ah brought a hornet's nest about his head by his renewed attacks on
Karaism, contained in his commentary to Genesis. But the call to Sura
turned Saadiah's thoughts in another direction. He found the famous
college in decay. The Exilarchs, the nominal heads of the whole of the
Babylonian Jews, were often unworthy of their position, and it was not
long before Saadiah came into conflict with the Exilarch. The struggle
ended in the Gaon's exile from Sura. During his years of banishment, he
produced his greatest works. He arranged a prayer-book, wrote Talmudical
essays, compiled rules for the calendar, examined the Massoretic works
of various authors, and, indeed, produced a vast array of books, all of
them influential and meritorious. But his most memorable writings were
his "Commentary on the Book of Creation" (_Sefer Yetsirah_) and his
masterpiece, "Faith and Philosophy" (_Emunoth ve-Deoth_).

This treatise, finished in the year 934, was the first systematic
attempt to bring revealed religion into harmony with Greek philosophy.
Saadiah was thus the forerunner, not only of Maimonides, but also of the
Christian school-men. No Jew, said Saadiah, should discard the Bible,
and form his opinions solely by his own reasoning. But he might safely
endeavor to prove, independently of revelation, the truths which
revelation had given. Faith, said Saadiah again, is the sours absorption
of the essence of a truth, which thus becomes part of itself, and will
be the motive of conduct whenever the occasion arises. Thus Saadiah
identified reason with faith. He ridiculed the fear that philosophy
leads to scepticism. You might as well, he argued, identify astronomy
with superstition, because some deluded people believe that an eclipse
of the moon is caused by a dragon's making a meal of it.

For the last few years of his life Saadiah was reinstated in the Gaonate
at Sura. The school enjoyed a new lease of fame under the brilliant
direction of the author of the great work just described. After his
death the inevitable decay made itself felt. Under the Moorish caliphs,
Spain had become a centre of Arabic science, art, and poetry. In the
tenth century, Cordova attained fame similar to that which Athens and
Alexandria had once reached. In Moorish Spain, there was room both for
earnest piety and the sensuous delights of music and art; and the keen
exercise of the intellect in science or philosophy did not debar the
possession of practical statesma