Adoption of the tri-radical root system among Iberian Exegetes, acceptance and rejection. The case of Moses ibn Chiquitilla

Abstract

This article looks at the role of formal grammatical analysis in the writings of Moses ibn Chiquitilla; tracing the adoption of triliteralism among grammarians in Iberia. One of the enduring difficulties of recounting a history of the major developments in the study of Hebrew grammar is the patchwork nature of the material available. With the availability of the Firkovitch collection at the Russian National Library (RNL), source material from the 11th-century grammarian, translator, and exegete, Moses ibn Chiquitilla, is now available. Of what little survives of Ibn Chiquitilla’s writings, a large portion of his biblical commentary on Psalms is preserved in one manuscript, Evr-Arab. I 3583 alongside smaller portions belonging to other libraries. In this article, I trace the development of debates among grammarians as portrayed in the writings of Ibn Chiquitilla. I reach the conclusion that among the circles of grammarians in Saragossa in the 11th and 12th centuries, Ibn Chiquitilla tends towards the opinions of Judah Ḥayyūj, accepting the theoretical underpinnings of his system of grammar. He rejects any except