Your Poems are like Rotten Figs: Judah al-Ḥarīzī on Poets and Poetry in the Muslim East

ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIAANALECTA

————— 183 —————

EGYPT AND SYRIAIN THE FATIMID, AYYUBID

AND MAMLUK ERAS

U. VERMEULEN

and

K. D’HULSTER

(eds.)

UITGEVERIJ PEETERSLEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA

2010

VI

Proceedings of the 14th and 15th International Colloquium organized atthe Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in

May 2005 and May 2006

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII

PROGRAMME OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIA AT THE K.U.LEUVEN

– Fourteenth Colloquium, May 19 & 20, 2005 . . . . . . . . IX– Fifteenth Colloquium, May 17, 18 & 19, 2006 . . . . . . X

ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII

Keynote

1. M. BRETT, “The Fifteenth Colloquium on the History of Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras” . . . 1

Fatimids

2. M. BRETT, “The Ifriqiyan Sijill of al-MustanÒir, 445/1053-4” 9

3. J. DEN HEIJER, “La révolte de l’émir NaÒir al-Dawla b. Îamdan contre le calife fatimide al-MustanÒir billah (deuxième partie)” 17

4. S. LAOR-SIRAK, “The Contribution of Armenian Architecture to the Origin of the Stone Muqarnas in Syria” . . . . . . . . 27

5. U. VERMEULEN, “La lettre de QayÒar à Kisra dans une recen- sion fatimide du Sirat {Antar” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Ayyubids (& Seljuqs)

6. P.-V. CLAVERIE, “Une source méconnue sur la bataille de La Mansourah: La chanson de Guillaume Longue-Épée” . . . . 49

7. M. FRENKEL, “Constructing the Sacred: Holy Shrines in Aleppoand its Environs” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

8. H. HANISCH, “Zu zwei Problemen bei der Untersuchung der ayyubidischen Torbauten der Zitadelle von Damaskus” . . . 79

9. H. HANISCH, “Armenische Bauweise im mittelalterlichen Wehr-bau in Syrien” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

10. L. RICHTER-BERNBURG, “Between Marvel and Trial: al-Harawiand Ibn Jubayr on Architecture” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

1341-08_Vermeulen&D'Hulster_Voorwk 02-08-2010 14:23 Pagina V

11. J.J. YESHAYA, “‘Your Poems are like Rotten Figs’: Judah al-Îarizi on Poets and Poetry in the Muslim East” . . . . . 147

Mamluks

12. F. BAUDEN, “D’Alexandrie à Damas et retour. La poste privéeà l’époque mamlouke à la lumière d’une commission accomplie pour le compte d’un Vénitien (821 A.H./1418 è.C.)” . . . . 157

13. P.-V. CLAVERIE, “Les relations islamo-chrétiennes à l’aune du récit de pèlerinage de Jacques de Vérone (1335)” . . . . . . 191

14. N. COUREAS, “Commerce between Mamluk Egypt and Hospi-taller Rhodes in the Mid-Fifteenth Century: The Case of Sidi Galip Ripolli” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

15. N. COUREAS, “The Reception of Arabic Medicine on Latin Cyprus: 1200-1570” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

16. K. D’HULSTER, “‘Sitting with Ottomans and Standing withPersians’:The Sahname-yi Türki as a Highlight of Mamluk Court Culture” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

17. J. DRORY, “A Palestinian Saint” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

18. J. DRORY, “Yunus al-Dawadar” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

19. Y. FRENKEL, “Mamluk ‘ulama’ on Festivals and Rites depassage: Wedding Customs in 15th Century Damascus” . . . 279

20. A. PETERSEN, “Medieval Bridges of Palestine” . . . . . . . 291

21. M. PIANA, “From Montpèlerin to ™arabulus al-Mustajadda: The Frankish-Mamluk Succession in Old Tripoli” . . . . . . 307

22. G. SCHALLENBERGH, “The Invocation of God (dhikr) and Audi-tion (sama‘) in the Spirituality of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350)” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

