Hamisha Humshei Torah with Mahberet ha-Tijan (Hebrew Bible, Pentateuch, with Masorah and Masoretic and Grammatical Introduction) Scribe: Benayah ben Saadyah ben Zechariah, Yemen: 1469-70

644 pages [322 leaves] (10 ¼ x 7 ¼ in.; 262 x 200 mm). Written in black ink on paper in a bold Yemenite square Hebrew script, with nikud; gatherings mostly of 10 leaves, with some of 8 and 12 leaves, 20 lines to a page;modern pagination in pencil; with Masoretic notes (Masorah Magna in three outer margins of each page with outer margin decoratively arranged in zig-zag patterns and sometimes in repeating triangles; Masorah Parva, between Masorah Magna and biblical text at outer margins only). Biblical text (pp. 78-642) preceded by: Two full-page micrographic carpet pages on pp.2-3 with biblical verses and masoretic rubrics in micrographic script arranged in multiple intersecting arcs within a circle, within a diamond diaper pattern; Mahberet ha-Tijan (Masoretic and Grammatical Introduction to the Bible) on pp. 4-76 (in 30 lines), written in a Yemenite square script; followed by masoretic apparatus and colophon (p. 643) and by the poem Emunah Yotzrah (p. 644). Most pages browned with age, expertly mounted and remargined and marginal tears repaired; a few crude paper repairs with infrequent loss of letters; corners worn and rounded, some dampstaining, mainly in the margins, though generally in reasonably sound state. Modern tooled crimson morocco, titles gilt on spine.

(1) The manuscript was written by the famous scribe Benayah ben Sa'adyah ben Zechariah for Joseph ben Avigad ben Maimun ben Avigad, most likely in the city of San’a. Dated 1781 to the Seleucid era (= 1469/70 CE) on p. 643 and 644; signed on p. 643.

(2) Mahfud ben Daud el-Dehbani, who in 1867 mortgaged the manuscript to Suleiman ben Joseph al-Meshraki (note on p. 1). 

(3) David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), his MS. 942, perhaps part of the cache of Yemenite manuscripts purchased in Yemen in 1911. 

(4) Sold, in our London rooms,  "Seventy-six Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the library of the late David Solomon Sassoon, Sold by Order of the Trustees" June 21, 1994, lot 52, to present owner.

D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts, vol II, no. 942, pp. 607-608; ibid. no. 964, pp. 604-607; Michael Rigler, "Benaya the Scribe and His Descendants: a Family of Scribes From Yemen" Pe'amim 64, (Summer, 1995), pp. 54-67, (Hebrew) and the extensive sources listed there, including a complete list of surviving manuscripts of Benayah and his family. On the accuracy and beauty of Benayah manuscripts, see Colette Sirat and Malachi Beit Arie, Manuscrits médiévaux en caractères hébraïques portants des indications de date jusqu’ à 1540, I, 1972, p. 171, and III, 1986, p. 112. On Benayah's authorship of Emunah Yotzrah, see Malachi Bet-Arie, "A Colophon-Poem in Yemenite Pentateuch Manuscripts" in Papers on Medieval Hebrew Literature Presented to A.M. Habermann on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday, Jerusalem 1977, pp. 37-50 (Hebrew); and, Yehuda Ratzabi "An Early Scribe’s Song in Praise of the Torah", Alei Sefer 3, pp. 54-62 (Hebrew). On Mahberet ha-Tijan, see J. Derenbourg, Manuel du Lecteur d'un Auteur lnconnu, publié d'aprèss un manuscrit venu du Yémen (Paris:1871), pp. 6-150.

SCRIBE:
Benayah has long been acknowledged as the greatest scribe of Yemenite Jewry and as patriarch of an entire family of Yemenite scribes which flourished beginning in the latter half of the 15^th century, in and around the capital, San'a.  In addition to Benaya himself, at least four of his children (three sons and a daughter) and two of his grandsons followed in his footsteps and penned Hebrew manuscripts. According to Yemenite tradition, the Benayah family is said to have copied some 400 volumes. Many of them are unilingual Pentateuchs (Tijan), which include the large and small masorah in the margins and Mahberet ha-Tijan, which deals with matters affecting the traditional reading of the scriptural text and with grammar. Sadly, of the total scribal output attributed to the Benayah family, only 36 books, less than ten percent, have survived; only a mere thirteen volumes remain from the prolific production of Benayah himself. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the few surviving manuscripts of the scribe Benayah and his family remain so highly prized. 

The books copied by Benayah and members of his family, particularly the Scriptures, are noted for accuracy and beauty, and for very good reason. The apparatus on p. 643 ends with the statement that the present work is “completely according to the arrangement of the book which was in Egypt, which was edited by Ben Asher….” The reference is of course to the work known as the Aleppo Codex, universally recognized since the time of Maimonides as the most accurate recension of the Hebrew Bible. The statement mirrors the words of Maimonides in his Hilkhot Sefer Torah. Maimonides had indeed personally examined "the book which was in Egypt, which was edited by Ben Asher;" Benayah's confident assertion was based on his having meticulously adhered to the rules set forth by Maimonides. Scholars have subsequently established that there are nevertheless minor differences between the present manuscript and the Aleppo Codex. Thus, for example, while the text of Ha'azinu in the present lot comprises 67 lines, as in the Aleppo Codex and as in authentic manuscripts of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, the division of the lines in Deuteronomy 32:25 proves that Benayah, while adhering to Maimonides' instructions (dividing at the word gam), could not have seen the Aleppo Codex itself (which divides at the other instance of the word gam in the same verse.)

The present manuscript is signed and dated on p.643; the poem on p.644 is also dated 1469-70. 

TEXT
p. 1: Ownership notes

pp.2-3: Two full-page micrographic carpet pages on pp.2-3 with biblical verses and masoretic rubrics in micrographic script. In Yemen, Hebrew micrography reached its zenith in the fifteenth century. Marginal masorah in Yemen was simple and geometric, and closely knit parallel lines, zigzags, and diagonals were popular designs. The textual material of Yemenite carpet pages was often biblical, though in the present manuscript, Masoretic notes are also included.

pp.4-76: Mahberet ha- Tijan (Masoretic and Grammatical Introduction to the Bible). The version presented here is includes significant additional material not recorded by Derenbourg.

p. 77: Blank

pp. 78-642: Biblical text with Masoretic notes; Genesis, pp.78-220; Exodus, pp.220-340; Leviticus, pp. 340-425; Numbers, pp. 425-542; Deuteronomy, pp. 543-642. (The Masorah Magna appears at the upper and lower margins of each page as well as in  the outer margin, where it is decoratively arranged in zig-zag patterns and sometimes in repeating triangles. The Masorah Parva is situated at the outer margin between the Masorah Magna and biblical text itself)

p. 643: Masoretic apparatus and scribal colophon. Between the apparatus and the colophon, Benayah has proclaimed the manuscript’s textual accuracy and masoretic fidelity, by virtue of its having been written in complete accord with the Aleppo Codex,

p. 644 Poem, Emunah Yotzrah (this poem has been attributed by some scholars to Benayah.)