Josiah al-‘Aqūlī

Little is known about Josiah ben Mevorakh Ibn al-‘Aqūlī. The appellation al-‘Aqūlī may mean that Josiah, or his family, was from either Kūfa al-‘Aqūl or Dayr al-‘Aqūl, both towns in Iraq. He was a Rabbanite primarily known for his contributions to calculating the Jewish calendar. Fragments of his translation and commentary on Song of Songs and Lamentations have been discovered in the Cairo Geniza; other documents mention philosophical writings by him on the eternity of the world. His calendrical calculations proved popular and survive in both Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian. His 247-year cycle even appears in a fifteenth-century Byzantine manuscript.