23. TH.M. WIJNTJES, “Ibn al-Jazari’s Al-ÌiÒn al-ÌaÒin (Damascus 791/1389): A Case of Non-Violent Resistance (?)” . . . . . 369

24. TH.M. WIJNTJES, “Sultan al-Åahir Barquq as Seen by HisContemporaries Ibn Khaldun and Bertrando de Mignanelli” . 383

VI CONTENTS

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‘YOUR POEMS ARE LIKE ROTTEN FIGS’: JUDAH AL-ÎARIZI ON POETS

AND POETRY IN THE MUSLIM EAST

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

Towards the end of his chapter on the poets of Damascus, in maqama18 of “The Book of TaÌkemoni”, the distinguished Spanish-Jewish poetand traveller Judah al-Îarizi (1165-1225) mentions an Egyptian poet liv-ing in Damascus at the time he visited the city:1

“In Damascus there was a certain Egyptian who composed poems forbid-den to be heard. All people who hear them must tear their garments. Theyare like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. I never saw theirlike in all the land of Egypt for badness. But he imagines in his arroganceand foolishness that Solomon the Little [ibn Gabirol] is too small to com-prehend his thought, and that Abraham [ibn Ezra] is very awkward com-pared with the purity of his language. That Moses [ibn Ezra] was the shep-herd of his flock, and that Judah [ha-Levi] praises the beauty of his poetry.And all poetic giants are as grasshoppers in his eyes. He is the one whosays about his contemptible poetry: “My poetry is like the poetry ofSolomon, the Sephardi, and each word in due season.” Now would that hissoul might return to the Sephardi and that Solomon [ibn Gabirol] would sitagain upon his royal throne, so that he might see the filth of his poetry andhis unclean spirit! Truly, he would break his skull, crush his head, cut offhis tail, pull his legs, turn him on his face, and cast him into a latrine.”2

Interestingly enough, it has been suggested that al-Îarizi had MosesDar{i in mind when expressing this harsh criticism. Regretfully, this identification was based solely on the fact that Dar{i, born in Egypt intoa family of Jewish immigrants originating from Dar{a (present-dayMorocco), was known to have made an ill-fated visit to Damascus, wherehe suffered from illness and a lack of hospitality.3 Whatever Egyptian

1 Judah al-Îarizi arrived in Alexandria in 1215; he travelled around the Muslim Eastuntil his death in 1225 in Aleppo. See paragraph 1. below, as well as the edition by J. Yahalom & J. Blau, The Wanderings of Judah AlÌarizi: Five Accounts of his Travels(Jerusalem, 2002).

2 The translation is based upon V.E. Reichert, The TaÌkemoni of Judah al-Îarizi(Jerusalem, 1973), II: 63.

3 The suggestion was raised by J.H. Schorr (He-Îaluz, 6 (1861): 56-59) and refutedby M. Steinschneider, “Mose b. Zedaka, Imran b. Sadaka, und Mose Dar{i”, Jüdische

1341-08_Vermeulen&D'Hulster_10 02-08-2010 14:40 Pagina 147

poet may have been targeted by al-Îarizi, the present article aims toexamine whether it is possible to derive from such derogatory commentsany historical clarity about the literary standards prevailing in the Mus-lim East of that time. In order to achieve this, the article begins with asuccinct biography of Judah al-Îarizi and an evaluation of his opinionsabout the Eastern poets and their poetry. This paragraph will be followedby an overview of medieval Hebrew poetry between West and East, witha particular focus on Spain and Egypt. A final paragraph will present areview of modern scholarship on Eastern Hebrew poetry.

1. JUDAH AL-ÎARIZI ON POETS AND POETRY IN THE MUSLIM EAST

A tall, grey-haired man without a beard but with a strange, Westernaccent is how al-Mubarak ibn al-Sha{{ar al-MawÒili (1197-1256) describesJudah al-Îarizi in his Arabic biographical work on the poets of his period,entitled Qala’id al-juman fi fara’id shu{ara hadha l-zaman (“A necklaceof precious gems treating the delightful treasures of the poets of thisperiod”). In 1996, when J. Sadan published this Arabic biography, newlight was shed on the life and travels of the Spanish poet.4 It turned outthat Judah al-Îarizi wrote his book of Hebrew maqamat, called SeferTaÌkemoni, in the Muslim East, where he achieved greatest renown as anArabic poet.

