Th💙e present lot is a calligraphically accomplished, pocked-sized Hebrew psalter, copied by an expert scribe under the supervision of Samuel ben Reuben ben Sadqa ben Moses ben Sadqa Hussein. The last-named was a rabbi and influential leader of the Jewish community of Baghdad in the latter half of the eighteenth century. According to an inscription on the first page, the book was sent as a gift to Elias ben David ben Joseph ben Ezra of Calcutta (1830-1886), scion of a family of Iraqi businessmen and philanthropists, who married Mozelle, daughter of Sir Albert (Abdullah Meir) Sassoon (1818-1896), in 1870. Forty-two years later, in 1912, Elias and Mozelle’s son David (1871-1947) would wed his mother’s half-first cousin Rachel Sassoon (1877-1952).

Sir David and Lady Rachel Ezra were the🔯mselves great philanthropists and communal activists, and both contributed to the library of Rachel’s younger brother, David Solomon Sassoon (see previous lot and lot 29). This decorated psalter was presented by David Ezra to his brother-in-law in London. David Sassoon thanked him for the gift in a letter dated July 14, 1912: “On coming home I found the book which you♊ have so kindly given me. It is not necessary to tell you what you already know-my great weakness for books and especially for things connected with our people in India and in the East, and your gift makes my collection more interesting. I am indeed very glad to have the manuscript; it is an old acquaintance of mine hailing from a dear friend.”

Physical Description

244 pages (6 1/2 x 4 in.; 163 x 100 mm) (collation: i⁵ [i₁ canceled], ii-v⁸, vi⁶, vii⁸, viii⁸ [viii_7-8 canceled, with stubs present], ix-xii⁸, xiii⁶[?], xiv⁴ [xiv_4-5 canceled, with stubs present], xv-xvi¹⁰, xvii⁴) on paper (pp. 2, 4, 9, 244 blank); original foliation in pen in Hebrew characters in upper-outer corners of rectos (ff. 1-116); modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in lower margins at center (cited); written in Baghdadi square (text body) and semi-cursive (some marginal readings and notes) scripts in black ink; single-column text of fifteen lines per page (pp. 225-226 arranged poetically); ruled in blind (prickings visible especially toward back of volume); justification of lines via dilation or contraction of final letters and insertion of space fillers; headers; horizontal catchwords in lower margins of versos; (faulty) Tiberian vocalization of text; Tetragrammaton abbreviated to two yodin vocalized with a sheva and a kamats; chapter numeration in Hebrew characters; midpoint of book noted on p. 135; corrections and marginalia in primary hand. Title within floral border (p. 3); full-page miniature of a bouquet of flowers (p. 10); first word of Psalms within floral border (p. 11). Slight scattered staining; paper sometimes slightly damaged by ink, resulting in small cracks or holes (e.g., 🍰pp. 85-86, 127-128, 155-156, 201-202). Nineteenth-century blind-tooled maroon morocco, slightly worn and scratched; paper ticket with title, place, and date affixed to top of spine; paper ticket with shelf mark affixed to base of spine; nineteenth-century marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Annexed copy of Sassoon’s letter to Ezra.

Literature

Abraham Ben-Yaacob, Yehudei bavel ba-tefutsot (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1985), 1𒀰81-194, esp. p. 182 n. 33.

David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, vol. 1 ([Oxford]: Oxford U♉niversity Press; London:💃 Humphrey Milford, 1932), 28 (no. 354).

Apparently not recorded in Meir Benayahu, Sefarim she-nithabberu be-bavel u-sefarim she-ne‘etku bah (Jerusalem: Yad Harav꧋ Nissim; Merkaz Moreshet Yahad💞ut Bavel, 1993).