Jewish poetry from al-Andalus

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The golden age of Jewish poetry in Al-Andalus developed in the literary courts of the various taifas. Like its Arabic counterpart, its production diminished in the 12th century under the rule of the Almoravids and Almohads.[1] In the last part of the 10th century, Dunash ben Labrat revolutionized Jewish poetry in Al-Andalus[2] by bringing Arabic meter and monorhyme into Hebrew writing.[3] Jewish poets employed Arabic poetic themes, writing bacchic poetry, garden poetry, and love poetry.[4]

Literary language

As in the rest of the Arabic world at the time,

Qur'an, the most beautiful language, and Arabic verse as the highest form of poetry; Jewish poets thought similarly of their sacred writings and composed poetry in Biblical Hebrew[7] Apart from Dunash's metrical innovations, the Hebrew of these poems tried to emulate the diction and style of Classical Hebrew, abolishing elements that had been introduced into the language after the canonization of the Hebrew Bible. This classical approach was facilitated by advances in the study of Hebrew grammar and biblical interpretation.[3]

Hebrew liturgical poetry

The

Song of the sea[8] and the Song of Deborah,[9] as well as poetic books such as the Book of Psalms[10] and the Book of Job.[11] The Talmud also includes a number of poetic sections. Piyyut had flourished in Byzantine Palestine between the fifth and seventh centuries. The incorporation of the complex and opaque poetry of the piyyutim required the recognition of an unusual vocabulary, foreign words, complex grammatical forms, and a great number of allusions to Jewish religious sources.[3]

Caliphate of Córdoba

In the late 10th century,

Yehudah Halevi, a contemporary of ibn Ezra, felt ambivalent toward the metric innovations, condemning them as a cultural surrender.[3]

Golden age of Judeo-Spanish poetry

Taifas in 1080. The division of the Caliphate of Córdoba
into taifas produced a literary flourishing in al-Ándalus.

The division of the caliphate into

Almohads from the 12th century onwards.[1]

Meters and genres

The qasida was typical for major poetic genres. The madih praised and honored a great man, while the martiyya or ritza commemorated the death of a great man. The satirical hiya or hichá ridiculed enemies, although this form is much more prominent in Arabic poetry.

Poets also adopted the

Arabic culture had developed a rich and varied poetic tradition. Jewish poets used the nostalgic tone of poetry of the Arabian Desert for poems about their own exile; imitated the Bacchic poems that described the pleasures of wine and sheltered gardens, and reflected on the lifestyle of a well-to-do class that shared values with their Muslim peers. They also shared an interest in Neo-Platonic concepts about the soul and other themes of Arabic love poetry, reformulated through the language of the Hebrew Bible (especially the Song of Songs), which penetrated both sacred and secular Hebrew poetry.[4]

Notable poets of the era

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9789051837407
    .
  2. ^ "Medieval Hebrew Poetry". Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780814797068
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780814797068
    .
  5. ^ "Jewish Sacred Texts". www.israel.org. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  6. ISBN 9780814797068
    .
  7. ISBN 0814797059
    .
  8. ^ Exodus 15:1–18
  9. ^ Judges 5:2–13
  10. ^ Psalms HE
  11. ^ Job HE
  12. ISBN 9788489492967
    .
  13. ISBN 9789051837407
    .
  14. ISBN 9789004098695
    .
  15. ^ Schirmann, Hayyim (1955). "The Ephebe in medieval Hebrew poetry". Sefarad: Revista de Estudios Hebraicos y Sefardíes. 15 (1): 55–68.
  16. ISBN 9788489492967
    .
  17. ISBN 9780814797068
    .
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