Judah al-Îarizi was born in 1165, probably in Toledo, a famous cen-tre of Arabic learning in Christian Spain. He spent much time in

148 J.J. YESHAYA

Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben, 9 (1871): 178. See also J. Schirmann, HebrewPoetry in Spain and the Provence (Jerusalem, 1954), II: 144 (footnote 276); and Yahalom& Blau, The Wanderings, p. 183 (footnote 257). The problematic status of the identifica-tion is inherently part of a larger issue concerning the correct dating of Dar{i. More thanfive hundred poems have been preserved in two volumes compiled by the poet. The firstis a diwan to which Dar{i gave the Arabic title Firdaws azhar al-QaÒa}id wa l-Ash{ar (TheGarden of Flowers of QaÒidas and Poems); the second, a supplement entitled al-MulÌaqli diwanihi al-asbaq (Supplement to the Preceding Diwan). The earliest (fifteenth-century)copy of this collection can be found in the First Firkovicz Collection in St. Petersburg(National Library of Russia, Heb. I 802-803). Unfortunately, the first editor of Dar{i’s oeu-vre, Leon Weinberger [Jewish Poet in Muslim Egypt: Moses Dar{i’s Hebrew collection(Leiden, 2000)], based his edition upon nineteenth-century copies, eliminating all refer-ences in Judaeo-Arabic. Research in progress will restore these omissions and lead to amuch better understanding of this intriguing poet.

4 J. Sadan, “Rabbi Judah al-Îarizi at the Cross-roads of Cultures”, Pe{amim, 68 (1996):16-67; ibid., “Un intellectuel juif au confluent de deux cultures: Yehudah al-Harizi et sabiographie arabe”, in Judíos y musulmanes en al-Andalus y el Magreb, contactos intelec-tuales, actas reunidas (Madrid, 2002), pp. 105-151.


Provençal Jewish communities for which he translated several Judaeo-Arabic works.5 In 1215, al-Îarizi travelled East; it is unclear what moti-vated his journey; it might have been a combination of spiritual, eco-nomic and political factors. He arrived in Alexandria and proceededoverland via Cairo to Jerusalem and other Middle-Eastern cities such asDamascus, Aleppo, Baghdad and Basra. Al-Îarizi visited more than fiftyJewish communities were visited by al-Îarizi, where he met hundredsof prominent individuals: communal and religious leaders, politiciansand merchants, and poets. Surrounded by a culture in which riÌalat(travel accounts) were a well-known genre, al-Îarizi described his jour-ney in detail in both Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic and incorporated someof his Hebrew descriptions into Sefer TaÌkemoni. He died in Aleppo in 1225, at the age of 60, without having returned to his homeland in Christian Spain.

Inspired by his notion of Spanish-Jewish superiority, Judah al-Îariziwas very explicit about the quality of the poets he met in the East, as canbe inferred from the following passage in the eighteenth maqama of SeferTaÌkemoni:

“And when I travelled on to the lands of the East, I saw communities thatascended to the heights of praise. They embraced every good quality; butthe poetry they compose, I have listened to and I have noted that they speakin a different manner. Because all of their poetry is like a broken potsherd,or like straw without wheat, or like a dry wind making bare the wilderness,not to fan and not to clean. Many of them seem to be lost sheep, devoid ofsenses and talents. Their poems are products as despicable as filthy rags.They produce sheep, ringstaked, speckled, and spotted.”6

What al-Îarizi reproached Eastern poets of his time was not only theirlack of poetical ability but also a general decline in their knowledge ofHebrew. In a telling account, al-Îarizi relates how the Eastern Jews, whenasked about a Hebrew word, would act as if being addressed in a foreignlanguage.7 On the other hand, individual members of the Eastern com-munities earned his praise for their moral authority, their literary talentsor their intellectualism.

