ABSTRACT
A Jewish philosopher and rabbi, born in Fayum, Southern Egypt, which he left at a young age for Palestine to study under the Torah scholars of Tiberias. In 928, he was appointed Gaon of the Sura Academy in Babylon. He then began to translate the Torah and other books of the Hebrew Bible. One of the most important Jewish scholars of his time, he wrote philosophical and theological works in Hebrew and Arabic, including a Hebrew–Arabic dictionary. The translations produced by Sa’diya and his Jewish predecessors were not the first to appear in Arabic. Copies of the Old Testament were in circulation, at least as excerpts, since ancient times, even before Islam. The only possibility, hence, is an approximation in the form of explanation or paraphrase that cannot replace the original in its “sacred language”.
