The Samaritan language properly so called is a dialect of Palestinian Aramaic, of which the best examples are found in the literature of the 4th century A.D. An archaic alphabet, derived from the old Hebrew, was retained, and is still used by them for writing Aramaic. Hebrew and sometimes even Arabic. After the Moslem conquest of Syria in 632 the native dialect of Aramaic gradually died out, and by the 11th century Arabic had become the literary as well as the popular language In the Liturgy Hebrew was no doubt used from the earliest times side by side with Aramaic, and after the 11th century it became, in a debased form, the only language for new liturgical compositions.
The literature of the Samaritans is, like that of the Jews, almost entirely of a religious character Reference has been made above to Samaritan Hellenistic works which have perished except for a few fragments. According to Samaritan tradition, their books were destroyed under Hadrian and Commodus, but of the language and contents of them nothing is recorded There can be no doubt that some, perhaps much, of the literature has been lost, for nothing[1] is extant which can be dated before the 4th century A.D. The Targum, or Samaritan-Aramaic version of the Pentateuch was most probably written down about that time, though it was clearly based on a much older tradition and must have undergone various recensions. To the same period belong the liturgical compositions of Amram Darah and Marqah, and the latter’s midrashic commentary (called the “Book of Wonders”) on parts of the Pentateuch, all in Aramaic. With the possible exception of one or two hymns there is nothing further till the 11th century when there appears the Arabic version of the Pentateuch, usually ascribed to Abu Sa'id, but perhaps really by Abu'l-hasan[2] of Tyre, who also wrote three Arabic treatises, still extant, on theological subjects, besides some hymns. Of the same date (1053) is an anonymous commentary[3] on Genesis, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MS. Opp. add. 4°, 99), interesting because it quotes from books of the Bible other than the Pentateuch. In the 12th century, Munajja[4] and his son Sadaqah wrote on theology; the earlier part of the chronicle called al-Taulidah[5] was compiled, in Hebrew (1149); and about the same time treatises on Grammar[6] by Abu Sa'id and Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Faraj. The next 100 years were rather barren. Ghazal ibn-al-Duwaik, who wrote on the story of Balak and on the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, is said to have lived in the 13th century, and another chronicle (in Arabic), called the Book of Joshua, is dated about the same time by T. W. I. Juynbolli[7] In the second half of the 14th century lived three important liturgical writers, Abisha b. Phinehas (ob. 1376), Abdallah b. Solomon and Sa'd-allah (or Sa'd-ed-din) b. Sadaqah: Abu'l-fath, who composed his chronicle[8] in 1355: a high priest Phinehas, author of a lexicon: and the anonymous writer of the commentary on the Kitab al-as atir,[9] a work, ascribed to Moses, containing legends of the Patriarchs. Another famous liturgist Abraham Qabazi lived in the early part of the 16th century, and his pupil Isma'll Rumaihi in 1537 wrote a work on the praise of Moses. Probably about the same time, or a little later, is another anonymous commentary on Genesis in the Huntington Collection in the Bodleian Library (NIS. Hunt. 301). Several members of the Danfi family were prominent in the 18th century as liturgists, among them Abraham b. Jacob, wh0 also wrote a commentary [10] on Gen.-Num., and of the levitical family Ghazal ibn Abi Sarur, who commented on Gen.-Exod. Another Ghazal (=Tabiah n. Isaac), priest-levite, who died in 1786, was a considerable writer of liturgy. Subsequent authors are few and of little interest. Mention need only be made of the chronicle[11] written (i.e. compiled) in Hebrew by Ab Sakhwah (=Murjan[12]) b. As'ad, of the Danfi family, in 1900, chiefly on the basis of al-Taulidah and Abu'l-fath; an Arabic chronicle[13] by Phinehas b. Isaac (ob. 1898) of the levitical family; and a theological work,[14] also in Arabic, by the present priest-levite, Jacob b. Aaron.
Bibliography.—General: Nutt, Fragments of a Samaritan Targum . . . with . . . a Sketch of Sam. History, &c. (London, 1874); Montgomery, The Samaritans (Philadelphia, 1907), an excellent account with full bibliography; Petermann, Brevis ling. sam. grammatica (Porta Lingg. Orient.), Leipzig, 1873; Steinschneiider, Die arabische Literatur d. Judeh, p. 319 sqq. (Frankfurt, 1902 .
Texts: the Pentateuch in the Paris and London Polyglotts; separately by Blayney (Oxford, 1790). A critical edition is in preparation by the F reiherr von Gall. Targum in the Polyglotts; reprinted in square character by Brull (Frankfurt, 1874–1879); with critical apparatus by Petermann and Vollers (Berolini, 1872–1891); cf. also Nutt, op. oil.; Kohn, “Zur Sprache . . . der Samaritaner,” pt. ii. (Leipzig, 1876) (in Abharzdlungen f. d. Kimde d. Morgenlandes, v. 4); Kahle, Textkrilische . . . Bemerkungen . . . (Leipzig, 1898) and Zeilsch. f. Assyr. xvi., xvii. Arabic version, ed. by Kuenen (Gen.-Lev.)', Lugd. Bat. (1851); cf. Bloch, Die Sam.-arab. Peril.-ilberseb zung, Deut. i.-xi. (Berlin, 1901); Kahle, Die arab. Bibeliiberselzungerl (Leipzig, 1904); Heidenheim, Der Commeritar Marqahs (Weimar, 1896). Parts also in dissertations by Baneth (1888), Munk (1890), Emmerich (1897), Hildesheimer (1898). Various texts and translations, mostly liturgical, in Heidenheim’s Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift (Gotha, 1864–1865, Zurich 1867–?) often incorrect, cf. Geiger in ZDMG, xvi.-xxii. Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy (Oxford, 1909), text and introduction. For editions of other works see the foregoing footnotes. (A. Cy.)
