Hagar, Hagrim

Names used by Jewish medieval writers to designate Hungary and the Hungarians. The expression "Ereẓ Hagar" occurs in Rashi on Yoma 11a, in a responsum of the French tosafist Isaac b. Abraham (died about 1200), and in the "Or-Zarua'" (i. 51a) of Isaac b. Moses (early thirteenth century; comp. Emden, "Megillat Sefer," p. 85, Warsaw, 1896; S. Kohn [in Hungarian] on the Hebrew sources and data for the history of Hungary, pp. 144-159, Budapest, 1881), Since the latter half of the fifteenth century the name "Hagrim" is used more frequently; for instance, by Isaac Tyrnau and by Moses Isserles in his Responsa (No. 82). The "Hagrim" of the Psalms (lxxxiii. 7, Hebr.) is rendered in the Targum by "Hungera'e," which, according to Levy ("Chal. Wörterb." s.v.) and Kohut ("Aruch Completum"), means "Hungary." Selig Cassel endeavored to prove ("Auswahl," p. 331) that the "Hungera'e" of the Targum is simply the Aramaic form of the Hebrew for "children of Hagar," or Arabs.

Bibliography:

  * Zipser, in Ben Chananja, x. 616, 659;
  * Löw, in Busch's Jahrbuch, v. 101;
  * Rapoport, in Kerem Hemed, v. 201;
  * S. Kohn, in Monatsschrift, xxx. 145-161, 193-201.



G. M. Sel.