“On a Pious Man, Adulteress Wife, and the Pleasure of Preaching to Others in Isaac Ibn Sahula’s...

HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN

Articles, Reviews, Bibliography and Manuscripts on Sefarad

Editors: Ram Ben-Shalom and Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber

Volume 12 5776/2016

Hispania Judaica

The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hispania Judaica is supported by

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Contents

English and Spanish Section

Articles

D B , Speakers’ ‘Jewishness’ as a Criterion for the Classification

of Languages: The Case of the Languages of the Sephardim 1

J é H M , Judíos de la Corona de Castilla en el Reino

de Valencia 59

S O , On a Pious Man, Adulterous Wife, and the Pleasure of

Preaching to Others in Yitshaq Ibn Sahula’s Meshal ha-Qadmoni 103

J N N , The Many Lives of Two Portuguese Conversos:

Miguel Fernandes and Rui Teixeira in the Tribunal of the Holy Office

in Rome 127

J é A R S T , The Balkans as a Place of

Passage between the West and the East: An Itinerary of the

Portuguese Conversos to and from the Ottoman Empire

(Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries) 185

A Zúñ L z, Soberanas católicas y judíos en el teatro barroco

español 207

Bibliography 229

Author’s Guidelines and Transliteration 295

Hebrew Section

O E , The Study of Science and Philosophy among the Kuzari

Circle of Commentators in Provence א

S S , The Law of the Torah and the Laws of the Gentiles in the

Thought of R. Moshe Narboni יט

[Hispania Judaica 12 5776/2016]

On a Pious Man, Adulterous Wife, and the Pleasure

of Preaching to Others in Yitshaq Ibn Sahula’s

Meshal ha-Qadmoni*

Sara Offenberg

The Castilian Jewish scholar Yitshaq Ibn Sahula wrote a Hebrew

illuminated fable book called Meshal ha-Qadmoni in 1281. The

fables are accompanied by illuminations with captions written by

the author. None of the original manuscripts remain, however we

do have five fully illuminated manuscripts from Germany and Italy,

all made in the fifteenth century. Ibn Sahula calls upon his nation to

repent, and among the many stories preaching about good behavior,

there are a few fables which include immoral characters, most

of them women. This paper examines one of these fables, about

a Muslim man’s adulterous wife. While previous studies focused

on the wife’s malicious behavior, the current study offers an in-

depth look at the text and images, and reexamines the husband’s

deeds within the context of polemical point of view, against the

background of contemporary textual and artistic evidence.

In 1281, the Castilian Jewish scholar Yitshaq Ibn Sahula wrote a Hebrew

illuminated book of fables entitled Meshal ha-Qadmoni.1 The fables are

accompanied by illuminations with captions written by the author himself. Ibn

Sahula calls upon his nation to repent, and among the many stories that preach

good behavior, are several fables that include immoral characters, mainly women.2

In this paper I examine one of these fables, about a Muslim man’s adulterous

* Research for this paper was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), grant

no. 326/13. I wish to thank Leor Jacobi for the suggestions and comments. 1 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni: Fables from the Distant Past, 2 vols., Portland 2004;

J. Schirmann, The Hebrew Poetry in Spain and Provence, 2 vols., Tel Aviv and

Jerusalem 1971, vol. II, pp. 349-412 (Hebrew); Idem, The History of Hebrew Poetry

in Christian Spain and Southern France, edited supplemented and annotated by E.

Fleischer, Jerusalem 1997, pp. 345-365 (Hebrew). Loewe’s book offers an annotated edition with English translation, and I will use his translation throughout the paper.

2 On the gender issues see A. Cuffel, ‘Ibn Shahula’s Meshal ha-Qadmoni as Restorative Polemic’, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 3, 2 (2011), pp. 165-186, esp. pp. 179-182; J. Dishon, ‘A Description of the Ideal Woman in Hebrew Secular Literature in the Middle Ages: In the Book “Mishle Arav” of Yitshaq and in Yitshaq Ibn Sahula’s

Book “Meshal ha-Qadmoni”’, Yeda Am 26 (1986), pp. 3-15 (Hebrew); Idem, Good

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wife, from the moral and polemical point of view, against the background of

contemporary textual and artistic evidence. The text of this parable has been

studied by other scholars, and art historians have related to the illuminations,3

but no study has combined these two aspects. Previous studies focused on the

wife’s malicious behavior. The current study offers an in-depth look at the text and images to reach a broader conclusion; I aim to reexamine the husband’s deeds within the context of a religious polemic.

