New Turkish Original bdg. HC. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Turkish and Arabic. 2 volumes set: 1960, 568 p. "The Jews, as a monotheistic society, have lived in peace and security in the Muslim territory for centuries. Within the tolerant athmosphere they were active in any area as members of Islamic states. Saadia Gaon, who lived in the Islamic society in the 10th century, was one of the most important scholars of Jewish thought at the Middle Ages. He was an authority in both discipline of religion and literature by showing his competency through his dozens of works. He crowned his competency by becoming the president of the Talmud academy, guided the people in his time and also enlighted the next generation with his works. He tried to identify the rational basis of the essentials of the Jewish faith in his masterpiece Kitâbu'l Emânât ve'l 'Itikâdât and explored the consistency between the revelation and the reason. Gaon was born in Fayyum (upper Egypt) in 882 and died in Baghdad in 942. We have not enough knowledge about early life of Saadia. He left his home to study Tanakh with the scholars of Tiberias in Palestine at a young age and lived for sometime in Palestine territory. In 921 a controversy arose concerning the Hebrew calendar between the Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine. Rabbi Aaron ben Meir, the Gaon (head) of the leading Talmudic academy in Palestine claimed that the Babylonian Gaonim made an error in calculation of the feast days. According to him the first day of Passover would be on a Sunday, while according to the Talmudic academies in Babylonia it would be on Tuesday. In this disputation Saadia supported the Babylonian Gaonim. He was in Aleppo, on his way from the East to Baghdad, when he learned of Ben Meir's claim of the Jewish calendar. Saadia addressed a warning to him and settled in Baghdad. He was knowledgeable about on astronomy and pointed to the mistakes made by Rabbi Aaron. In Baghdad, he wrote his "Sefer ha-Mo'adim" (Book of Festivals) and "Sefer ha Zikkarôn" (A Record Book) in which he refuted the claims of Ben Meir regarding the calendar. Finally the dispute was resolved and letters sent to all the Diaspora, and Babylonian Gaonim was restored the default with the great support given by Saadia. After this victory against Ben Meir, Saadia was acknowledged as a great scholar who has knowledge on religious matters and defender of Rabbinic Judaism. He received the honour of Alluf ( a title given to the scholars of the Babylonian Talmud academies who had the privilege of sitting in the first row) at the Pumbeditha Talmud Academy in Baghdad. Soon after, he became the gaon of the Sura Talmud Academy in Baghdad in 928. After accepting the role, he was known as Saadia Gaon. After two years, Saadia Gaon and the exilarch (Hebrew Rosh Galut, refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylonia) David ben Zakkai were of different opinions in an inheritance case. Saadia Gaon refused to sign the exilarch's verdict which was about that inheritence case because he thought it was unjust to sign it. After all was said and done he was dismissed from the presidency of academy by the exilarch. After seven years they were reconciled. Saadia Gaon retrieved his position; but he held it for only five more years. Finally Saadia Gaon died in Baghdad in 942 at the age of sixty. His Arabic translation and commentary of Torah gained prevalence among Jews living in the Islamic world, has earned a respected place among Rabbanim. After his era, many Jewish scholars have used this work in various ways especially Yemenite Jews called it Keter Torah (Taj), published it along with the masoratic Hebrew and Aramaic Targum texts and read it as the standard Arabic translation for centuries. ". (Muhammed Ali Bagir, Saadia Gaon'un hayati ve Arapça Tevrat tercümesi).