‘YOUR POEMS ARE LIKE ROTTEN FIGS’ 149

5 His translations include a poetical translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed,later translated into Latin, as well as one of the maqama-collection by the Arabic poet al-Îariri. See R. Drory, Models and Contacts, Arabic literature and its Impact on MedievalJewish Culture (Leiden, 2000), p. 216.

6 The translation is based upon Reichert, The TaÌkemoni of Judah al-Îarizi, II: 62. 7 The account is present in an Arabic dedication to Sefer TaÌkemoni, which appears

in some of the manuscripts. For a translation of this dedication, see Drory, Models and Contacts, pp. 221-223.


However, while some scholars have emphasised on the historical fac-ticity of the narrative, others have shown that Sefer TaÌkemoni seemsunder no obligation to keep the real and the imaginary distinct fromanother.8 In other words, while the narrative undoubtedly reflects certainfactual circumstances of the places al-Îarizi visited, one cannot ignorehow these intertwine with imaginative elements, to mould the literarycharacter of the work.

As pointed out earlier, there is also an obvious element of culturalnationalism in al-Îarizi’s observations. The sense of Spanish-Jewishsuperiority was not new; Moses ibn Ezra (1055-1138) even devoted anentire chapter of his treatise on poetics Kitab al-MuÌa∂ara wa-l-Mud-hakara (“Book of Discussion and Remembrance”) to this theme.9 Notsurprisingly, the celebrated Andalusian poet and literary critic wasincluded by al-Îarizi in his classification of poets into five categories (inmaqama 18 of Sefer TaÌkemoni):

“Know that poetry is divided into five grades: some of them of great lofti-ness, others of despised lowliness. The first grade, which is superior to themall, is the rank of R. Solomon the Little [ibn Gabirol] for there is no rankabove it. Nor did there come after him anyone who could reach it. The sec-ond grade, beneath it, is the rank of R. Judah ha-Levi, R. Abraham ben Ezra,R. Moses ben Ezra, R. Joseph ben Zaddiq, and poets comparable to them.The third grade, beneath it, is the rank of all the poets of Spain, such as R. Judah {Abbas, R. Joseph ben Zabara, and R. ZeraÌya ha-Levi, who wasfrom the land of Gerunda [Girona]. The fourth grade, beneath it, is the rankof all the poets from the East who are honoured among them, such as thepoetry of R. Abraham the Egyptian, and the poems of R. Isaac, head of thecollege that is in Baghdad, and poets like them. The fifth grade, which islowest of them all and despised, is the rank of the poets who are today inDamascus and in Egypt, in Aleppo and Iraq, in Mosul and Baghdad, and the land of Merataim.”10

150 J.J. YESHAYA

8 See R. Brann’s criticism of J. Dishon’s assertion that “AlÌarizi was one of the Jewishtravellers in the Middle Ages who wrote about his adventures and impressions in a poeticalbut nonetheless realistic and descriptive way.” R. Brann, Power in the Portrayal, Represen-tations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain (Princeton –Oxford, 2002), p. 140, note 3. J. Sadan (“Un intellectuel juif”, p. 128) describes the text asa semi-authentic and semi-fictive journal.

9 Kitab al-MuÌadara wal-Mudhakara: Liber Discussionis et Commemorationis, ed.A.S. Halkin (Poetica Hebraica) (Jerusalem, 1975), chapter 5, pp. 54-87. Kitab al-MuÌadara was the subject of my unpublished Ma-dissertation; some of its conclusionswere included in J. Yeshaya, “Literary Criticism in the Judaeo-Arabic Culture of al-Andalus: Moses ibn Ezra as a professional literary critic”, Ba{al Milim: Liber AmicorumJulien Klener, ed. K. De Graef (University of Ghent, 2004), pp. 241-255.