None of the original manuscripts of Meshal ha-Qadmoni remain, nor any that

were produced during the author’s lifetime or in his homeland; however, we do have five fully illuminated manuscripts from Germany and Italy, all from the

fifteenth century: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 154, produced in 1450, Germany;4 Munich, Bavarian State Library, MS Heb. 10, produced in 1458, Germany;5 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Can. 59, produced in 1470-1480, Italy;6 Rothschild Miscellany, Jerusalem, Israel Museum, Ms. 180/51, produced

Woman Bad Woman: Loyal, Wise Women and Unfaithful Treacherous Women in

Medieval Hebrew Stories, Jerusalem 2009, pp. 130-142, 205-209 (Hebrew).3 On the text and images of Meshal ha-Qadmoni see Y. Ayalon, ‘The Illustrations

to Meshal ha-Qadmoni of Ishaq ibn Sholomo ibn Sahulah’, M.A. Thesis, Tel Aviv University, 2002 (Hebrew); S. Gronemann, Extant 15th Century Ashkenazi Illuminated

Manuscripts of Meshal Hakadmoni by Isaac ibn Sahula, Ph.D. dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2006 (Hebrew). Gronemann’s research offers an in depth comparison between the illuminations in all five manuscripts and the earliest

printed copy of Meshal ha-Qadmoni, and all the illustrations are reproduced in the

dissertation’s second volume; U. and K. Schubert, Jüdische Buchkunst, Graz 1983,

pp. 108-109; A. Oettinger-Salama, ‘“I Place with Texts the Illustrate, Should Point. The Moral”: Exploring the Connection Between the Verbal art and the Visual Art

in the Book Meshal Haqadmoni by Isaac ibn Sahula’, Dapim le-Mehkar be-Sifrut

13 (2001-2002), pp. 229-256 (Hebrew); S. Offenberg, Expressions of Meeting the

Challenges of the Christian Milieu in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature, Ph.D. Dissertation, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2008, chap. 5 (Hebrew); R. Yeffet, Meshal ha-Qadmoni by Isaac Ibn Sahula: A Book of Debate, Moral, and Good Advice,

Ph.D. dissertation, Bar-Ilan University, 2001 (Hebrew); Eadem, ‘The Uniqueness of “Meshal ha-Qadmoni” by Isaac Ibn Sahula: Relationship between Form and Content’, M.A. Thesis, Bar-Ilan University, 1995 (Hebrew).

4 See the entire manuscript online on the Oxford, Bodleian Library web site: www2.

odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0orient02--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4----dtt--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-meshal--00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz-1-0&a=d&cl=search&d=orient002-aav.1.1 (accessed 3 July 2016).

5 See the entire manuscript online on the Munich, Bavarian State Library web site: daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0003/bsb00034081/images/ (accessed 3 July

2016).6 See the entire manuscript online on the Oxford, Bodleian Library web site: viewer.

bodleian.ox.ac.uk/icv/thumbs.php?book=ms._canon._or._59&page=1 (accessed 3

July 2016).

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On a Pious Man, Adulterous Wife, and the Pleasure of Preaching

Figure 1: Munich, Bavarian State Library, MS Heb. 107, fol. 20b, Germany before 1458

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Sara Offenberg

in 1470-1480, Italy, fols. 298 v-371 r;7 Milano, Ambrosian Library, MS X 112 sup, produced in 1483, Italy. The book was first printed in Brescia by Gershom Soncino ca. 1491 and wood cuts replaced the manuscripts’ illuminations.8 As

mentioned, the fables are accompanied by around eighty illuminations with

captions written by the author. Most scholars agree that Ibn Sahula illustrated

the fables himself or at least supervised their illustration.9 The illuminations were

consistent over the years, which suggests the author’s close supervision over the

exact locations of the scenes and the appropriate captions.10 The images in the

five manuscripts and the first printed edition are similar in terms of their subjects

and their iconography.11

Yitshaq Ibn Sahula explains the purpose of the illuminations in his introduction:

Likewise, methinks, the pictures which conjoint I place with texts they illustrate, should point the moral, and retain the interest of children, while

for those that are oppressed by cares, providing light relief through art;

7 See the facsimile edition: The Rothschild Miscellany, I. Fishof, ed., London 1989; I. Ta-Shma, ‘The Literary Content of the Manuscript’, in Ibid, pp. 39-88, esp. pp. 80-82; L. Mortara-Ottolenghi, ‘The Illuminations and the Artists’, in Ibid, pp. 127-241, esp. pp. 220-241.

8 See a scan of the printed book online on the Jerusalem National Library web site aleph.nli.org.il/nnl/dig/books/bk001021249.html (accessed 3rd July 16). This is the first printed Hebrew book with a full cycle of illustrations, and it seems that Soncino

ordered these illustrations specifically for this book. E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni by Isaac b. Solomon ibn Sahula [Brescia: Gershom Soncino, ca. 1491]: The Book and its Illustrations’, M.A. Thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1991,

p. 79. 9 Gronemann doubts whether the book was originally illustrated in its entirety, and

suggests that only the fables discussing the planets in the fifth chapter were illuminated:

Extant 15th Century Ashkenazi Illuminated Manuscripts, p. 29. Though there are no

remaining manuscripts by Ibn Sahula, I find this claim unjustified because the author

states in his introduction: ‘I place with texts they illustrate, should point the moral,

and retain the interest of children’. R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, vol. I, p. 14. As Ayelet Oettinger-Salama writes, the purpose of the illustrations is an educational one, and the illuminations of the planets alone are not sufficient for this task. A. Oettinger-Salama, ‘I Place with Texts the Illustrate’, p. 230.

