Saruk, Menachem, Ibn

Saruk, Menachem, Ibn-, An early Jewish scholar, was born about 910 at Tortosa, in Spain, and died about 970 at Cordova. He is the author of a Biblical dictionary called ס8אגרון or ס8 הפתרון; also מחברת מנחם, including the Aramenan of Daniel and Ezra, with explanations in Hebrew. A grammatical introduction precedes each letter (מחברת), and introductions relating to the preliminary grammatical studies, divided into ten chapters, supply in it the place of a grammar. Against this work Dunash ben-Labrat (q.v.) wrote a critique, which elicited a rejoinder from Saruk. Saruk's Lexicon has been edited by Philipowski (Lond. 1854). See Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 248 sq.; Introd. to his Hebrew and Chaldee Dict. p. 26; Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, 5, 336 sq.; Braunschweiger, Geschichte, p. 25 sq.; Kimchi, Liber Radicum, p. 31 sq. (ed. Biesenthal and Lebrecht); De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, p. 287 (Germ. transl.); Kämpf, Nichtandalusische Poesie, p. 155 sq.; Pick, Menachem Ibn-Saruk (in Heb. Chr. Witness, Lond. 1877), p. 324 sq.; Gross, Menachem ben-Saruk (Breslau, 1872); and Geiger, Jüdische Zeitschrift, 1872, p. 81 sq. (B.P.)