State of Text.—The Targum text is, taken as a whole, in a very corrupt state. The causes of this corruption are many, but chiefly the following:—(1) mistakes ordinarily made by scribes through carelessness, or ignorance, or both; (2) the Targums had passed from century to century and from country to country without having been written down; (3) when written down they were probably not provided with vowel-points at once; (4) when provided with vowel-points most of them were first provided with Babylonian (or Assyrian), which afterwards were changed into Palestinian ones; this change was a fertile source of fresh mistakes; (5) the loss of the general knowledge of the Targumic idiom contingent on the decline and final fall of the institution of publicly reciting the Targum was an additional source from which mistakes arose; (6) conjectural emendations contributed their quota to the corruption of the text; (7) Buxtorf’s emendations founded on the diction of the Biblical Targum (as suggested in the Methurgeman) are a gross mistake, inasmuch as they lack the criticism of history; (8) printers’ mistakes, increasing in every new edition, have all but ruined the text. The remedies for this corruption are:—(1) good Targum MSS. in private hands and public libraries, notably in Italy, Germany, and England; (2) Targum MSS., according to the Babylonico-Assyrian system of punctuation, chiefly preserved in South Arabia, Russia, and England; (3) some early and comparatively good printed editions; (4) the Massoreth of the Targum.
Value of the Targums.—The idea so long entertained, even by the learned, that these old versions were valuable chiefly as guides to the original readings of the sacred text must be given up. All of them contain more or less, whether visible at first sight or not, certain paraphrastic elements, which give no absolute security for the exact reading of the pristine Hebrew text. But besides their importance as linguistic monuments they have the highest value as historical records—(1) of the exegesis which obtained at the time of their composition, and (2) of the then current manners, thoughts, and aspirations both of the Jews and of the surrounding nations.[1] (s. m. s.-s.)
TARIFA, a seaport of Spain, in the province of Cadiz, at the extreme south point of the Peninsula, 59 miles south-east from Cadiz and (by land) 21 miles west-south-west from Gibraltar. The town is nearly quadrangular, with narrow crooked streets, and is still surrounded by its old Moorish walls. On its east side, just within these, stands the alcazar. The rocky island in front of the town, connected with the mainland by a causeway, is strongly fortified, and in some sense commands the Strait of Gibraltar. It has a lighthouse, 135 feet high, which has a range of 30 miles. The population within the municipal limits was 12,234 in 1877. Anchovy and tunny fishing is carried on, and there is some coasting trade. The manufactures (leather and earthenware) are unimportant. The oranges of Tarifa are famed for their sweetness.
Tarifa is the Julia Joza of Strabo, between Gades and Belon, which, according to that writer, was colonized by Romans and the removed inhabitants of Zelis in Mauretania Tingitana. The Julia Transducta or Traducta of coins and of Ptolemy appears to be the same place. Its present name (Arabic Jazirat Ṭarif) is derived from Ṭarif, the forerunner of Ṭarik (see vol. xvi. p. 573). After a long siege it was taken from the Moors in 1292 by Sancho lV. of Castile, who entrusted it to the keeping of Alonzo Perez de Guzman; the heroic defence by the latter, commemorated in the Romancero, earned for him the name of Guzman "el Bueno." It was in the defence of Tarifa that Alfonso XI. gained the battle of Salado, a short distance to the westward, in 1340. The place was successfully defended against the French by Gough in 1812.
TARN, a department of southern France, formed in 1790 of the three dioceses of Albi, Castres, and Lavaur, all belonging to the province of Languedoc, lies between 42° 23' and 44° 12' N. lat. and 1° 32' and 2° 56' E. long. It is bounded N. and E. by Aveyron, S.E. by Hérault, S. by Aude, S.W. and W. by Haute-Garonne, N.W. by Tarn-et-Garonne. The slope of the department is from east to west, and its general character is mountainous or hilly; its three principal ranges, the Mountains of Lacaune (peak of Montalet, 4154 feet), the Sidobre, and the Montagne Noire, belonging to the Cevennes, lie on the south-east. The stony and wind-blown slopes of the first-named are used for pasturage. The highest point of the range and of the department is the Pic de Montalet (4154 feet); several other summits are not much short of this. The granite-strewn plateaus of the Sidobre, from 1600 to 2000 feet high, separate the valley of the Agoût from that of the Thoré. The Montagne Noire derives its name from the forests on its northern slope, and some of its peaks are from 3000 to 3500 feet high. The limestone and sandstone foot-hills are clothed with vines and fruit trees, and are broken by deep alluvial valleys of extraordinary fertility. With the exception of a small portion of the Montagne Noire, which drains into the Aude, the whole department belongs to the basin of the Garonne,—indeed, if the rivulet Giron be excepted, to that of the Tarn, which flows in a westerly direction past Albi, Gaillac, Lisle, and Rabastens, receiving on the left the Agoût at St Sulpice. Northern Tarn is drained by the Aveyron and its tributary the Viaur. The eastern portion of the department has the climate of Auvergne, the severest in France, but that of the plain is Girondin. At Albi the mean temperature is 55°, and the rainfall 29·5 inches. The population of the department in 1886 was 358,757.
