- Aaron ibn Sargado
Aaron ibn Sargado was a tenth century
AD gaon (Jewish religious leader) inPumbedita , Babylonia. He was a son ofJoseph ha-Kohen .According to the chronicle of
Sherira , Sargado officiated from 943 to 960; others declare he died in 942. He was successor to the gaonHananiah , the father of Sherira.Not of a family of scholars, but an extremely wealthy merchant, he was elevated to the gaonate (presidency of a rabbinical academy) through the influence of his family. Caleb ibn Sargado, the determined opponent of Saadia, who spent 60,000 "
zuzim " in order to bring about the deposition of the gaon ofSura , was probably identical with Aaron, asHarkavy has shown (see "Seder 'Olam Zuṭṭa " in "Anecdota Oxoniensia," ii. 83).Four of Sargado's legal decisions on religious problems are preserved, and are printed in the collection, "Ḥemdah Genuza," Nos. 37-40. One of these, it appears, was the answer to an inquiry from
Kairwan .Like his opponent
Saadia , Aaron was a Bible commentator, and parts of his commentary are extant in St. Petersburg.Abraham ibn Ezra quotes some of his philosophical sayings.References
*Joel Müller, Mafteaḥ, 1891, p. 177;
*Adolf Neubauer , Mediœval Jew. Chron. i. 66, 92, 190;
*Zunz , in Geiger's Jüd. Zeit. iv. 389;
*Winter and Wünsche, Jüdische Literatur, ii. 247;
*Geiger, Jüd. Zeit. i. 297.External links
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=92&letter=A Source]
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