Jonah ibn Janah

Jonah ibn Janah (Judeo-Arabic: יוֹנָה אִבְּן גַּ֗נָאח, romanized: Yonā ibn Janāḥ)^[1] or Abū al-Walīd Marwān ibn Janāḥ (Arabic: أبو الوليد مروان بن جناح),^[2][3] (c. 990 – c. 1055), was a Jewish rabbi, physician and Hebrew grammarian active in al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Spain). Born in Córdoba, ibn Janah was mentored there by Isaac ibn Gikatilla and Isaac ibn Mar Saul ben Levi before he moved around 1012 due to the siege and sack of the city by Berbers. He then settled in Zaragoza, where he wrote Kitab al-Mustalhaq, which expanded on the research of Judah ben David Hayyuj and led to a series of controversial exchanges with Samuel ibn Naghrillah that remained unresolved during their lifetimes.

His magnum opus, Kitab al-Tanqīḥ, contained both the first complete grammar for Hebrew and a dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, and is considered "the most influential Hebrew grammar for centuries"^[4] and a foundational text in Hebrew scholarship. Ibn Janah is considered a very influential scholar of Hebrew grammar; his works and theories were popular and cited by Hebrew scholars in Europe and the Middle East. His second seminal work of no less importance was a book entitled Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ ("Book of the Commentary"), the oldest monograph on the nomenclature of simple drugs.^[5]