10 Although it may be somewhat problematic in terms of methodology to refer to

illuminations made approximately two hundred years after the book was written, the

subsequent illustrations remained consistent over the years, so it may be assumed

that they were all derived from earlier, similarly illustrated manuscripts. Taking

this problem into account, I will focus here mainly on the text, since some of the

illuminations are connected to their own place and time and less to that of Ibn Sahula.

11 A. Oettinger-Salama, ‘I Place with Texts the Illustrate’, pp. 231-233; Y. Ayalon, ‘The illustrations to Meshal ha-Qadmoni’, p. 4; S. Gronemann, Extant 15th Century

Ashkenazi Illuminated Manuscripts, pp. 13-109; R. Yeffet, ‘The Uniqueness of “Meshal ha-Qadmoni”’, pp. 33-38.

[107]


Figure 2: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 154, fol. 10b, Germany 1450

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Sara Offenberg

thus peradventure they shall find their heart drawn to essentials by my

goad, and lay aside their Homer, and will put away what heretics and what

free-thinkers say.12

Here Ibn Sahula declares that he is fighting the tendency to study foreign literature

in order to influence his nation to repent. This is in addition to his claim in the

prologue, where he mentions different nations like Moab and Ammon, which,

according to Loewe, signify the Arab world.13 Thus the illustrations were intended

to capture the mind of the audience and direct attention to the essence of the book

using artistic means. The notion of penance is critical to the fable; therefore, it is important to shed light on how this issue was expressed in Ibn Sahula’s life and

book. In fact, Ibn Sahula did penance at the age of 37 and writing this book was part of his new way of preaching to others to mend their ways in turn:14

Licentiousness, while months dragged into years, engrossed him, all obvious of fears of excommunication, till, at last, seven and thirty

birthdays were now past since first the self-assertive drive, its reign begun, thenceforth lodged in his heart had lain: five thousand years and forty-one the date from when the world and nature, actuate, left their potentiality

behind. Spirit again come o’er him, he repined, aware that evil were his

deeds. His course, so long refractory, caused him remorse that he, before,

approved. […] Best were, for me, if from the yoke of sin I mean to flee, to go from Eden forth, and to confess […] To my attempts at self-control, and guide myself with counsel, lest the sin of pride by prowess of the intellect

be fired; I sang, as though a prophet new inspired.15

Before discussing the structure of the book and elaborate on one fable, it is

important to briefly refer to the historical context in which Meshal ha-Qadmoni

was written and illustrated, i.e. the early 1280’s in Castile, under the reign of King Alfonso X (1252-1284). The purpose of this discussion is to familiarize ourselves with the cultural environment in which Ibn Sahula lived and wrote, via an example

of the “foreign” literature and non-Jewish culture of Castile that he opposed. The similarities between some characters in Meshal ha-Qadmoni and Alfonso X have been pointed out by Yitzhak Baer and Raphael Loewe.16 The reign of Alfonso X

12 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, vol. I, pp. 14-16.13 Ibid., p. 6.14 J. Schirmann, The History of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 347-348.15 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, vol. I, pp. 26-28.16 Two of the characters in the fables are a lion and an eagle, both rulers of the animal

kingdom. Scholars are in agreement that the lion and the eagle are allegorical figures

representing King Alfonso X. Y. Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2

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Figure 3: Brescia 1491, fol. 21b

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Sara Offenberg

was characterized by cultural and political developments.17 He was renowned as

a learned king, and thus received the title: “El Sabio”, the wise.18 Hundreds of

poems are ascribed to him, mainly those dedicated to the Virgin Mary entitled

the Cántigas de Santa María; Alfonso X compiled this book of stories and songs, accompanied by illuminations, over a period of three decades, completing it in the

year 1284.19 Two history books bear his name as the author: Estoria de Espanna,

on the history of Spain,20 and General Estoria, a world history intended to reach

his own era, but actually ending at the period of Jesus.21

As mentioned, this study unveils religious polemical aspects of the fable,

so we will first briefly discuss relations between members of the three religions

under Alfonso X. The non-Christian residents of Castile, i.e. the Muslims and the Jews, enjoyed religious freedom but were also legally discriminated against; the ban on Muslims and Jews ruling over Christians prohibited them from serving

in governmental institutions. According to Baer, some Jews ranked as high key

officers in the kingdom, but not in the army or in the high courts.22 In keeping

vols., Philadelphia 1961-1966, vol. I, pp. 199-200; R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni,

pp. xv-xvii, xci-xcii; Idem, ‘Who Was the Fox in the Court of Alfonso X?’, Donaire 6 (1996), pp. 49-53, esp. p. 50. See also: J.F. O’Callaghan, Alfonso X and the Cantigas

de Santa Maria: A Poetic Biography, Leiden 1998, pp. 162-165; Idem, The Learned

King: The Reign of Alfonso X of Castile, Philadelphia 1993, pp. 215-229.17 The World of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror: Intellect and Force

in the Middle Ages, R.I. Burns, ed., Princeton 1985; J.F. O’Callaghan, A History of

Medieval Spain, Ithaca 1975, pp. 538-581.18 Robert I. Burns, ‘Stupor Mundi: Alfonso X of Castile, the Learned’, in Emperor of

Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and his Thirteenth-Century Renaissance,

R.I. Burns, ed., Pennsylvania 1990, pp. 1-13. According to Burns, it is doubtful that he actually wrote the entire corpus ascribed to him.

