Talk:Jonah ibn Janah/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: HaEr48 (talk · contribs) 06:33, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

I'll take this review. Expect comments in the next few days. HaEr48 (talk) 06:33, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Initial review
Hmm let's see. The subject is certainly notable. The prose generally is well-written and complies with the manual of style. Facts are well cited to scholarly sources, no OR or copyvio is apparent, the writing is neutral, and the article is stable from edit warring. However, I have some concern about the coverage. The article only covered his early life, two of his works, and then legacy. Maybe it's because the bibliography contain mostly works about linguistics and Hebrew, and not so much biography. Please compare with biographical articles about him (e.g. the Jewish encyclopedia: Ibn Janah, Abu al-Walid Merwan, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World: Ibn Janāḥ, Jonah, and others, you'll see that the Wikipedia article has some gaps on the biographical information.

In addition, some specific feedbacks: “Although ibn Janah had intended this to be an uncontroversial, supportive work” -> Is this the consensus opinion among scholars? Why is it called “Book of criticism” if it’s “uncontroversial” and “supportive”? and then there’s the fact that it actually triggered controversy.
 * The Arabic and Hebrew book titles need English titles.
 * The main book titles are in Arabic, is it because he wrote in Arabic? I think this is an interesting fact that deserves mentioning.
 * Was Cordoba and Saragossa under different entities in 1012? Which entity/ruler expelled him from cordoba? Also, the Jewish Encyclopedia article (linked above) said that he did not directly move to Saragossa, but wandered first before settling there. Please mention this.
 * Talk about his physician career? It seems he also wrote another book, “Kitab al-Talkhis” on medicine
 * Any family? employers? students?
 * Kitab al-Mustalbag -> I’ve seen sources spelling this book as “Mustalha”, “Mustalhak” or “Mustalhag”, but never “Mustalbag”. Please double check your source.
 * Can you further describe further the relation between Hayyuj’s work and Mustalha? The article mentioned that it criticized or supplements previous work by Hayyuj, but it’s not clear what the previous work by Hayyuj was and how ibn Janah’s work caused controversy. I doubt it was only because ibn Janah added 50 new word roots?
 * How does ibn Janah prove that root words were consistently trilateral against the opinion of previous scholars?
 * “Sefer HaHashva'ah” Can you include an English translation of this title? This title is in Hebrew, was it written in Hebrew or in Arabic (like the rest of his writing)?
 * Kitab al-Anqih: Please translate this title as well as the titles of its subbooks: Kitab al-Luma and al-Usul
 * Abraham ibn Ezra strongly rejecting it and calling it "madness" that could lead to heresy. -> Please explain why ibn Ezra strongly opposed this. It’s not clear to a lay reader how the concept lexical substitution could lead to heresy.
 * Does “Babylonian works” mean the works of the people of Babylonia? Or the Jewish people of Babylonia
 * The legacy section contains praises of his work, but make sure it also includes criticism and limitations of his work. For example, the JE article mentioned the limitation that he did not discuss vowels and accents.
 * Discuss works other than the two included in the article
 * Discuss his personal views (academic or otherwise).
 * Did his works continue to influence the Jewish scholarship after reprinting in 19th-20th century?

-- HaEr48 (talk) 17:07, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Failing

 * Failing this review. It's been more than a week after the initial comments, I've tried reaching out via User talk:Xuháska, but it seems that the user is inactive and there's little chance of the review being actioned anytime soon. To nominator: When you come back please take a look at the reviews above. I believe this article has potential. HaEr48 (talk) 22:41, 21 January 2018 (UTC)