Another interesting and ini|)cirtant c )mmentary is one preserved at Berlin, from which large extracts were given by Geiger in the Zeitschrift d. 1), Al. G. xvii, 723 sq. ; XX, 147 sq. ; xxii, 532 sq. In it the national feel- ing as exhibited in opposition to the Rabbinic school of thought among the Jews is thoronglily represented.
An anonymous commentary on Genesis, brought from the East by bishop Huntington, and preserved in the Bodleian Library' (Hunt. MS. 301), is of the same type as the preceding. The forty-ninth chapter was published by Schnurrer in Eichhorn's Repertoriiini, xvi, 151-199.
To this class we must also reckon a hagadic com- mentary on the Pentateuch containing Genesis and Exodus, termed the Dissipater of Darkness Jrom the Secrets of Revelation, written in 1753-54 by Ghazal Ibn- Abu-s-Surur al-Ghazzi (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19,657), and another containing fragments of a commentary on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, often quoted by Castel- lus in his notes on the Samaritan Pentateuch (Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 5495).
A number of fragments of such commentaries are also preserved at St. Petersburg. Other writers seem to liave devoted their energies to the same subject, but nothing now remains to us but their names and the titles of their books (Amst. MS. xxvii, p. 309,314 sq.).
5. Chronicles. — Here we mention:
((/.) The Samaritan Chronicle or Book of Joshua, sent to Scaliger by the Samaritans of Cairo in 1584. It was edited by Juynboll (Leyden, 1848). and his acute in- vestigations have shown that it wiS redacted into its present form about A.D. 1300, out of four special docu- ments, three of which were Arabic and one Hebrew (i. e. Samaritan). The Leyden MS. in 2 pts., which Gesenius {De Sam. Theol. p. 8, n. 18) thinks unique, is dated A.H. 7G4-919 (A.D. 1362-1513); the Cod. in the Brit. Museum, lately acquired, dales A.H. 908 (A.D. 1502). The chronicle embraces the time from Joshua to about A.D. 350, and was originally written in, or sub- sequently translated into, Arabic. Afcer eight chapters of introductory matter begins the early historj' of " Is- rael" under "King Joshua," who, among other deeds of arms, wages war, with 300.000 mounted men — "half Israel" — against two kings of Persia. The last of his five "royal" successors is Shimshon (Samson), the hand- somest and most powerful of them all. These reigned for the space of 250 years, and >vere followed by five high-priests, the last of whom was Usi ('?=Uzzi, Ezra vii, 4). With the history of Eli, "the seducer," wliich then follows, and Samuel, "a sorcerer," the account by a sudden transition runs oft' to Nebuchadnezzar (ch. xlv), Alexander (ch. xlvi), and Hadrian (ch. xlvii), and closes suddenly at the time of Julian the Apostate. The He- brew of this chronicle is given by Kirchheim in his Karnie SJiomron.
(b.) The El-Tholidoth, or "The (book of) Genera- tions." It professes to have been written by Eleazar ben-Amram in A.H. 544 (A.D. 1149), copied and con- tinued by Jacob ben-Ismael 200 years later, and carried down by other hands to 1859, when the present MS. was written by Jacob ben-Aaron, the high-priest. It was published by Neubauer in the Journal Asiatique for 1869, p. 385 sq. He gives the Samaritan, or rather Hebrew, text with notes and translation, citing the Arabic translation when the sense is not clear. His text is that of the Bodleian MS. numbered Bodl. Or. p. 651. collated in some passages with one belonging to a private owner. A German translation with cxjdana- tions has been given by Heidenhoim in his ]'ierfeljahrs- schrift fur deutsch- und ewilisch-theolog. Forschung u. Kriiih, iv, 347 sq. The chronicle is of interest to geog- raphers, as, while mentioning the various Samaritan families settled in Damascus, Palestine, and Egypt, it
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SAMARITAN LITURGY
incidentally introduces the names of a considerable number of" places inhabited by them. As to the im- portance of this chronicle for comparison with the " Book of Jubilees," comp. Konsch, Das Buck der Jubi- Idm (1874), p. 361.
(c.) The Chronicle of Abulfath is a compilation from the Samaritan chronicle, as well as from various sources, .Jewish or Rabbinical. It is full of fables, and contains little useful matter. The history in it extends from Adam to Mohammed, and was composed in the 14th century— i. e. in 1355, or 750 A.H.— at Nabliis. Five MSS. of it are known— one at Paris, another at Oxford, procured by Huntington, and three in Berlin ; but one of the last three consists of nothing but a few fragments. Schnurrer gave a long extract from the Oxford copy, with a German translation, in Paulus, Neiies Beperto- riumjur hiblische vnd morffenldndiscke Literatur (1790, Theii i, 120 sq.) -, and in Paulus, Memorithilia (1791, 2 vols.); so, too, De Sacy, in h\s Ai-abic Chresiomnthy, and Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Biblioth'eque du Roi, torn. xii. With an English translation by R. Payne Smith, it was printed in Heidenheim's Journal, ii, 304 sq. ; 432 sq. Recently it has been publisliod liy Vilmar, with the title, Ahulfathi Annules Sanuirilnni. rjiios A ra- bice edidit, cum Proll. Latine vertit et ( •nmniaititrio illus- travit (GothK, 1865), after a collation of the various MSS., and with learned prolegomena.
6. Miscellaneous.— 'To this belongs a work of Abu-1- Hasan of Tyre, relating to lawful and forbidden meats, or "of force" (Bodl. MS. Himt. 24; comp. also Journal Asiat. 1869, p. 468). In it the peculiar dogmas of the Samaritans as differing from those of the Jews are set forth and supported by arguments drawn from the Pentateuch. Closely resembling this is a work entitled "a book sufficing to those who desire the knowledge of the book of God," by Muhaddib Eddin Jussuf Ibn- Salamah Ibn-Jussuf al-Askari, commenced in A.D. 1041. It is an exposition of the Mosaic laws, and preserved in the Brit. Museum (Add. MS. 19,656 [2]).