View source for Hasun ben Mashiach

{{Short description|10th-century Karaite scholar}}
'''Hasun ben Mashiach''' was a [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] scholar who flourished in [[Egypt]] (or [[Babylonia]]) in the first half of the tenth century. According to [[Moritz Steinschneider|Steinschneider]], "Hasun" is a corrupted form of the Arabic name "[[Hussain]]," the ו being easily confounded in manuscript with the י Hasun, or, as he is generally quoted by the Karaite authorities, ben Mashiah, was a younger contemporary of [[Saadia Gaon]], whom, according to [[Sahl ben Matzliah]] in his ''Tokahat Megullah,'' he once challenged to a religious controversy. Hasun was the author of a [[polemic]]al work, written probably in [[Arabic]], in which he refuted one of Saadia's unpublished anti-Karaite writings, which came into his possession after the death of the author. Owing to a misunderstanding of a passage (§ 258) in the ''Eshkol ha-Kofer'' of [[Hadassi]], Ḥasun was erroneously credited with the authorship of the anonymous chapter on [[theodicy]], entitled ''Sha'ar Tzedek'' (St. Petersburg, Firkovich MSS. Nos. 683, 685), in the religio-philosophical work "Zikron ha-Datot," and of ''Quppat ha-Rokelim.'' [[Luzki (Lucki), Simḥah Isaac ben Moses|Simḥah Isaac Luzki]] attributes to Ḥasun also a work on the precepts (''Sefer ha-Mitzvot''). [[Abraham ibn Ezra]], in his introduction to the commentary on the [[Pentateuch]], quotes a Karaite scholar named Ben Mashiah, who is probably identical with Hasun.

==Resources==
{{JewishEncyclopedia|title=Mashiaḥ, Ḥasun ben|first1=Isidore |last1=Singer|author-link1=Isidore Singer|first2=Isaac |last2=Broydé|author-link2=Isaac Broydé|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10460-mashiah-hasun-ben|volume=8|pages=363–364}}, which cites the following bibliography:
:*Pinsker, ''Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot,'' p. 114;
:*Fürst, ''Gesch. des Karäert. ''ii. 46;
:*Gottlober, ''Biḳḳoret le-Toledot ha-Ḳera'im'', p. 168;
:*Steinschneider, ''Hebr. Bibl''. iv. 48;
::*''idem, Cat. Bodl.'' p. 2169;
::*''idem, Cat. Leyden'', p. 390;
::*''idem, Hebr. Uebers.'' p. 460;
::*''idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden'', § 41.S. I. Br


[[Category:Karaite rabbis]]
[[Category:10th-century Egyptian rabbis]]