10 The translation is based upon Reichert, The TaÌkemoni of Judah al-Îarizi, II: 64.


The feeling of Spanish-Jewish superiority towards the Jews living inthe rest of the Diaspora was by no means restricted to poetry; it markedvarious Jews of Spanish descent, including the well-known philosopherand physician Maimonides (1135-1204) who in a letter advised his sonto avoid the North-African Jews and consort only “with our belovedSpanish brethren, called Andalusians”.11 In other words, al-Îarizi’s criticism of the Eastern poets may partially reflect the personal preju-dices of a Westerner in an unfamiliar environment where his true worthwent unrecognised. Another factor could be his initial idealisation of the Muslim East, the region where Maimonides had written his majorworks. In contrast, during his travels, he claimed to encounter a Jewishpublic that was not as familiar with the Hebrew language as he hadexpected it to be, but rather was profoundly influenced by Arabic culture.12

2. MEDIEVAL HEBREW POETRY BETWEEN WEST AND EAST

The poetical innovations of the Andalusian period have traditionallybeen ascribed to the Arabised nature of Jewish culture in Muslim Spainand the imitation of Muslim courtly culture in the courts of Jewish nota-bles like Îasdai ibn Shaprut (c. 910-975) and Samuel ibn Naghrila, bet-ter known as Samuel ha-Nagid (993-1056).13 Under their patronage,Jewish men of letters and scholars discussed Arabic language and lit-erature, in addition to their own culture, bible exegesis, Hebrew gram-mar and the new type of Hebrew poetry. Indeed, beginning with theAndalusian period, a significant change is believed to have occurred inmedieval Hebrew poetry. Alongside traditional liturgical poetry, theJewish poets now frequently composed secular poems that wereintended neither for study nor for use in the synagogue. Another changeapparently also took place in Muslim Spain; some poets (like Isaac ibnKhalfun) earned their livelihood from their poetry for the first time inJewish history.14


11 H.Z. Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa (Leiden, 1974), I: 361. 12 Yahalom & Blau, The Wanderings, p. vii.13 J. Weiss, “Courtly Culture and Courtly Poetry”, in Proceedings of the First Con-

gress on Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, 1952), pp. 369-408. On Islamic courtly culture in the Taifa period, see C. Robinson, In Praise of Song: the Making of Courtly Culture inal-Andalus and Provence (1005-1134 A.D.) (Leiden, 2002).

14 J. Schirmann, “The Function of the Hebrew Poet in Medieval Spain”, Jewish SocialStudies, 16 (1954): 235-252. On Isaac ibn Khalfun, see A. Brener, Isaac ibn Khalfun: a Wandering Hebrew Poet of the Eleventh Century (Leiden, 2003).


It should be noted, however, that secular poetry in Hebrew did notemerge ex nihilo in Muslim Spain. Instead, the first steps towards suchpoetry took place in the East from the tenth century onwards, again underthe evident impact of Arabic poetry. The groundbreaking role of theKaraites in this process has been well established.15 In their concern withthe study of the Bible, their interest in Hebrew language and grammar,and their use of Arabic for writing in prose, they were followed by oneof the greatest rabbinic authorities of the Middle Ages (and a staunchopponent of Karaism), Se{adya Gaon (882-942). Se{adya was a native ofthe Fayyum region in Egypt. The poems he composed in Iraq illustratethe continuity and change of Hebrew liturgical poetry in the Muslim Eastthat had a great impact upon Andalusia and North Africa in the MuslimWest.16

Se{adya’s student Dunash ben Labrat (920-990), born in Baghdad, iscredited with having introduced the Arabic meters and motifs into Hebrewpoetry and bringing them to Spain. Initially, these innovations became thesubject of a major controversy in the debate between the followers ofDunash and the students of the lexicographer MenaÌem ibn Saruq.17 Yetthe new style quickly revolutionized medieval Hebrew poetry. A genera-tion later, Jewish poets were writing Hebrew secular poems, using Ara-bic meters and conventional themes and figures of courtly Arabic poetry.The new poetical style reached its peak of development during the“Golden Age” of Andalusian-Hebrew poetry between the eleventh andtwelfth centuries, with the works of major poets like Samuel ha-Nagid,Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi. Their poems areamong the most distinctive products of Andalusian Jewish culture, andaccording to S.D. Goitein, the great historian of medieval Mediterraneansociety, “the acme of Jewish-Arab symbiosis”.18

