Object
A rabbi's
Arabic Torah
A thousand years ago, the greatest Jewish scholar of his age wrote “Allah” about 1,650 times.
The Word · A rabbi's Arabic Torah
Saadia Gaon (882–942) was born in Egypt and became head of the great Jewish academy of Sura in Babylonia. For Jews who spoke Arabic, which by then was most Jews in the Middle East, he translated the Torah into Arabic, written in Hebrew letters.
His translation, the Tafsīr, opens: awwal mā khalaqa Allāh al-samāwāt wa-l-arḍ, “At the first of what Allah created: the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
His third commandment reads: “Do not swear by the name of Allah your Lord falsely.” For Saadia, Allah was simply the Arabic word for the God of Israel.
Sources: Saadia's Tafsīr, Derenbourg edition (Paris, 1893), on Sefaria; count by our own search of the text. English renderings for a Jewish reader to check.