Masʿūd Zerbīb (or Zaghbīb) al-Ḥasid (1655–1719) was a scholar in the Algerian city of Constantine at the end of the seventeenth century. He was given the sobriquet al-Ḥasid (Jud.-Ar. the Pious) because of his piety and his commentaries on the Torah. While the Jewish community of Constantine and its leadership were autonomous during his lifetime, Zerbīb nonetheless strongly felt the yoke of Ottoman rule. This feeling finds expression in his book Zeraʿ  ’Emet (Livorno, 1851) in  the words “we are hereby in the lowest rung of the exile” (Jerusalem ed., p. 181). Although the book is a commenta…