Jacob ben Nissim ibn Shahin was a

Jewish philosopher Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

and mathematician who lived in

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( , ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661� ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, in the 10th century; he was a younger contemporary of Saadia. At Jacob's request,

Sherira Gaon Sherira bar Hanina (), more commonly known as Sherira Gaon (; ), was the gaon of the Pumbedita Academy in Lower Mesopotamia. He was one of the most prominent geonim of the period. His son Hai succeeded him as gaon. He wrote the '' Iggeret of ...

wrote a treatise entitled ''Iggeret,'' on the redaction of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

. Jacob is credited with the authorship of an Arabic commentary on the '' Sefer Yeẓirah'' (translated into

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Moses ben Joseph Moses ben Joseph ben Merwan ha-Levi (Also known as Moses Halavi or ha-Lawi or simply, Allawi) flourished about the mid-12th century and was a prominent Provençal rabbi, philosopher, and talmudist. Biography He was a nephew and pupil of Isaac be ...

). He asserts in the introduction that Saadia, while living in Egypt, used to address very insignificant questions to

Isaac ben Solomon Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in which he is the son o ...

of Kairouan, and that, on receiving Saadia's commentary, he found that the text had not been understood by the commentator. Jacob therefore decided to write another commentary. In the same introduction Jacob speaks of

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

, repeating the story that that celebrated physician was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

named "Gamaliel." The Hebrew translation of Jacob's commentary is still extant in manuscript;Munich MSS., No. 92, 20; De Rossi MSS., No. 769 excerpts from it have been given by M. H. Landauer and Dukes. Jacob ben Nissim wrote a work on Indian mathematics under the title ''Ḥisab al-Ghubar'' (). His son and student, Nissim (referred to in later Rabbinic literature as Rabbeinu Nissim, or in Hebrew רבנו ניסים), later became the head of Yeshiva at

References

It has the following bibliography: * M. H. Landauer, in Orient, vii. 121; *

Julius Fürst Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German oriental studies, orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a dis ...

, ib. vi. 562; *Dukes, Ḳonṭres ha-Masoret; *

Salomon Munk Salomon Munk (14 May 1803 – 5 February 1867) was a German-born Jewish-French Orientalist. Biography Munk was born in Gross Glogau in the Kingdom of Prussia. He received his first instruction in Hebrew from his father, an official of the J ...

, Notice sur Aboulwalid, p. 47; *

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

, Cat. Bodl. col. 1243; *idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 396; *idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, § 58.K {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Nissim, Jacob 10th-century philosophers 10th-century people from Ifriqiya 10th-century rabbis Jews from Ifriqiya People from Kairouan Medieval Jewish philosophers