Hoter ben Shlomo (Hoteb/Hatab ben Shlomo,Manṣūr ibn Sulaymān al-Dhamārī,Manṣūr ibn Sulaymān al-Ghamari, c.1400–c.1480) was a scholar and philosopher fromYemen who was heavily influenced by the earlier works ofNatan'el al-Fayyumi,Maimonides,Saadia Gaon andal-Ghazali.
The connection between theEpistle of theBrethren of Purity andIsma'ilism might have suggested the adoption of this work as one of the main sources of what would become known as “Jewish Ismailism” as was found in late medievalYemenite Judaism. This “Jewish Ismailism” consisted of adapting Ismaili doctrines about cosmology, prophecy and hermeneutics. There are many examples of the Brethren of Purity influencingYemenite Jewish philosophers and authors in the period 1150-1550.[1][2][3][4]
For example, chapter two of the Judaeo-Arabic theologic-philosophical work by Natan'el al-Fayyumi,The Garden of Intellects (Bustan al-‘uqul), written in Yemen in 1165, includes a correspondence between the numbers 1 through 10 and ten scientific and philosophical concepts (soul's faculties, senses, directions, bodily substances and parts, etc.) most of which are identical to those listed by the Brethren of Purity.
Some traces of Brethren of Purity doctrines, as well as of theirnumerology orHurufism, are found in two Yemenite philosophicalmidrashim written in 1420-1430: "The Glad Learning" (Midrash ha-hefez) byZerahyah ha-Rofé (Yahya al-Tabib) and the "Lamp of Intellects" (Siraj al-‘uqul) by Hoter ben Solomon. Ḥoter’s ideas are expounded in hisal-Qawāʿid "Commentary" [onMaimonides’Thirteen Principles]", theSabʿīn Masʾala "Seventy Questions" andMiʾa Masʾala "One Hundred Questions", listed together asSheʾelot u-Teshuvot Hoter ben Shelomo, theSirāj al-ʿUqūl "Lamp of the Intellects", a midrash to the Torah, andSharh ʿalā Perush ha-Mishna [shel ha-Rambam] "Explication of [Maimonides’] Commentary to the Mishna".[5]