There is no doubt that the Andalusian poetical tradition exerted a powerful influence on the Eastern Jewish communities, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.19 More than any other poet, Judah Halevi was

152 J.J. YESHAYA

15 Drory, Models and Contacts, pp. 147-157. 16 J. Tobi, “Sa’adia Gaon, Poet-Paytan: The Connecting Link between the Ancient

Piyyut and Hebrew Arabicised Poetry in Spain”, in Israel and Ishmael: Studies in Mus-lim-Jewish Relations, ed. T. Parfitt (New York, 2000), pp. 59-77; ibid., Proximity andDistance: Medieval Hebrew and Arabic Poetry (Leiden, 2004), pp. 31-116.

17 MenaÌem ibn Saruq (920-980) is the author of one of the first Hebrew dictionariesof the Bible, known as MaÌberet MenaÌem, ed. by A. Saenz-Badillos (Granada, 1986).

18 S.D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs: their contacts through the ages (New York, 1955),p. 155.

19 Andalusian Hebrew poetry was, however, already known in the East around the turnof the tenth century, cf. T. Beeri, “Between Spain and the East: the poetic works of David


instrumental in bringing the Andalusian model of Hebrew poetry toFa†imid Egypt. At the peak of his fame, he stayed with the Jews ofEgypt for nine months between 1140 and 1141, on a pilgrimage toPalestine. Both in Alexandria and Cairo (which he called a Garden ofEden along the Nile) the Spanish poet found many admirers who circulated his poetry.20 Numerous formal imitations (mu{ara∂at) ofpoems by Halevi from the period following his stay in Egypt are knownto us by Rabbanite poets like Aaron Ibn al-{Ammani and El{azar benÎalfon as well as by the Karaite poet Moses Dar{i.21 Their indebted-ness to Andalusian poetry does not, however, make their poetry epigonic. Instead, the imitation of famous poetical models was a challenge for gifted medieval poets, and was considered a sign of skill,not plagiarism.

Other poets of Western descent who temporarily resided in Egypt inthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries include the Morrocan native Josephben Judah ibn Simeon, to whom Maimonides dedicated his Guide ofthe Perplexed, and the Provençal native Ana†oli ben Joseph.22 From thefragments of the Cairo Geniza, the names of other poets active in Egyptin the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are known.23 The most represen-tative poet of the Egyptian school of Hebrew poetry is considered to beJoseph ben TanÌum ha-Yerushalmi, who was active in the latter half ofthe thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century. Finally, theBaghdadi poet Eleazar ben Jacob ha-Bavli may have been the first poet


ben ha-Nassi”, in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, eds. J. TargaronaBorrás & A. Sáenz-Badillos (Leiden, 1999), pp. 379-383; ibid., “{Eli ha-Îaver ben{Amram: Hebrew Poet in Eleventh-Century Egypt”, Sefunot, 8 (2003): 279-345.

20 The Geniza documents pertaining to the Egyptian period of Halevi’s life were pub-lished by E. Fleischer & M. Gil, Judah Halevi and his Circle (Jerusalem, 2001). Impor-tant contributions include: S.D. Goitein, “The Biography of Rabbi Judah ha-Levi in theLight of the Cairo Geniza Documents”, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 28 (1959): 41-56; J. Yahalom, “Judah Halevi: Records of a Visitorfrom Spain”, in The Cambridge Genizah Collections: Their Contents and Significance, ed. S. Reif (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 123-135.

21 J. Yahalom, “The context of Hebrew imitations of Muwashshahat in Egypt”, inPoesía Estrófica: Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional sobre Poesía Estrófica Árabey Hebrea y sus Paralelos Romances, eds. F. Corriente & A. Sáenz-Badillos (Madrid, 1991),pp. 357-366.

