Yemenite rabbi, poet, and paytan. Saadiah was one of the leading scholars of his time in Sanʿa (and later in Jiblah). He composed piyyutim and poems.

Several of his piyyutim, including one on the Akedah (the binding of Isaac), were published or mentioned by H. Brody, D. Sassoon, and A.Z. Idelsohn (see bibliography). *Zechariah al-Dahiri composed a panegyric in his honor, published in the Sefer ha-Musar, in which he notes that Saadiah lived in Sanʿa at the time of the persecutions of 1568 and describes the latter's greatness in Torah. He may possibly be the Saadiah b. Joseph whose piyyut was published in the *Aleppo prayer book of 1527.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

H. Brody, in: Kobez al Jad, 6 (1894), 12–14, 27–29; D. Sassoon, in: KS, 2 (1925/26), 258–64; 3 (1926/27), 168–71; A.Z. Idelsohn and H. Torczyner (eds.), Shirei Teiman (1930), 256–62; Zechariah al-Ḏāhirī, Sefer ha-Musar, ed. by Y. Ratzaby (1965), index.

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

SAADIAH BEN JOSEPH HA-LEVI