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Yaʿaqov b. Nissim Ibn Shāhīn

Metadata

Gender
Male
Social role
  • Jewish community member

Description / Bio

Late tenth-century (d. 1006) philosopher, mathematician, and head of the yeshiva of Qayrawān. Wrote the query that produced the Iggeret Sherira Gaʾon on the redaction of the Mishnah. Author of an Arabic commentary on the Sefer Yeṣirah. Very harsh toward the young Saʿadya: claimed that when Saʿadya was still in Egypt, he used to address insignificant questions to Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo of Qayrawān and comment on medical texts (Galen?) in such a way as to reveal that he didn't actually understand them. So he decided to write his own commentary on Galen, which is still extant. Also wrote a book on Indian mathematics called Ḥisāb al-Ghubār. Father of Rabbenu Nissim, author of a Talmud commentary and his successor as head of the yeshiva at Qayrawān. MR

Marina Rustow, "Yaʿaqov b. Nissim Ibn Shāhīn," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yaaqov-b-nissim-ibn-shahin/, accessed November 15, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yaaqov-b-nissim-ibn-shahin/