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Collection of one-hundred-fourteen wondrous tales and awesome stories to arouse the heart to awe and love of the Lord compiled by R. Eliezer ben Aaron Saadiah Arakie ha-Kohen. These tales are of zaddikim, from midrashim, and other works. First printed in Calcutta, the rarity of that edition necessitated this printing. There is a table of contents describ9ng one-hundred-twelve stories as in the first edition. Not enumerated are two additional tales added to this volume at the end that were not in the previous printing.
R. Eliezer ben Aaron Saadiah Arakie ha-Kohen, a resident of Cochin, established the first Hebrew printing press in India in Calcutta in 1840–41. Between 1841 and 1856 he produced about 28 Hebrew books of a halakhic, liturgical, and literary nature.
The first Hebrew (lithographic) printing press in Baghdad was founded by Moses Baruch Mizrahi in 1863. The press printed a Hebrew newspaper named Ha-Dover ("The Speaker") or Dover Mesharin ("Upright Speaker") until 1870 and three small books. A second printing press with movable characters was founded in Baghdad in 1868 by Rahamim b. Reuben, a resident of Baghdad, who had previously gained printing experience in Bombay. The brothers Moses and Aaron Fetaya later formed a partnership with Rahamim, and after his death they continued his work until 1882. Fifty-five books were printed on this printing press. In 1888 a new press was founded in Baghdad by Solomon Bekhor Huzin (1843–1892), a scholar, poet, author, journalist, bookseller, and communal worker. He brought his printing letters from Leghorn, Italy. Besides prayer books, he also printed many books which he considered useful to the members of his community. These included tales and works by Baghdad scholars which had been in manuscript until then. After his death, the printing press was taken over by his son, Joshua Huzin, and operated until 1913. Seventy-five books were printed on it. |
