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Rabbi Juda (Yehouda) ben Shmouel ibn Alhassan HALEVI

Johannes BUXTORF FILS

[Kuzari] Liber Cosri : continens colloquium seu disputationem de religione, habitam ante nongentos annos, inter regem cosarreorum, & R. Isaacum Sangarum Judæum; contra philosophos præcipuè è gentilibus, & Karraitas è Judæis; synopsin simulexhibens theologiæ & philosophiæ judaicæ, variâ & reconditâ eruditione refertam

Sumptibus authoris, typis Georgi Deckeri, Basileae [Bâle] 1660, in-4 (16x20,5cm), (50 p.) 455 pp. (29 p.), relié.

Sumptibus authoris. Typis Georgi Deckeri | Basileae [Basel] 1660 | 4to (16 x 20.5 cm) | (50 pp.) 455 pp. (29 pp.) | modern vellum

First edition of the Latin translation by Johannes Buxtorf The Younger of the first translation into Hebrew by Juda ibn Tibbon, Juda Halevi's Arabic text not being rediscovered till 1887 (today in the Bodleian).
Modern vellum binding, flaps.
Skillful restoration to inside margin of final third of work, without loss to text. A few small wormtracks, filled in, to lower margins of pastedowns as well as first and final endpapers. A few dampstains to lower portion and some pages browned.
Stamp of the University Library at Leiden («Acad. Lugd.») to edges and title. Stamp of the restorer Willem Nicolaas du Rieu («Ex auct. Curatt. vendidi W. N. du Rieu») indicating its deaccession.
A very rare copy of this classic of Medieval Jewish philosophy, presenting the fears of Spanish Jews, faced with  two powerful religions, Christianity and Islam.
Written in 1140 in Arabic, the Kuzari is couched in the form of a dialogue in five books. Charles Touati, in his 1994 preface to the text, summarizes the narrative thread of the work thus: «The king of the Khazars or Kuzari, tormented by the religious question, interrogates – in turn – a philosopher, a Christian theologian and a Muslim one. Disappointed in their answers, he feels he must turn to a learned man of the mocked and vilified minority, a Rabbi, who ends up convincing him, at which the king converts to Judaism and continues his studies with the aid of this teacher.» This apologia allowed Juda Halevi to critique the appeal of philosophy, Christianity and Islam for his contemporaries. According to him, «philosophy denies all possibility of dialogue between Man and God, and does not understand the religious phenomenon» (ibid.). Right from his starting point, a proof of the existence of God, he believes that we need only look to history and the revelation of God on Mount Sinai, witnessed by thousands. Christianity and Islam are for him nothing but forgeries of Judaism: «they jeer at the humiliations and suffering of the Jews without realizing that they exalt, in the founder of their own religions, precisely that humiliation and suffering» (ibid.). The Kuzari is an emblematic text in the sense that it calls for the exiled community to return to Zion rather than submit.
«It is better to leave everything and go back to Zion and there regain Divine favor, instead of wearing ourselves out winning the favor of gentiles which in any case we will never have» (ibid.).

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