Hoter ben Shlomo

Hoter ben Shlomo (c.1400-c.1480), also known by various Arabic names including Manṣūr ibn Sulaymān al-Dhamārī and Manṣūr ibn Sulaymān al-Ghamari, was a prominent scholar and philosopher hailing from Yemen. His intellectual lineage shows a strong connection to earlier thinkers such as Natan'el al-Fayyumi, Maimonides, Saadia Gaon, and al-Ghazali. Ben Shlomo's work is notable for its engagement with the doctrines of the Brethren of Purity and what has been termed "Jewish Ismailism." This latter concept involves the adaptation of Ismaili philosophical and theological ideas concerning cosmology, prophecy, and hermeneutics within a Jewish framework. This syncretic approach was particularly evident in late medieval Yemenite Judaism. Ben Shlomo's contributions include philosophical midrashim such as "The Glad Learning" (Midrash ha-hefez) and "The Lamp of Intellects" (Siraj al-'uqul), where traces of Brethren of Purity doctrines, including their numerology and Hurufism, can be observed. He also authored "al-Qawāʿid," a commentary on Maimonides' Thirteen Principles, as well as "Sabʿīn Masʾala" (Seventy Questions) and "Miʾa Masʾala" (One Hundred Questions), collected as "Sheʾelot u-Teshuvot Hoter ben Shelomo." His "Sirāj al-ʿUqūl" is a midrash to the Torah, and he also wrote "Sharh ʿalā Perush ha-Mishna" (Explication of Maimonides’ Commentary to the Mishna).