Shemariah of Negropont

Who is Shemariah of Negropont?

Shemariah ben Elijah Ikriti of Negropont was a Jewish-Italian philosopher and Biblical exegete, contemporary of Dante and Immanuel the Roman. He was born probably at Rome, the descendant of a long line of Roman Jews. His father, in his youth, went as rabbi to Crete, whence his surname, "Ha-Yewani", or "Ha-Iḳriṭti".

Shemariah had a critical mind, and knew Italian, Latin, and Greek. Up to 1305 he studied the Bible exclusively; then he took up Talmudic aggadah and philosophy. His reputation was such that he was called to the court of King Robert of Naples, where he devoted himself chiefly to Biblical studies and wrote commentaries on Scripture. By 1328 he had completed philosophic commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Book of Job, and Canticles. He aimed at bringing about a union between Karaites and Rabbinites; the Karaites, in fact, recognized and honored him.

The death of a son interrupted his work for a time, but he soon took it up again. In 1346 he wrote his Sefer ha-Mora, a refutation of the philosophical views on the Creation.