19 Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa María, W. Mettmann, ed., 3 vols, Madrid 1986-1989; Songs of Holy Mary of Alfonso X, The Wise: Translation of the ‘Cantigas de Santa

Maria’, trans. K. Kulp-Hill with an introduction by C.L. Scarborough, Tempta 2000. On the possible connections between Meshal ha-Qadmoni and the Cántigas de Santa

María see: S. Offenberg, Expressions of Meeting the Challenges, pp. 145-177, 185-186; Idem, ‘Isaac Ibn Sahula and King Alfonso X: Possible Connections between the Book Meshal Haqadmoni and the Cántigas de Santa María’, Arts and Social Sciences

Journal 5, 3 (2014), pp. 1-7. See also P. Patton, Art of Estrangement: Redefining Jews

in Reconquest Spain, Pennsylvania 2012, esp. chap. 5.20 D. Catalán, La Estoria de España de Alfonso X. Creación y evolución, 5 vols. Madrid

1992.

21 Alfonso X el Sabio, General Estoria, Pedro Sánchez-Prieto Borja, ed., Madrid 2001.22 Y. Baer, A History of the Jews, vol. I, pp. 111-130; T.F. Glick, ‘Introduction’, in

Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain, V.B. Mann et al, eds.,

New York 1992, pp. 1-9; D.E. Carpenter, Alfonso X and the Jews: An Edition of and

Commentary on Siete Partidas 7.24 ‘De los Judíos’, Berkeley 1986, sign. 7.24.11, pp. 30, 36, 67-69, 99-101; F. O’Callaghan, The Learned King, pp. 102, 108-113.

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Figure 4: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 154, fol. 11b, Germany 1450

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Sara Offenberg

with the decision of the fourth Lateran council in 1215, although Jews were not obligated to wear an identifying badge,23 they were made to wear special clothes

separating them from the Christians. In Alfonso X’s extensive seven-part book of Law entitled: Las Siete Partidas, it states that the Jews had to wear special

headgear in order to be distinguished from the Christians.24 Alfonso X also initiated the translation into the vernacular language several writings covering

a vast range of interests, such as fables, books on the game of chess, Alexander

the Great’s biography and more. In preparing his translations he was assisted by

Jews, especially with the astronomical and Arab writings.25 According to Raphael

Loewe, Meshal ha-Qadmoni should be read with the assumption that Ibn Sahula

was aware of the literary enterprise in Alfonso X’s court and perhaps was even personally familiar with some of the king’s Jewish assistants and translators.26

Let us turn to discuss Yitshaq Ibn Sahula’s Meshal ha-Qadmoni. The book is

divided into five main chapters (On Wisdom, On Penitence, On Sound Counsel, On Humility, On Reverence), each opening with the vices of a given character

and ending with the author’s praise of the virtues of the respective trait. Every

chapter opens with a polemic dialog between the cynic and the author, with both

of them referring to scientific knowledge of nature, medicine, and philosophy, all

disguised in fables.27 The stories all begin with the perspective of the cynic, whose

goal is to undermine the author’s faith through fables which seem to prove that

virtues are not beneficial, but rather, harmful. All of the chapters contain fables,

23 S. Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XIIth. Century, 2 vols., New York 1966, vol. I, pp. 61, 307-311; G. Kisch, ‘The Yellow Badge in History’, Historia Judaica

19 (1957), pp. 89-146; R. Straus, ‘The “Jewish Hat” as an Aspect of Social History’, Jewish Social Studies 4 (1942), pp. 59-72.

24 D.E. Carpenter, Alfonso X and the Jews, pp. 99-101.25 N. Roth, ‘Jewish Collaborators in Alfonso’s Scientific Work’, in Emperor of Culture,

pp. 59-70.26 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp. lxxxv-lxxxvi. 27 In addition to being a doctor, Ibn Sahula was also a Kabbalist; on possible kabbalistic

ideas in Meshal ha-Qadmoni see: H. Lachter, ‘Spreading Secrets: Kabbalah and Esotericism in Isaac ibn Sahula’s “Meshal ha-kadmoni”’, Jewish Quarterly Review

100, 1 (2010), pp. 111-138. For more on Ibn Sahula’s kabbalistic writings see: Y. Baer, A History of the Jews, vol. I, p. 422 n. 12a, and see also the bibliography in the Hebrew translation published in Tel Aviv 1986, pp. 508-509, n. 61a; A. Green, ‘Rabbi Isaac ibn Sahola’s Commentary on the Song of Songs’, Jerusalem Studies in

Jewish Thought 6, 3-4 (1987), pp. 393-491 (Hebrew); Idem, ‘The Song of Songs in Early Jewish Mysticism’, Orim 2, 2 (1987), pp. 57-58; B. Huss, Like the Radiance of

the Sky: Chapters in the Reception History of the Zohar and the Construction of its

Symbolic Value, Jerusalem 2008, pp. 46-47 (Hebrew); G. Scholem, ‘The First Citation from ha-Midrash ha-Ne‘elam’, Tarbiz 3 (1932), pp. 181–183 (Hebrew); S.M. Stern, ‘Rationalists and Kabbalists in Medieval Allegory’, Journal of Jewish Studies 6, 2 (1956), pp. 73-86.

