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In Hebrew. Frontispiece (actually TWO copies of the frontispiece are here, 43, (2) pages. 152 x 121 mm. Joseph Massel (Yosef Mazl)(1850 near Vilnius - September 6, 1912 Manchester, England) was a Zionist activist, writer, Hebrew poet, and translator. He immigrated to Manchester, England in 1895 where he worked as a printer. He was a pioneer in the promotion of Hebrew as the national language, publishing works by Israel Cohen and Harry Sacher among others. He wrote Hebrew poems and translated English classics into Hebrew, including Milton?s Samon Agonistes, Longfellow?s Judas Maccabaeus and Fitzgerald?s Omar Khayyam. He also spent two years preparing a unique collection of 94 portraits called A Gallery of Hebrew Poets; 1725-1903. By the time Chaim Weizmann arrived in Manchester in 1904, Massel was living in a small street of the lower end of Cheetham Hill Road (where his Hebrew printing works was based) across from Red Bank and not far from the Central Synagogue. He was a part of Manchester?s Zionist community and vice-president of the Manchester Zionist Association. At that time he was the only person Weizmann knew in Manchester. Massel attended the First Zionist Congress (Basle, 1897) and had probably met Weizmann at the Second Zionist Congress (Basle, 1898). He showed Weizmann hospitality that Weizmann never forgot, collecting him from the train station, putting him up for the night and arranged lodgings for him the next day. Weizmann was later to refer to Massel as a "veritable angel" and described his Friday evening visits to the Massel household as "the highlights of my life".The Story of Ahiqar, aka The Words of Ahikar, dates back to fifth century BCE Aramaic. It circulated widely in the Middle and Near East and is one of the earliest international books of world literature. The principal character is the Aramean Ahiqar (Ahiqar, Arabic Hayqar, Greek Achiacharos), a sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom. At Uruk, a Cuneiform text has been found including the name Ahuqar, suggesting that Ahikar was a historical figure around the seventh century BCE. However, the story as it is now known is thought to have originated in Aramaic in Mesopotamia, probably around the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. He appears in a papyrus fragment of the fifth century BCE from the ruins of the Egyptian Nile river?s island of Elephantine. The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahikar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. Most scholars believe that these sayings and proverbs were originally a separate document, as they do not mention Ahikar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical Book of Proverbs, others to the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Sirach, and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time. George Hoffmann pointed out in 1880 that this Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. Some contend that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes. An eastern sage Achaicarus is mentioned by Strabo. British classicist Stephanie West has argued that the story of Croesus in Herodotus as an adviser to Cyrus I is another manifestation of the Ahikar story. In the story, Ahikar was chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Having no child of his own, he adopted his nephew Nadab/Nadin, and raised him to be his successor. Nadab plots to have his elderly uncle murdered, and persuades Esarhaddon that Ahikar committed treason. Esarhaddon orders Ahikar's execution but since Ahikar had saved the executioner himself from execution under Sennacherib, the executioner executes another prisoner instead, deceiving the king into thinking the corpse is Ahikar's. Seller Inventory # 014552
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Divre Ahikar he-hakham : sipur kadmon ...
Publisher: Publisher: N.S. Libowitz and A.H. Rosenberg, New York
Publication Date: 1904
Binding: Hardcover
Illustrator: Detailed Record ? Add/View Comments
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: 1st Edition