22 J. Yahalom, “Spanish poets between Alexandria and Cairo”, Shevo, 1 (1998): 46-48; S. Stern, “A Twelfth-Century Circle of Hebrew Poets in Sicily”, Journal of Jewish Studies, 5 (1954): 60-113.

23 These include ∑edaqa ben Judah, Moses ben Mevorach, Solomon ben Judah, Mosesben Levi, Nathan ben Samuel ha-Chaver, Isaac Halevi and Gamliel ben Moses. For theseand other names, see H. Schirmann, History of Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain andSouthern France, ed., suppl. and ann. E. Fleischer (Jerusalem, 1997), pp. 444-445.


that al-Îarizi encountered in Egypt during the initial stages of his jour-ney to the Muslim East.24

3. MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ON EASTERN HEBREW POETRY

Regretfully, the achievements of the Andalusian poets in the “GoldenAge” have, regretfully, tended to obscure the production of Hebrewpoetry in other lands. An unwanted side effect of this enthusiasm forMuslim Spain, particularly shown by nineteenth- and twentieth-centuryJewish scholars of Western European origin, was the fact that all non-Andalusian poets in the parallel or later periods were stigmatised asepigones of the “Golden Age” poets. A notable exception was J. Mann,who believed that the Geniza finds compelled researchers to revise theirviews about the traditional claim of Muslim Spain to be the classic coun-try of medieval Hebrew poetry.25

Fortunately, contemporary scholarship is in a process of rejecting suchestablished criteria for “Golden Age” or “non-Golden Age” poetry.Alternatives for labelling non-Andalusian poets mere epigones have beensuggested for the poets of Christian Spain.26 This alternative approachhas been taken up by scholars dealing with Yemenite poetry27 and shouldbe applied to other Eastern centres of Hebrew poetry as well. Futureresearch will show their poets’ distinctiveness, being literary heirs ofboth the Andalusian-Hebrew poetical tradition and Arabic poetics andpoetry.

Not surprisingly, however, research on Hebrew poetry in the MuslimEast is still very much in its infancy, as has been noted with regard to

154 J.J. YESHAYA

24 The meeting between al-Îarizi and the young El{azar ha-Bavli (1195-1250) appar-ently took place in Alexandria around the year 1215. See W.J. van Bekkum, The SecularPoetry of El{azar ben Ya{aqov ha-Bavli: Baghdad, Thirteenth Century, on the basis ofmanuscript Firkovicz Heb. IIA, 210.1 (Leiden - Boston, 2007), pp. 27-28.

25 J. Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature (New York, 1931), I:264-265.

26 R. Brann, A. Sáenz-Badillos & J. Targarona, “The Poetic Universe of Samuel IbnSasson, Hebrew Poet of Fourteenth-Century Castile”, Prooftexts, 16 (1996): 75-103; A. Doron, “New Trends in the Conception of Hebrew poetry in thirteenth and fourteenth-century Spain in relation to Spanish literature”, Encuentros and Desencuentros (Tel Aviv,2000), pp. 213-239; R.P. Scheindlin, “Secular Hebrew poetry in Fifteenth-Century Spain”,in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World: 1391-1648, ed. B.R. Gampel (New York,1997), pp. 25-37.

27 A. Tanenbaum, “Credit is Due to the One Who Completes It”, Journal of JewishStudies, 56 (2005): 101-119.


Egypt by J. Dishon in her recent book on the homonymic epigrams ofJoseph ben TanÌum ha-Yerushalmi.28 While portions of his diwan havebeen published, this major collection of poetry is still far from beingavailable to scholarly research.29 The same can be said about the worksof a number of other poets active in the Muslim East, with the notableexception of Eleazar ha-Bavli. In addition to the pioneering edition by H.Brody, a new edition of all his secular poems on the basis of a Firkoviczmanuscript was published by W.J. van Bekkum in 2007.30 Eleazar notonly composed secular and liturgical poetry but also wrote a Judaeo-Ara-bic theoretical essay on Hebrew poetics. J. Yahalom published the sur-viving fragments of this work.31