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Figure 5: Brescia 1491, fol. 24a

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Sara Offenberg

mainly about animals. Some of these begin in the middle of a given story, when

one of the characters (usually an animal) starts to tell the fable. Only following

a long discussion does the plot return to the original tale, which is outside the

main frame of the story. This literary motif is characteristic of the structure of the

maqama and books such as Kalila wa-Dimna.28

Both the humans and the animals in the fables can be characterized as Jewish

on account of their words and customs; furthermore, they use biblical verses, the Talmud, and the Midrash to deliver moral messages, even when they are not

identified as Jewish, but as members of other religions.29 The usage of Jewish

sources is in line with the author’s aim to reintroduce his readers to these texts:

For I observed its golden rhetoric was dulled for many folk, who were so

quick to con the works of the heretics, and seek Philosophy dependent on

the Greek, Arabic saws,30 tags from each several part. […] The Torah’s precepts ye have cast aside, with them that choice tongue, wherein are

applied analogies the jurists use – so fair a maiden, and so delicate her

flair.31

After much deliberation, at the end of the book the cynics admit their errors

and affirm the author’s words. According to Revital Yeffet, there are three main

polemics in Meshal ha-Qadmoni: inner community polemic, cultural-literary polemic against foreign literature, and Jewish-Christian polemic.32 Here, I shall

refer to several aspects of these polemics as they are interwoven in one of the

fables.

I will examine a parable, and its illuminations, in the second chapter of

the book, which is dedicated to the praise of penitence.33 The story, about an

28 On the relations with this genre of literature and its connection to Meshal ha-Qadmoni

see Y. Ayalon, ‘The illustrations to Meshal ha-Qadmoni’, pp. 8-32; D. Pagis, Change

and Tradition in the Secular Poetry: Spain and Italy, Jerusalem 1976, pp. 225-230 (Hebrew); J. Schirmann, The History of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 244-250, 347-350; R. Yeffet, Meshal ha-Qadmoni, pp. 2-6.

29 J. Schirmann, The History of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 351-358.30 In Hebrew it says: ‛Ammonites and Hagarenes’, while Loewe translated “Arabic” as

Arabic folk-tales, R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, n. 3, pp. 8-9. 31 Ibid., pp. 8-10. Although, as mentioned above, Ibn Sahula did rely on stories from

“Another origins”.

32 R. Yeffet, Meshal ha-Qadmoni, pp. 112-114, 132-149, 281-283. For more on the Jewish-Christian polemic in the book and the historical context see S. Offenberg, Expressions of Meeting the Challenges, pp. 165-184; Idem, ‘Isaac Ibn Sahula and King Alfonso X’.

33 J. Dishon, Good Woman Bad Woman, pp. 130-142, 205-209; S. Gronemann, Extant

15th Century Ashkenazi Illuminated Manuscripts, pp. 198-199, 223-225, 230-231; R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv, 157-195; J. Schirmann, The Hebrew

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Figure 6: Munich, Bavarian State Library, MS Heb. 107, fol. 22b, Germany before 1458

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adulterous wife, is told by a goat to a ram living in Damascus. The goat represents the cynic, and is described as shovav, mischievous (literally meaning naughty), as

opposed to the modest ram, who represents the author. The purpose of the parable

is to persuade the ram that the way of virtue, righteousness, and penance leads to

a bitter end. The story, which is accompanied by four illustrations, takes place in

the city of Ashdod, where a pious old Muslim man lives. He has a beautiful young

wife of noble origin, of whom he thinks highly, as a woman of virtue, but he is so

prudish that he has not looked at her, i.e. has never seen her naked.

His wife, on the other hand, desires a young man who lives in the town. On

the occasion of the celebration of one of the holidays, when the husband is at

the prayer house,34 his wife sees the young man walking by her gate and she

tears his garment while trying to seduce him. Here Ibn Sahula intentionally uses

phrases from the story of Joseph and Potyphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12): “Ripping

his garment loose, she let her eyes feast on his graceful form, and on his size”.35

However, unlike Joseph, the young man is not righteous, and admits that he has

lusted after her, but could not find the opportunity to approach her, as he feared

her jealous husband. The woman assures him that her husband is no jealous

man, and that he does not even notice her beauty, since he is “preoccupied with

penitence, good soul; so pure inside in all his doings – one glance at his face will show that he upon my body’s grace has never gazed”.36 The first illustration

that accompanies the fable is similar in the various illuminated manuscripts and

the printed edition, and portrays the couple engaged in conversation or already

embracing (figs. 1-3), with the caption: “The lady leans against her swain strength from her fancy-man to gain”.37 The woman is wearing a long dress, and the young

man is wearing a fashionable doublet (a fitted jacket) and hose (tights) in all the

copies, except for Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 154, fol. 26b, where each one of them wears a surcoat.