SAMARIUM [symbol Sm, atomic weight 150.4 (O=16)], a
rare earth metal (see Rare Earths). The separation has been
worked at by A. V. Welsbach, L. de Boisbaudran, Urbain and
Lacombe (Complex rendus, 1903, 137, pp. 568, 792); Demarcay
(ibid. 1900, 130, p. 1019); Benedicks; Feit and Przibylla
(Zeit. anorg. Chem., 1905, 43, p. 202) and others. The metal
may be obtained by reduction of its oxide with magnesium. It
combines with hydrogen to form a hydride. The salts are mostly
of yellowish colour. The chloride, SmCl3·6H2O, is a deliquescent
solid which when heated in hydrochloric acid gas to 180° C.
yields the anhydrous chloride. This anhydrous chloride is
reduced to a lower chloride, of composition SmCl2, when heated
to a high temperature in a current of hydrogen or ammonia
(Matignon and Cazes, Comptes rendus, 1906, 142, p. 183). The
chloride, SmCl2, is a brown crystalline powder which is decomposed
by water with liberation of hydrogen and the formation
of the oxide, Sm2O3, and an oxychloride, SmOCl. The fluoride,
SmF3·H2O, was prepared by H. Moissan by acting with fluorine
on the carbide. The sulphate, Sm2(SO4)3·8H2O, is obtained by
the action of sulphuric acid on the nitrate. It forms double
salts with the alkaline sulphates. The carbide, SmC2, is formed
when the oxide is heated with carbon in the electric furnace.
SAMARKAND, a province of Russian Turkestan, formerly
Zarafshan or Zerafshan. It is the ancient Sogdiana and was
known as Sughd to the Moslems of the middle ages. It has on
the N. and N.E. the province of Syr-darya, on the E. Ferghana,
on the W. Bokhara and on the S. the khanates of Hissar, Karateghin
and Darvaz. Its area is 26,627 sq. m. It is very hilly
in the S., where it is intersected by ranges belonging to the Alai
system. The Hissar range is the water-parting between the
Zarafshan and the upper tributaries of the Amu-darya; another
high range, the Zarafshan, runs between the two parallel rivers,
the Zarafshan' and its tributary, the Yagnob; while a third
range, often called the Turkestan chain, stretches W. to E.
parallel to the Zarafshan, on its N. bank. It is very probable
that the three ranges referred to really possess a much more
complicated character than is supposed. All three ranges are
snow-clad, and their highest peaks reach altitudes of 18, 500 ft.
in the W. and 22,000 ft. in the E., while the passes over them,
which are difficult as a rule, lie at altitudes of 12,000 ft. Several
Alpine lakes, such as Iskander-kul, 7000 ft. high, have been
found under the precipitous peaks.
The Alpine zone extends as far N. as the 40th parallel, beyond which the province is steppe-land, broken by only one range of mountains, the Nuratyn-tau, also known as Sanzar and Malguzar in the S.E. and as Kara-tau in the N.W. This treeless range stretches 160 m. N.W., has a width of about 35 m. and reaches altitudes of 7000 ft., It is pierced, in the Sanzar gorge, or Tamerlane's Gate, by the railway leading from Samarkand to Tashkent.
- ↑ Except, of course, the Pentateuch itself (see Bible) which cannot be properly regarded as a Samaritan work.
- ↑ So Kahle, see the bibliography.
- ↑ See Neubauer in Journ. asiat. (1873), p. 341.
- ↑ See Wreschner, Samarilarzische T raditionen (Berlin, 1888).
- ↑ Ed. by Neubauer in Journ. axial. (1869). The chronicle was continued in 1346, and was subsequently brought down to 1856–1857 by the present priest.
- ↑ See Noldcke, Gall. Gel. Nachr. (1862), Nos. 17, 20.
- ↑ Chronicon Sam .... Liber Josuae (Lugd. Bat., 1848). It narrates the history from the death of Moses to the 4th century A.D. and is derived from sources of various dates. A Hebrew book of Joshua announced by Gaster in The Times of June 9, 1908, and published in ZDMG, vol. 62 (1908) pt. ii., is a modern compilation; see Yahuda in Sitsgsber. d. Kgl. Preuss. Akad. (1908), p. 887; and Gaster's reply in ZDMG, 62, pt. iii.
- ↑ Ed. by Vilmar (Gotha, 1865). Partly translated by Payne Smith in Heidenheim's VicrteUahrs5chrift, vol. ii.
- ↑ Translated by Leitner in Heid. Viert. iv. 184, &c.
- ↑ An account of the work (of which the only MS. is in Berlin) was given by Geiger in ZDJIIG, xx. p. 143 and later. Parts of it were published as dissertations by Klumel in 1902 and Hanover 1904.
- ↑ Ed. by E. N. Adler and M. Seligsohn in the Revue des études juices, vols. 44-46.
- ↑ The same who compiled Gaster's book of Joshua.
- ↑ Mentioned by Yahuda, op. cil. p. 895. as existing in a Berlin MS.
- ↑ Translated in Bibliotheca sacra (1906), p. 385, &c.
