Menahem ben Saruq

Menahem ben Saruq (also known as Menahem ben Jacob ibn Saruq, Hebrew: מנחם בן סרוק) was a Spanish-Jewish philologist of the tenth century CE. He was a skilled poet and polyglot. He was born in Tortosa around 920 and died around 970. Menahem produced an early dictionary of the Hebrew language. For a time he was the assistant of the great Jewish statesman Hasdai ibn Shaprut, and was involved in both literary and diplomatic matters; his dispute with Dunash ben Labrat, however, led to his downfall.

Menahem was a native of Tortosa, and went, apparently at an early age, to Cordoba at the behest of Hasdai ibn Shaprut, minister of trade in the court of the Caliph in Córdoba, where he found a patron in Hasdai's father, Isaac ben Ezra. At Isaac's death Menahem eulogized his protector's virtues in an inscription placed in the synagogue which had been built by Isaac at Cordoba. He wrote also elegies on him, which were universally recited during the period of mourning. Menahem then returned to his native city, where he engaged in business.

Hasdai ibn Shaprut, however, recalled Menahem to Cordoba and encouraged him to complete his life-work, a dictionary of the Hebrew language. In other ways also his new patron availed himself of his protégé's literary talents. On his mother's death, Hasdai requested that Menahem compose a dirge; and when Hasdai addressed his questions to the king of the Khazars, Menahem was commissioned to write the letter, which has become an important historical document. Menahem even included both his patron's and his names in an acrostic including the first letter of each line. Menahem, however, carried on his work amid great privations, as Hasdai did not prove a liberal patron.

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