After the couple consummates their lust, the woman sends her lover back

home. As soon as the young man leaves, the woman rushes to prepare a meal

for her husband in order to tempt him to sleep with her (and she succeeds). The

irony in this part of the fable is that over dinner, the husband discusses the virtues

of a good, loving, obedient, and loyal wife and attributes these qualities to his

Poetry in Spain, pp. 367-377; R. Yeffet, Meshal ha-Qadmoni, pp. 263-267, 312-320.34 According to Loewe the husband may have been going to the mosque to celebrate the

fitr at the end of Ramadan. R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv, 168-169, n. 10. It is worth noting that the text states that “the eve came of their festive day” when he went to the “Knesset”, meaning in Hebrew a place of assembly, which may

or may not refer to a mosque.

35 Ibid., Meshal Haqadmoni, p. 168. 36 Ibid., p. 172.37 Ibid., p. 170; E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni’, p. 105, translates: ‘The desirous

woman clinging to her lover’.

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Figure 7: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. 154, fol. 12a, Germany 1450

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wife. It should be noted that he implies that most wives are quite the opposite of

good and virtuous.38 The wife agrees with him, and dissociates herself from all

the bad, immoral women he mentions.39 Ibn Sahula shows the reader the wife’s

hypocrisy in supporting the husband’s claim while fully aware that she is the

complete opposite of what he thinks she is.40

The various illuminations of this scene have similar iconographies, of the

couple sitting around the table (figs. 4-5). The age difference between the two is pronounced, as opposed to the previous image with the young lover. As Ayelet

Oettinger-Salama has noted, the tension contained in the text is displayed in the images through the intentional dissonance with the explicit caption that describes

the woman standing on her husband’s right side: “The man enjoying his meal, and

his wife standing at his right”.41 This is, however, not the case in the illuminations,

where the wife is not sitting on his right (the caption reads “standing” but in all the

illustrations she is sitting. According to the text they are sitting around the table,

thus the meaning of “standing” in the caption is that she is beside him). According

to Oettinger-Salama, this is done intentionally to display the discrepancy between the wife’s behavior with her lover and her actions in the presence of her husband,

so that instead of “standing at his right”, which signifies being by his side, she

is seated to his left. This also portrays him as someone who does not know the

difference between his right hand and his left.42

In the morning, when the husband returns to the prayer house, the wife

fornicates again with her young lover. Ibn Sahula made sure that readers would

have a clear idea of the wife’s acts with her lover: ‘‘He strode within, exulting

in his youth that flowed in full spate – first a meal, then, in the way that those

inflamed with passion like to play, full seven times they slithered to the dust

taking their fill of pleasure, in their lust breaking ancestral records”.43 This routine

continues for a year, until the young man becomes addicted to playing dice and

loses his fortune. Then he decides to run away: “All day he hid: escape was on

his mind, his home to sheer oblivion consigned. He bedded down, having first

38 For an analysis of the husband’s words regarding women see J. Dishon, Good Woman

Bad Woman, pp. 131-142.39 Idem, ‘A Description of the Ideal Woman’, pp. 7-10; R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni,

pp. 174-182. 40 R. Yeffet-Refael, ‘“Beware of Hypocrites”: Religious Hypocrisy in Medieval

Hebrew Rhymed Prose in Spain’, Hispania Judaica 6 (2008), pp. 9-51, esp. 34-36 (Hebrew).

41 Here I used the translation of E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni’, p. 105. Loewe translates it as: “The master revels at his board, his wife, queen-like, beside her lord”, R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, p. 176.

42 A. Oettinger-Salama, ‘I Place with Texts the Illustrate’, pp. 235-236.43 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp. 182-184.

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Figure 8: Brescia 1491, fol. 24b

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hired a steed”.44 He goes to bid goodbye to the woman, but she decides to join

him and flee the town along with him: “The woman answered, ‘Dearest, do not so repulse me; where thou goest, I will go”’.45 In the manuscripts’ illuminations,

this scene portrays the couple standing or walking side by side next to one or two

donkeys,46 with the caption: “Adulteress and lover here depart, her husband’s fire

setting ablaze her heart” (figs. 6-7).47 In the printed edition, on the other hand, the

lovers are shown riding together on the back of a horse (fig. 8). At this point, the

reader assumes that she is truly in love with him, and is willing to sacrifice all

her wealth to be with him, resembling the climax of a “romantic love story”, with

the lovers riding into the sunset. However, this is not precisely what happens; the couple does not leave empty-handed, but rather with all of the husband’s riches.48

The husband is portrayed as a gullible person; the first thing he thinks upon arriving home and seeing the empty house is: “Of all we own my perfect wife

has sent the best on loan, in charity, some orphan girl to dower in finery against

her bridal hour”.49 Ibn Sahula uses a phrase from Exodus 34:29 to describe the husband: “His saintliness ensured that he knew not that, on his forehead, he a

horn had got”. The husband waits for his wife to return home. He begins to worry

about her and goes out to the city gate and asks people whether or not they have

seen her. Only after he meets an acquaintance of his, who tells him that he was

surprised to see the pious man’s wife fleeing to Egypt with her lover and a great

deal of baggage, does the husband realize the truth:50

44 Ibid., p. 186.45 Ibid., p. 186.46 On the stylistic sources for this scene see S. Gronemann, Extant 15th Century

Ashkenazi Illuminated Manuscripts, pp. 198, 230-231.47 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, p. 186; E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni’, p. 105,

translates: ‘The Adulteress going to her heart’s desire. The love in her breast is going

with her’.

