For students of Arabic who enjoy the subtle differences between apparent synonyms, Imam Tha’alabi’s Fiqh al-Lughah and Asrar al-‘Arabiyyah are must-reads. You can download the book, both published together by Al-Maktabah al-‘Asriyyah and edited by Yasin al-Ayyubi, at the following link:
And Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies.
19 Your hope will never depart from the hearts of men, as they remember the power of God.
Exact chronology for many of Saʿadia’s works cannot be definitely determined. The most important of these in philology are: Kutub al-lughah (“Books on Grammar”), fragments of which were published by Solomon Skoss, and Tafsīr as-sab ʿīn lafẓah (“The Explanation of the Seventy Hapaxlegomina”), fragments of which were edited by N. Alony.
Saʿadia’s opus magnum was on exegesis. He prepared an Arabic translation of the whole Pentateuch (published by Joseph Derenbourg) and a translation with an extensive commentary on Genesis 1–28, Exodus, and Leviticus. Only a few fragments of this extensive commentary have been published. His translation and commentaries on Isaiah, Proverbs, Job, and Psalms are extant in their entirety. Fragments of his commentaries on Daniel and Canticles, Esther, and Lamentations are preserved in the Geniza collection (fragments of medieval texts found in an old synagogue in Cairo and transferred to various libraries). In his biblical commentaries the Gaon formulated new principles of interpretation modeled on the rules of Greco-Arabic rhetoric.
His anti-Karaite works include Kitāb ar-radd ʿalā Ibn Sākawayhī (“Refutation of Ibn Sākawayhī”) and Kitāb taḥṣīl ash-sharāʾiʿ as-samāʿīyah (“Book Concerning the Sources of the Irrational Laws”). In the latter work the Gaon contends that matters pertaining to the irrational commandments of the Mosaic Law may never be decided by means of analogy but only by the regulations transmitted through oral tradition. Talmudic tradition is therefore, he argues, indispensable. Another anti-Karaite work is the Maqālah fī sirāj as-sabt (“Treatise on the Lights of Sabbath”). It refutes the Karaite injunction forbidding the preparation of light for the sabbath.
In philosophy he wrote a philosophical commentary on the mystical book Sefer yetzira. In contrast to his “Book on Beliefs and Opinions,” this volume does not show any influence of kalām (Islāmic scholastic theology).
The riddle of al-ishtiqaaq al-akbar has been solved. Preview my recently published ebook “A Body of Language: Revealing the Common Mind of Mankind” at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Language-Revealing-Common-Mankind-ebook/dp/B00GQANN98/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1385378041&sr=1-1
Matt, how can we contact you? Your book is not for sale.
Joseph, I am working daily to edit the book. I am half-way through. The formatting wasn’t correct for viewing on Kindle. I can send you a PDF of the semi-edited book, if you wish. Contact me via villagehistoriesproject@gmail.com. The Village Histories Project is another branch of Ellsworth Research.