THE UMA YYAD REGIME 199at Medina Azahara, and in 949 Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos sent,
amongst other gifts, a particularly splendid illuminated manuscript of
the botanical work of Dioscorides, then much appreciated by Arab
physicians in the East.^54
Although several schools of translators of Greek texts had flour-
ished in the lands of the 'Abbiisid Caliphate in the later ninth and
tenth centuries, their Arabic version of Dioscorides may not yet have
made its way to Spain and, more strikingly, there was no one in
Cordoba with enough knowledge of Greek to be able to translate the
newly received manuscript. In 951, at the request of 'Abd al-R.aQman
III, the Emperor sent a monk called Nicholas from Constantinople to
help in making the gift comprehensible to its recipients. In this he
collaborated with the caliph's physician, aJewish scholar called I:fasdai
ibn Shaprut, the man who was later to cure the fatness of King Sancho
I of Leon.^55
With l:Iasdai the golden age of the Jews in Spain may be said to
begin. Until his death in either 970 or 990 he was one of the most
influential figures at the Umayyad court, although holding no office
beyond that of physician to the caliph. He was on occasion used for
diplomatic purposes, as on a mission to the Navarrese court (c. 960)
and in the negotiations with John of Gorze and the German envoys.
However his greatest significance lay in his patronage of the Jewish
community in Cordoba, by whom he was accorded the honorific title
Nasi, or Prince.^36 As well as in displays of liberality to the Jews of Al-
Andalus, he was a noted benefactor of the great Jewish academies of
the Talmud at Sura and Pumbedita in Mesopotamia. He also patron-
ised individual Jewish scholars in other Islamic realms. Dunash ibn
Tamim, a pioneer in scientific study amongst the Arabic-speaking
Jews, and physician to the Fatimid caliphs at Kairouan, dedicated an
astronomical treatise to him.^57 A further indicator of the cosmopoli-
tan character of Mediterranean Judaism at this time and of l:Iasdai's
importance in it is his extant letter to the king of the Khazars. This
nomadic people of the south Russian steppes had recently converted
to Judaism in a remarkable achievement of proselytising, and Ibn
Shaprut wrote to their ruler to tell him of the whereabouts of Al-
Andalus and of its neighbours. The authenticity of this letter is now
generally accepted, although that of the Khazar king's reply is not,
and from an acrostic preface it seems clear that it was written for
l:Iasdai by his secretary Menachem Ben Saruk.^38
This man, one of Ibn Shaprut's most distinguished clients, was a