48 Schirmann has pointed out that there is another version of the story in a manuscript

attributed to Yitshaq Ibn Sahula in Oxford, Bodleian Library Heb. e. 49. The manuscript is a fourteenth or fifteenth century copy written in Sephardic script, of

fables by an author named Yitshaq. It was also meant to be illuminated, as blank

spaces for illuminations are accompanied by captions (but instead of professional

images, there are only amateur drawings). However, there are great differences

between our fable and this one; for example, in this manuscript, the woman not only betrays her husband, but also murders him, and when her lover grows old, he suffers

the same fate, so she reigns as the sole heir of her husband’s wealth. A. Cowley,

Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and in the College

Libraries of Oxford, 3 vols., Oxford 1906, vol. II, p. 179, sign. 2765; J. Schirmann, Studies in the History of Hebrew Poetry and Drama, 2 vols., Jerusalem 1979, vol. I, pp. 389-394, esp. pp. 391-392 (Hebrew).

49 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, p. 188.

50 Ibid., p. 190.

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Figure 9: Brescia 1491, fol. 24b-25

Figure 9a: Brescia 1491, fol. 25a, detail

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Sara Offenberg

“Sir”, he said, “most certainly mine eyes do not deceive me51 – thou art he

whom men (holding in high regard thy regimen) surname the Penitent: and

I had placed thy lady in the class of wives most chaste, and now she proves

a worthless whore. I know, having this day met her with So-and-so, that youth – hard was the pace they held, nor slacked at all, their asses laden,

double-packed, for Egypt bound: no one could overtake them on the road, such is the speed they make”.

Esther Beinenfeld and others have pointed out Ibn Sahula’s wit in using the

aforementioned verse from Exodus to describe the husband, as it represents a

double pun.52 In medieval Europe, depictions of Moses appear with horns because

of the translation of the Hebrew word qaran in the Vulgate as “raised horns” and

not “rays of light”.53 In the printed edition of Meshal ha-Qadmoni the husband

appears with horns (figs. 9-9a). On the one hand he is cuckolded (“horned”), and on the other hand, he is portrayed in correlation with the text referring to Moses,

thus depicted as a pious man. According to Beinenfeld, this could explain the

caption in the printed edition: “The man crying, shocked by his loss. He sighs as

though his ‘ships’ have sunk in the sea that has given him horns”.54 In this printed

wood cut there is an addition to the scene’s iconography and text which appeared

in the manuscripts: the lovers are shown embracing in the background, in contrast

to the character of the cuckolded husband. The latter is depicted wearing a long

robe, as opposed to the fashionable (fifteenth century) garment of the young man

(doublet and hose), which further separates the husband from the couple.55

In the illuminations, the husband is depicted next to the empty chests, and in

the Rothschild Miscellany he further displays his sorrow by sitting on the ground

51 As opposed to the blindness of the husband, this man saw the true nature of the

adulterous woman. For more on the husband’s blindness see J. Dishon, Good Woman

Bad Woman, p. 142.52 E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni’, pp. 33-34; R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp.

188-189, esp. n. 26; A. Oettinger-Salama, ‘I Place with Texts the Illustrate’, pp. 243-244. Schirmann suggests that this phrase could imply that Ibn Sahula was referring to an actual case of a betrayed husband. J. Schirmann, The History of Hebrew Poetry,

p. 361.53 R. Mellinkoff, The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought, Berkeley 1970.54 E. Beinenfeld, ‘Meshal Ha-Kadmoni’, pp. 33-34, 105. R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni,

p. 190, translated: ‘He weeps, appalled by loss: great his distress, loud, too, his lamentations are – no less than if his treasure-fleet had all gone down. But meanwhile horns have sprouted from his crown’.

55 On fifteenth century fashion see H. Norris, Medieval Costume and Fashion, New

York 1999, pp. 357-453; F. Piponnier and P. Mane, Dress in the Middle Ages, New

Haven and London 1997, pp. 66-70; M. Scott, Medieval Dress and Fashion, London 2007, pp. 123-169.

