- Yitzhak ha-Sangari
Yitzhak ha-Sangari is the name of the rabbi who converted the
Khazars toJudaism according to medievalJew ish sources. According toD.M. Dunlop , "the name Isaac Sangari is perhaps not attested before the 13th century, when he is mentioned byNahmanides ."In "Sefer ha-Emunot" ("Book of Beliefs"; early 15th c.), Rabbi
Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov wrote::"I have been preceded by Rabbi Yitzhak ha-Sangeri, companion [haver] to the king of the Khazars, who converted through that sage a number of years ago in Turgema [land of Togarmah, i.e. the Turks] , as is known from several books. The [rabbinic] responsa and the valuable and wise sayings of this sage, which show his wisdom in Torah and Kabbalah and other fields are scattered in [different books] in Arabic. The sage Rabbi
Yehuda Halevi , the poet, ofSpain , found them and put them into his book, in Arabic, and it has been translated into our language [Hebrew] ..."Shem Tov's work was cited by
Judah Moscato in his work "Kol Yehuda". If the medieval sources are to be believed, Yitzhak was a famous rabbi of the Middle Ages. A learned man, he was versed in Arabic as well as Hebrew andAramaic .D.M. Dunlop tentatively identified him with the region of Sangaros, in western Anatolia (not far from the ancient site ofTroy ).Yitzhak's historiocity is difficult to determine. A great deal of discussion among scholars has not yet conclusively established when or even if he lived, nor are any details of his ministry among the Khazars given in the
Khazar Correspondence or theSchechter Letter . In some Hebrew works he is referred to as Yitzhak al-Mangari.Avraham Firkovich claimed that Yitzhak was aKaraite scholar, and "discovered" tombstones inCrimea of Yitzhak and his wife. This is unlikely given the esteem in which he was held byRabbi nic authors and the fact thatKhazar Judaism was almost certainly not Karaite. In any event, the ha-Sangari tombstones were later determined to be forgeries. Among the documents in Firkovich's collections are poems allegedly written by Rabbi Yitzhak. A few Israeli scholars, such asMenashe Goldelman of theHebrew University , have declared these to be authentic, but their assertions are questioned by other scholars.ee also
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Bulan (Khazar)
*Khazar Correspondence
*Schechter Letter
*Serach (Khazar) ources
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Douglas M. Dunlop , "The History of the Jewish Khazars," Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
*Norman Golb andOmeljan Pritsak , "Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century." Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.
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