Moses Açan de Zaragua[note 1] (fl. 14th century) was a Catalonian Jewish writer and poet.
He wrote a rhymed treatise on chess in Catalan, which he begins by referring to the creation of the world, and exhorts his fellow man to glorify the Creator by the practise of virtue.[5] Favoring chess, the poem opposes all games of chance, particularly card-playing, which, it declares, would ruin all addicted to it. A manuscript copy of the treatise was once held at El Escorial.[6] It was anonymously translated into Castilian in 1350, under the title Los trabajos de Hercules, y el conde de Lucanor.[3][7]
He appears to have also written Totza'ot Ḥayyim, a collection of short poems published by Menaḥem ben Yehuda de Lonzano in 1618.[4]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Kayserling, Meyer (1901). "Açan, Moses de Zaragua (or Ḥazan)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 149.
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Kayserling, Meyer (1901). "Açan, Moses de Zaragua (or Ḥazan)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 149.
- ^ a b Roth, Norman (1992). "Jewish Literature in Medieval Spain". In Kabakoff, Jacob (ed.). Jewish Book Annual. Vol. 50. Jewish Book Council of America. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-914820-15-4.
- ^ a b Keats, Abraham Victor (1993). Chess in Jewish History and Hebrew Literature (PDF) (Dissertation). University of London.
- ^ a b Scholberg, Kenneth R.; Saenz-Badillos, Angel (2007). "Açan, Moses de Tarrega". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
- ^ Steinschneider, Moritz (1857). Jewish Literature from the Eight to the Eighteenth Century: With an Introduction on Talmud and Midrash. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts. p. 178.
- ^ De Laborde, Alexander (1809). A View of Spain: Comprising a Descriptive Itinerary, of Each Province, and a General Statistical Account of the Country. Vol. V. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. p. 169.
- ^ Schmid, Anton (1847). Literatur des Schachspiels (in German). Vienna: Carl Gerold. pp. 367–368.