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Figure 10: Rothschild Miscellany Jerusalem, Israel Museum, Ms. 180/51, fol. 317a, Italy 1470-1480

and pulling his beard as he realizes his true fate (fig. 10). Upon hearing the bad news, the husband weeps and blames himself for being fooled by his penance:56

He wept out loud, barefoot he walked, his groans sounded as if death’s

rattle shook his bones. “See”, he cried out, “my piety I blame! Through

its fault am I now defiled with shame. Alack, I am undone! That I must

bear sorrow at heart, reproach, disgrace, despair, the cause is in those tears

that I did shed of penitence, in prayers sincerely said; Repentance was my malady. […] But Mistress Penitence seductress proved and I succumbed; and so my wife, disdained, of fury mixed a chalice I have drained. My life

must be all mourning, play’s quake corrupt my limbs. Let all confessors take heed, and forswear repentance – rather choose, wayward, a manner

stern, ruthless, to use”.

We have seen how the fable elaborates on the wife’s deeds and goes into great detail describing her betrayal. At the end of the story, both the husband and his wife

are revealed as sinners: the wife runs away with her lover and steals her husband’s

treasures, and the husband is portrayed as a man who, realizing his situation, is

willing to renounce all the virtues he had extolled earlier, and advocate evil ways.

The images, on the other hand, are more subtle in their criticism. If Ibn Sahula

56 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, pp. 190-192.

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actually meant his statement in the introduction,57 mentioned above, regarding the

different roles of pictures and text, then the illumination could have been meant

for the education of children, while the text contained “adult” material. I say this

with caution, as the original manuscript and its illustrations are not extant, but

from the evidence before us it seems likely that there were two audiences and at

least two layers of meaning in the story.

It is important to remember that this parable is told by the goat/cynic to the author, and that this is the “oldest trick in the book”, that is, to give the audience

one side of the story and let them come to the conclusion on their own that the

radical response of the husband is not the right course of action. Scholars who

have studied this fable have paid attention mainly to the wife’s deeds and less

to the husband’s reaction in the end. I wish to take a closer look at the words

of the husband: “Let all confessors take heed, and forswear repentance – rather choose, wayward, a manner stern, ruthless, to use”,58 and more importantly, to the

answer given by the ram after listening to the goat’s summary: “This parable have

I set forth to thee (the He-goat said), in order to set free thy soul, relaxed; thou shouldst, determined, turn to waywardness – repentance shouldst thou spurn”.59

The ram’s response to this parable represents the actual moral preaching of

the author. A righteous and pious man should not be discouraged by the deceitful,

fornicating ways of women, but should find comfort in the fact that the difficulty

he is suffering only brings him closer to redemption:60

Of the adulteress whose heart ensnares, that whom the Lord approves,

eludes her toils; the sinner she enmeshes in her coils. But one who will, in

true repentance, turn to God, for such tales need feel no concern, nor muses,

plaintive, thoughts that would accord moral indifferency to the Lord. Nay, all his tribulations as but due to his own sinfulness will he construe, for

expiation; poverty and need calamities, he reckons are decreed as ransom, which to save his soul he pays. If he, by sanctity impelled, inveighs against

men’s flews and scandals, he will know his penalties are chastisement

that flow from love abounding, for his own good sent, God’s sacred sage

expounding the intent: To whom God loves, He sends admonishment.

Here the author criticizes the husband for not being a truly pious man. If he had

been one, he would not have arrived at the conclusion he ultimately came to, i.e.

that one should not do penance and should, instead, be ruthless. The fact that the

husband is described as an Ishmaelite could be related to the author’s criticism

57 Ibid., pp. 14-16.58 Ibid., p. 192.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid., p. 194.

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of him, and if so, Ibn Sahula offers here a religious polemic; indeed, there are other stories in Meshal ha-Qadmoni of a polemical nature regarding non-Jewish religions.61

Along with the revealed polemic in the main frame of the story, (i.e. the

dialogue between the author and the cynic at the beginning and the end of each

chapter), there is also a concealed polemic within the stories. The fable about

a Muslim man’s adulterous wife, told by the cynic, is used by Ibn Sahula to

convince his readers to repent, and is possibly also a polemic against other

religions. As part of the interreligious polemic mentioned above, it seems that

the story expresses some concern that people’s fascination with foreign literature,

and more accurately foreign culture (as Ibn Sahula mentions in the prologue

and introduction),62 may lead them to consider conversion. Thus, in our fable

there may also be some element of a polemic against conversion (in this case to

Islam).63 Ibn Sahula is warning his readers not to be tempted by the apparent piety

of a member of another religion, since even the most pious man, upon facing a

true ordeal of his faith, can fail it almost immediately. The reader is supposed to

understand that even the righteous ways of other religions do not offer the proper

way to worship the Lord. Hence, this story provides not only a moral lesson, but also a polemic with non-Jewish religions.

61 On the Jewish-Christian polemic in this context see S. Offenberg, Expressions of

Meeting the Challenges, pp. 165-184; R. Yeffet, ‘Meshal ha-Qadmoni’, pp. 112-114, 132-149, 281-283.

62 R. Loewe, Meshal Haqadmoni, vol. I, pp. 6-19.63 For a polemic involving possible conversion to Christianity see the fable in the fourth

chapter about the buzzard and the rabbits. S. Offenberg, Expressions of Meeting the

Challenges, pp. 177-181.

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