JOSEPH BEN NOAH HA-BAṢRI (Abu Ya'ḳub Yusuf ibn Nuḥ):
Karaite scholar of the eighth and ninth centuries; brother of Nissim ben Noah. He translated the Pentateuch into Arabic, with a commentary, an abridgment ("talkhiṣ") of which was made by Abu al-Faraj Harun, and excerpts from which, on Numbers and Deuteronomy are given by 'Ali ben Sulaiman in his Pentateuch commentary. Hadassi says that Joseph recognized only two canons for religious law: Scripture (
) and harmony in the totality (
) of the laws; and that he rejected logical deduction (
; "Eshkol ha-Kofer," § 168).
Luzki confounded Joseph ben Noah with Joseph al-Ḳirḳisani, and attributed to the former the "Sefer ha-Ma'or," which really belonged to the latter ("Dod Mordekai," p. 11b).
Bibliography:
- Pinsker, Liḳḳuṭe Kadmoniyyot, i. 25, ii. 73;
- Fürst, Gesch. des Karäert, i. 119;
- Gottlober, Biḳḳoret le-Toledot ha-Ḳeraim, p. 177;
- Frankel, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. section ii., part xxxiii., p. 15;
- Harkavy, in Stade's Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 158;
- Poznanski, in R. E. J. xxxiii. 215;
- Steinschneider, Hebr. Uebers, p. 450;
- idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, § 38.
