Hasun ben Mashiach

Hasun ben Mashiach was a Karaite scholar who flourished in Egypt (or Babylonia) in the first half of the tenth century. According to 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 Hasun was the author of a polemical work, written probably in Arabic, in which he refuted one of Saadia's unpublished anti-Karaite writings, which came into his possession after the death of the author.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 the 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." Simcha 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

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=241&letter=M&search=Karaite Singer, Isidore and Isaac Broydé. "Mashiach, Hasun ben".] "Jewish Encyclopedia". Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906, 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