Ben HaMelech VehaNazir [“The Prince and the Hermit” ethics]. With addendum attributed to Moshe Chagiz “MeSichath Chulin shel Talmidei Chachamim.”

IBN CHASDAI, ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL

Yisrael ben Avraham

Wandsbeck

1727

FIRST EDITION of addendum. printed entirely on blue paper.

Vinograd, Wandsbeck 10

Based on a popular early tale entitled “Barlaam and Josaphat” (in the Latin version), Ben HaMelech VehaNazir originated in India and was translated into many languages. The evolution of the tale from its Hindi origins to the Hebrew form given to it by ibn Chasdai via a now lost Arabic version, is literary complex and the subject of much scholarly speculation. “The Hebrew version is attractively written and the prose narrative is interspersed with versified aphorisms” (EJ Vol. IV, col. 519). Despite A.M. Habermann attribution of the interesting addendum to Chagiz (see Sinai (1948) pp. 89-8), Elisheva Carlebach notes "there is no evidence to confirm him as the author" (see The Pursuit of Heresy, p. 270). However Carlebach's reasoning that there is no specific Jewish content to these moral-ethical sayings is not entirely correct as the author does specifically refer to the Talmud a number of times (see epigram nos. 11, 15 and 16)