, three of which were printed in Dikduk (Frankfort a. Main, 1600). |
