This article is within the scope of WikiProject Judaism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Judaism-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JudaismWikipedia:WikiProject JudaismTemplate:WikiProject JudaismJudaism
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Jewish history, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Jewish history on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Jewish historyWikipedia:WikiProject Jewish historyTemplate:WikiProject Jewish historyJewish history-related
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egypt on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject EgyptTemplate:WikiProject EgyptEgypt
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Iraq, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Iraq on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IraqWikipedia:WikiProject IraqTemplate:WikiProject IraqIraq
I don't think the Saadia Gaon should be in this category... While it's true that he'd be called "Mizrachi" for living in Mesopotamia today, the fact of the matter is that the guy's been dead for over a millennium. "Ashkenazi" and "Sfaradi" didn't develop distinctly until the 11th or 12th centuries, 3 centuries after the Saadia Gaon was dead and gone, and at that time there was certainly no such thing as "Mizrachi"... Tomertalk06:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I fully agree with Tomer. The Geonim are all as much part of the Ashkenazi heritage and history as they are of the Sephardi/Mizrahi. IZAK07:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well — he actually was not from Babel, but from Miṣrayim... Which adds even more to the problematicness of coining him Mizraḥi. And (/but) at the same time, the argument whether someone is considered a part of a specific tradition after the fact should not have any implication in itself. Thus, Moshe ben Maimon was not any less Sephardi even though his work is also an integrated part of the Ashkenazi traditions...
All this being said — the Ashkenazi/Sephardi division is not the question here — but whether Sa‘adia was Mizraḥi. Now, the distinction between the East (Babel) and the West (Ereṣ Yisrael/Mi̋rayim/etc.) was clearly there already in Talmudic times. But Sa‘adia does not fit neatly into either of these categories (which are not anachronistic, actually) either.
I do not at all think that it is correct to take away Sa‘adia’s categorisation as a Middle Eastern Jew — he was exactly that, and it is very anachronistic to “hide” that. I would suggest categorising him as Egyptian Jewish (or whichever supercategory includes Egyptian Jewish), since that clearly was his main background.