HEBREWS 595 ing, elucidating, systematizing, and further de- veloping the decisions (halakhoth, collectively termed HalakhaK) of the oral law, which was finally converted into a written code or com- pendium of teachings (Mishnah) by the patri- arch Judah the Holy and his school, during the mild reigns of the Antonines. To this were added the partly supplementary, partly explanatory works, Tosephta, Mekhilta, Sa- phra, and SipJiri. These works became the basis of religious study in the subsequent three centuries, in Palestine, as well as in Babylo- nia, where the schools of Sura, Pumbeditha, Nehardea, and others, flourished under more favorable circumstances, the most renowned teachers (in this period amoraim) of both coun- tries being Rab, Samuel, Joshua ben Levi, Johanan, Simeon ben Lakish, the patriarch Fehudah II., Ame, Ase, Abahu, Ele'azar, Jehu- i, Hunna, Hisda, Nahman, Rabbah, Joseph, Zera, Jeremiah, Abbaye, Raba, Pappa, Ashe, Abina, and Mar bar (ben) Ashe (died 467). After new persecutions by the Christian em- 3rors, which destroyed the schools (353) and patriarchate (429) of Palestine, and by the 'ersian kings Yezdegerd II., Hormuz, Firuz, id Kobad in the latter part of the 5th century, rhich destroyed the schools of Babylonia, the suits of those studies were also collected, lough in chaotic disorder, in the two Gemaras or Talmuds (literally, studies), the Palestinian and Babylonian. Other extant products of the time of the tanaim and amoraim were various jthical treatises (DereTch eretz, Aboih, &c.), his- torical, legendary, and cosmogonal writings (haggadoth, stories, collectively Haggadah, a vast branch), prayers (tepMlloiK), additions to the Chaldee paraphrase (Targum) of Scriptural books, a new calendar, admirably adapted to the religious duties of the people, by Hillel (340), and some Greek fragments by Aquila and Sym- machus. The Chaldee, often with an admixture of Hebrew, was now generally used in literary works, while the people used the various lan- guages of the countries in which they lived. More and more oppressed and degraded by the emperors, of whom only Julian was favorable to his Jewish subjects, and even attempted to rebuild the temple of Zion, and by the de- crees of the councils, the Jews of Palestine once lore hoped to recover their independence when iey assisted the Persians in conquering Jeru- lem (616), but were soon severely chastised for their rash attempt by the victorious emperor 'leraclius. But a new power springing from the ibian desert was destined to humiliate all the >ntending parties and sects between the Tigris id the Nile, the Byzantine emperors and the Sassanide shahs, Christians, fire worshippers, ind Jews. A new Semitic prophet arose in the vicinity of the Red sea, teaching his disciples and people a monotheism which was to be car- ried triumphantly over a great part of Asia, Africa, and Europe (622). Mohammed him- self after a long struggle conquered the castles of the independent Jews in Arabia, who, liv- ing from a very remote period in that country, were masters both of the poetical tongue and the sword of the desert, their warlike Samuel ben Abdiah, among others, being one of the most distinguished early poets of the peninsula. Omar and his generals conquered Jerusalem, Tiberias, Damascus, Antioch, and Alexandria from the Byzantines, and subdued Persia, thus bringing most of the eastern Jews under the rule of Islam. This proving comparatively mild, and the later caliphs favoring every sci- ence, Jewish studies revived, especially in Babylonia, where the Jews lived under the immediate rule of a prince of the captivity (resJi gelutha), and where their great schools, having been reorganized under the seboraim (thinkers), were made flourishing under the geonim (the eminent). Of these Saadia, the translator of the Pentateuch into Arabic (died 941), and Hai (died 1037), the son of Sherira, and son-in-law of Samuel ben Hofni, are eminent as theolo- gical writers, poets, and linguists. Numerous works of Haggadah, now mostly known as midrashim, and ethical writings, were com- posed ; the critical notes of the Masora and the " Targum of Jerusalem " elaborated ; the admirable system of Scriptural vocalization in- troduced ; talmudical compendiums written ; medical, astronomical, and linguistic studies, and also cosmogonal speculations (KabbalaK), pursued. An anti-rabbinical sect, besides the extinct Sadducees the only one which deserves that appellation, was founded about the middle of the 8th century by Anan in Babylonia, re- ceiving from their strict adherence to the letter of the Bible the name of Karaites (Scripturists). Their scholars, Salmon, Jeshua, and Japheth, flourished in the 10th century. Scientific pur- suits also spread among the Jews in Africa, who with slight interruptions enjoyed peace under the Saracenic princes; and among the theological writers of Fez and Kairowan in that period, of whom Nissim and Hananel (both in the first half of the llth century) are the most celebrated, we find the physician and critic Isaac ben Soleyman, the lexicogra- pher Hefetz, and the grammarians Ben Koraish, Dunash, and Hayug. The Arabic was gener- ally used by the scholars. The political and intellectual condition of the Jews was worse in the Byzantine empire and in the feudal states which arose on the ruins of the West Roman. Deprived of most civil rights, they were now and then bloodily persecuted, as by the Franks and Visigoths in the 6th and 7th centuries, by the Byzantines in the 8th, when many of them fled and even spread their religion among the Khazars about the Caspian sea, and again in the llth, about which time they appear in Russia, though only for a short time, and in Hungary. More tolerable, how- ever, was their situation in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, where they often found protection through the influence of the popes. Bari and Otranto became the principal seats of Jewish learning. The renowned Eleazer ben Kalir
