Lexical Root vs. Substantive Root: The Status of the Hebrew Alphabet As A Precursory System for Menaḥem Ben Saruq's Root Concept

Menaḥem ben Saruq (Spain, tenth century) is considered to be the first scholar to write a dictionary of Biblical Hebrew - called the Maḥberet - on Spanish soil. His role in the development of Hebrew grammar, however, has not been given pride of place in the scholarly literature. Renewed interest in his theory arose only in the late twentieth century. As some scholars have noted, Menaḥem was the first to reveal the three-consonantal basis of Hebrew roots. This article will continue to establish the basis for this concept, while further elaborating on several emphases in his teaching, especially in the context of the distinction between the radical and the servile letters and their subdivision, which, in our view, led Menaḥem to formulate his root concept. Following our analysis, we note a difference between the ‘lexical root’ concept, by which he arranged the entries in his Maḥberet, and the ‘substantive root’ concept on which he based his innovation. A parallel idea can be seen in the theory of Yusuf Ibn Nūḥ, who set forth the jawhar concept, which means the basic entity of a word on the abstract level (as opposed to a word-based morphology), as Geoffrey Khan has shown. The article concludes with a clarification of the difference between Menaḥem's theory and that of Judah Ḥayyūj. Despite the enormous development made by Menaḥem, he was not able to offer a coherent morphological system, as Ḥayyūj did.

Conclusion

The institution of slavery is a crime against humanity. In Hapsburg Spain, slavery was inscribed on the skin of Afro-Hispanic slaves and ex-slaves. Blackness signified slavery but slavery did not entail blackness. This association was also well established during the Bourbon dynasty, when Afro-Hispanic people were still bought and sold as commodities. Slave trading was practiced on Spanish soil at least until the first quarter of the nineteenth century,...

Ways and Means of Science in Medieval Spain

The concept of tolerance initially advanced by the Arabs in both the East and the Iberian peninsula, an ideal later continued at the time of the Reconquest by Spanish Christians, was the key to the transmission of Greek science to the West. This paper examines the far-reaching and peculiar ways in which both Christians and Muslims fostered on Spanish soil a thriving intellectual life in the low Middle Ages. Particular attention is given to the rich personality and precociously modern achievements of King Alfonso X, with his vast project of cultural empowerment on behalf of his subjects.

Ochrobactrum cytisi sp. nov., isolated from nodules of Cytisus scoparius in Spain

Two strains named ESC1T and ESC5 were isolated from nodules of Cytisus scoparius growing in a Spanish soil. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed that these strains belong to the genus Ochrobactrum, their closest relatives being Ochrobactrum anthropi and Ochrobactrum lupini, with 100 and 99.9 % similarity to the respective type strains. Despite this high similarity, the results of DNA–DNA hybridization, phenotypic tests and fatty acid analyses showed that these strains represent a novel species of genus Ochrobactrum. The DNA–DNA hybridization values were respectively 70, 66 and 55 % with respect to O. lupini LUP21T, O. anthropi DSM 6882T and Ochrobactrum tritici DSM 13340T. The predominant fatty acids were C18 : 1 ω7c and C18 : 1 2-OH. Strains ESC1T and ESC5 were strictly aerobic and were able to reduce nitrate and to hydrolyse aesculin. They produced β-galactosidase and β-glucosidase and did not produce urease after 48 h incubation. The G+C content of strain ESC1T was 56.4 mol%. Both strains ESC1T and ESC5 contained nodD and nifH genes on megaplasmids that were related phylogenetically to those of rhizobial strains nodulating Phaseolus, Leucaena, Trifolium and Lupinus. From the results of this work, we propose that the strains isolated in this study be included in a novel species named Ochrobactrum cytisi sp. nov. The type strain is ESC1T (=LMG 22713T=CECT 7172T).