Of the total area of 2217 square miles, or 1,418,969 acres, there are 887,709 acres of arable land, 118,071 of meadows, 118,934 of vineyards, 186,594 under wood, and 52,408 of moorland. By last returns there were 11,360 horses, 3280 mules, 5430 asses, 20,560 bulls and oxen, 53,900 cows and heifers, 13,240 calves, 455,500 sheep (wool-clip in 1878 1209 tons), 87,700 pigs, 5360 goats, and 17,190 bee-hives. In 1878 37 tons 14 cwt. of silk cocoons were produced, Oxen and sheep are fattened; ewes’ milk cheese like that of Roquefort is made; and geese and turkeys are reared. The crops in 1881 were—wheat, 3,429,112 bushels; meslin, 53,113; rye, 1,371,040; barley, 37,730; buckwheat, 8448 ; maize and millet, 1,566,873; oats, 538,422; potatoes, 2,554,860; dry vegetables, 374,715; chestnuts, 268,125; beetroot, 196,625; 782 tons of hemp; 476 of flax; 9,676,476 gallons of wine (only half the quantity of the previous year, owing to the phylloxera). Both common and good table wines are produced.
The mineral products include marble, porphyry, granite, lime, manganese, sulphate of baryta, alum, iron, lignite, and tourmaline. In 1881 335,430 tons of coal were taken from seven pits, and other mines are about to be opened. There are iron, alkaline, thermal, and carbonate of lime springs. The chief centre for the manufacture of woollen stuffs (in 1875 287 mills, 6457 workmen, and 98,615 spindles) and for wool-spinning and weaving (4893 machine and hand looms) is at Mazamet (q.v.), but all sorts of woollen and cotton stuffs are produced in other localities. Other industrial products are woollen hosiery, cotton, silk, and linen thread, morocco, hats, earthenware, glass, soap; and there are tanneries, distilleries, flour-mills, breweries, dye-works, sawmills, printing-works, and numerous limekilns. In 1881 929 tons of steel and 1947 tons of iron of various kinds were produced. The Tarn is navigable for 43 miles; there are 208 miles of national roads, 4274 of other roads, and 120 of railway. The department forms the diocese of Albi, and belongs to the 16th corps d’armée (Montpellier), and the court of appeal is at Toulouse. The chef-lieu is Albi. There, are 4 arrondissements (Albi, Castres, Gaillac, Lavaur), 35 cantons, and 318 communes.
- ↑ R. Yehudah Ibn Ḳoreish fully understood the value of the Targums. See his interesting epistle, addressed to the Jewish community of Fez, published at Paris (1857, 8vo), under the name of Epistola de Studii Targum Utilitate. A translation of the introductory part (by Wetzstein) is given in the L. B. O., iii. col. 22 (reprinted by Dr Berliner, T. O., p. 168 sq.). Ibn Ḳoreish belonged to the 9th century, and not, as Berliner says, to the 10th or 11th; nor was he a Ḳaraite as Graetz (v, p. 293) half believes.
Quinquarboreus (Paris, 1556, 4to), Mercerus (Paris, 1564–65; revised 1657); (6) on Lamentations, by Alph. Zam., by Quinquarboreus (Paris, 1549, 4to), by Ghislerus (Leyd., 1623, fol.), and again by Taylerus (Lond. 1651, 4to); on Ecclesiastes, by Ar. Mont., by Schreckenfuchs (Basel, 1555, 8vo), and again by Costus (Leyden, 1554, 4to); (7) on Esther, by Ar. Mont. (1572, folio); (8) Chronicles by Beck from the Erfurt MS. (imperfect, Augsb., 1680–83) and by Wilkins from the Cambridge MS. (Amst. 1715); (c) in German—(1) on the Five Megilloth, by R. Ya'aḳob b. Shemuel (Breisgau, 1584, 4to); (2) on the Targum Sheni, by David Ottensosser (Sulzbach, 1820, 8vo). (D) Commentaries:—(a) in Hebrew—(1) on the Targum of the Five Megilloth, by R Elyaḳim Rothenburg (Prague, 1618); (2) on Esther alone, by R. Shemuel Maḳshan (Prague, 1601, 4to); (3) on the same Targum, by R. David b. Yehudah Melammed (Cracow, 1644, 4to); on the Targum Sheni, by R. David b. Ya'akob (Prague, 1609, 4to); (b) in Spanish—on Canticles, by R. Mosheh Laniado (Venice, 1619, 4to).
