Samuel ben Jacob ibn Jam

Samuel ben Jacob ibn Jam' or Samuel ben Jacob Jam'a (12th century) was rabbi of the North-African community of Kabez which flourished in the 12th century. He was on intimate terms with Abraham ibn Ezra, who dedicated to him his Ḥai ben Meḳiẓ and mentioned eulogiously three of his sons — Judah, Moses, and Jacob.

Under the title Elef ha-Magen, or, perhaps, Agur (the Hebrew equivalent of his Arabic name, "Jam'"), Samuel wrote a supplement to the Aruk, of Nathan ben Jehiel. Excerpts from this supplement, which is still extant in manuscript (Parma MSS. Nos. 140, 180), were published by Solomon Buber in Grätz Jubelschrift. Samuel is believed to be identical with the author of the same name whose novellæ on Sanhedrin are mentioned by Isaac ben Abba Mari of Marseilles in his Sefer ha-'Ittur.

Two Arabic works, Risalat al-Burhan fi Tadhkiyat al-Ḥaiwan, containing the laws concerning the slaughtering of animals (A. Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 793), and Kitab al-Zahdah lil-Muta'ammilin fi Yaḳaẓat al-Mutaghaffilin, on ethics, are also credited to him.

According to L. Dukes and other scholars, Samuel was the author also of the grammatical work Reshit ha-Leḳaḥ, which is found in manuscript in the Vatican and Paris libraries, and which bears the name of Samuel ben Jacob. This, however, is denied by Steinschneider, who believes this grammar to have been written by another Samuel ben Jacob, of a later day.