Concerning the diwan of Moses Dar{i, a rather problematic and unre-liable edition has been published by L. Weinberger. Apart from numer-ous unclear elements in both the Hebrew text and variant readings, Wein-berger has regretfully eliminated all the text in Judaeo-Arabic, includingthe poem headings, which often contain crucial information about theaddressee or the poet’s reason for composing a poem.32

FINAL REMARKS

In conclusion, we can say that al-Îarizi’s derogatory comments aboutthe Eastern poets reflect his tendency to characterise Andalusian Hebrewpoetry as superior to that of the rest of the Diaspora. However, al-Îarizi’spraises and criticisms have to be dealt with carefully, particularly if wewant to derive from his observations any historical clarity about the poet-ical standard in the Muslim East. Recently, Tobi expressed equally debat-able views on Hebrew poetry in the Muslim East:


28 J. Dishon, The Book of the Perfumed Flower Beds by Joseph ben TanchumHayerushalmi (Beer-Sheva, 2005).

29 H. Sheynin, “Der Literarische Nachlass des Josef ben Tanchum Ha-Jeruschalmi:Forschungen und Texte”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 22 (1969):245-271; ibid., “An Introduction to the Poetry of Joseph Ben Tanhum Ha-Yerushalmi andto the History of its Research: A Study Based Primarily upon Manuscripts from the CairoGenizah”, dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1988.

30 H. Brody, Diwan of Eleasar ben Jaakob ha-Babli (Jerusalem, 1935); van Bekkum,The Secular Poetry of El{azar ben Ya{aqov ha-Bavli: Bagdad, Thirteenth Century (Leiden,2007).

31 J. Yahalom, Judaeo-Arabic Poetics: Fragments of a Lost Treatise by Elazar benJacob of Baghdad (Jerusalem, 2001).

32 Weinberger, Jewish Poet in Muslim Egypt. Reviewed by R.P. Scheindlin, HebrewStudies, 41 (2000): 343-347. See also footnote 3.


“Even after the Arabic forms found their place in Hebrew poetry in the Eastunder the influence of the Hebrew poetry in Spain, distinctly courtly poemsof praise were not written. Note that the Arabic forms of poetry were notabsorbed at all into Hebrew poetry in the East, in total contrast to the poetryof Spain. There the poems were inspired by and portrayed the courtly cul-ture; there are poems of wine (khamriyyat), of love (gazaliyyat), and ofnature (waÒf). But in the courts of the leaders of the Jewish communities inthe Eastern lands and North Africa, such as Baghdad and Qayrawan, nohedonistic spirit prevailed, typical of the courts of the Jewish magnates inSpain who imitated the Muslim courtly culture. After the poetry of Spainbecame planted in the East this imitation occurred there also.”33

W.J. van Bekkum has shown how these observations are an essentialpart of a controversial issue in the field: the complexity of the Arabisa-tion of Jewish culture and literature in the Islamic world.34 With the dis-covery of new manuscripts in the Cairo Geniza and the Russian Firkoviczcollections, Hebrew poetry from the Muslim East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries will hopefully receive due attention with regards tothe major issue of its merits vis-à-vis the Andalusian Hebrew poeticaltradition.

JOACHIM J. YESHAYA

University of Ghent

156 J.J. YESHAYA

33 Tobi, Proximity and Distance, p. 51. 34 See the discussion in W.J. van Bekkum, “Medieval Hebrew Poetry in the Muslim

East (12th-13th centuries)”, European Association for Jewish Studies Newsletter, 17(2005): 54-60. See also R. Scheindlin’s review: “Joseph Tobi, Between Hebrew and Ara-bic Poetry”, Pe{amim, 94-95 (2003): 242-248.


Your Poems are like Rotten Figs: Judah al-Ḥarīzī on Poets and Poetry in the Muslim East

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