Six-Language Dictionary

Solomon Pinḥasoff

1908

Image

Printed page of Hebrew text with decorative border. — Title page of the second edition of a six-language (Hebrew-Aramaic, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish) dictionary published in Jerusalem in 1908.

Credits

Solomon Pinḥasoff, Sefer milim shishah (Jerusalem: Raphael Ḥayim ha-Kohen, 1908).

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

The Voice of Gladness

I have merited to make this book, which I named Kol sasson [The Voice of Gladness], for the reason that our masters of blessed memory said that it is obligatory for everyone…

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Page with German text across top and bottom, with two nearly identical figures in center, with the one on the left bearded and in prayer garment and hat, and the one on the right with moustache and suit.

The Reformed Hasid

“Before and After the Reform.” Cartoon from Der schlemiel: Illustriertes jüdisches Blatt für Humor und Satire lampooning the transformation of a Hasidic Jew into a Reformed Jew.

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Drawing of a nine-fingered hand with a tree of ten circles on palm connected to a foot and centered in concave room covered in circular spiral motifs.

“Insist on yourself . . .” from the Series Great Ideas of Western Man

“Insist on yourself . . .” is from the series Great Ideas of Western Man, an innovative advertising campaign by the Container Corporation of America, which ran from 1950 to 1975. Its mission was to…

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Creator Bio

The polyglot Solomon Babajan Pinḥasoff (Shlomo ben Pinḥas Babajan) was born in Kabul to a family of merchants originally from Mashhad (today in Iran) and had a traditional education. In 1858, his family moved to Samarkand (today in Uzbekistan), where his Jewish studies included Bukhari (Judeo-Tajik) translations of Scripture and rabbinic commentaries. The Pinḥasoffs were active members of the Samarkand Jewish community, serving as members of the rabbinical court and as emissaries to Jerusalem. A founding member of the Jerusalem Bukhari Quarter, he permanently settled in the city with his family in 1907. In addition to his Six-Language Dictionary (Hebrew-Aramaic, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish), Pinḥasoff also wrote and translated a number of other books. He is buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.