of the work. But the majority of the statements contained in the commentary itself justify the assumption that Ibn Tamim was the author. He must, therefore, have selected the commentary of his teacher as his basis, while the finishing touch must have been given by Jacob b. Nissim. A short recension of the commentary (Bodleian MS. No. 2250) was published by Manasseh Grossberg, London, 1902. Ibn Tamim as Grammarian In the history of Hebrew philology Ibn Tamim ranks as one of the first representatives of the systematic comparison of Hebrew and Arabic. In his "Moznayim" (Preface) Abraham ibn Ezra mentions him between Saadia Gaon and Judah ibn Ḳuraish, and speaks of him as the author of a book "compounded of Hebrew and Arabic." Moses ibn Ezra says that Ibn Tamim compares the two languages according to their lexicographical, not their grammatical, relations, and in this respect is less successful than Abu Ibrahim Ibn Barun at a later period. The latter also criticized certain details of Ibn Tamim's book. In the Yetzirah commentary Ibn Tamim says: "If God assists me and prolongs my life, I shall complete the work in which I have stated that Hebrew is the original tongue of mankind and older than the Arabic; furthermore, the book will show the relationship of the two languages, and that every pure word in the Arabic can be found in the Hebrew; that the Hebrew is a purified Arabic; and that the names of certain things are identical in both languages." In adding, "We have obtained this principle from the Danites, who havecome to us from the land of Israel," he certainly alludes to the well-known Eldad ha-Dani. Abraham ibn Ezra (commentary on Eccl. xii. 6) mentions the interesting detail that Ibn Tamim believed he could recognize the diminutive form of Arabic names in several noun-formations of the Biblical Hebrew (for instance, : II Sam. xiii. 20). The statement cited by Saadia b. Danan (end of fifteenth century), according to which Muslims believe that Ibn Tamim was a convert to Islam, is erroneous, and is probably because Ibn Tamim is often quoted by Muslim writers. References External links (PDF version) 10th-century people of Ifriqiya 10th-century rabbis Jews of Ifriqiya Medieval Jewish physicians