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Judeo-Spanish Culture in Medieval and Modern Times

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Judeo-Spanish Culture in Medieval and Modern Times 54 NOR MAN A. S '1' 1 L l. MAN Chapter 4 Rosenblatt,vol. 1 (NewYork: Columbia UniversityPress, 1927), vol. 2 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UniversityPress,1938). 18. Concerning this socialdecline and stress,see Norman A.Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soci­ ety,1979), 64-94, 255-323· Judeo-Spanish Culture in Medieval 19. For some exceptional Jews who were attracted to modern Arabic language and Modern Times and literature, see SassonSomekh,"LostVoices: Jewish Authors in Modern Arabic Literature;' in Jews among Arabs: Contacts and Boundaries, ed. Mark R. Cohen and Abraham L. Udovitch (Darwin, 1989), 9-20; also Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 32­ David M. Bunis 34,228-30 . 20. Abraham S. Halkin, "Iudeo-Arabic Literature," in Encyclopaedia [udaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), cols.410-23 (quote is from the final paragraph). 21. For women's Iudeo-Arabic poetry from Morocco, including an example of a poetic duel, see Norman A. Stillman and Yedida K. Stillman, "The Art of a Moroccan Folk Poetess;' Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft Before the Expulsion of1492 128, no. 1 (1978): 65-89. 22. For the sharh tradition in Morocco,see Stillman, The Language and Culture Throughout the Diaspora, new Jewish "subcultures" have arisen in re­ of theJews of Sefrou, 137-39; for Egypt,see Benjamin Hary,"Egyptian Iudeo-Arabic sponse to changes in the social and cultural interaction of Jewish groups Sharh-Bridging the Cultures of Hebrew and Arabic;' in Judaism and Islam: and their non-Jewish neighbors. Sometimes this occurred when Jews Boundaries, Communication, and Interaction: Essays in Honor of William M. Brin­ migrated to a new land, as in the case of Jews from Italy and France who ner, ed. Benjamin H. Hary, Fred Astren, and John L. Hayes (Boston: Brill, 2000), settled in medieval Germany where they created the foundations of the 395-407. Yiddish culture of Ashkenazi Jewry. Later, when Ashkenazim migrated 23. A history of Judeo-Arabic journalism remains a major desideratum, and from Germany to Slavic lands, the unique subculture they created through the fewshort surveys are primarily in Hebrew and French. Some of these journals the syncretism of elements of ancient Hebrew and medieval Romance and are discussed in Stillman, The Jews ofArab Lands in Modern Times, 69, 77,86-87, German origins was further enriched through contact with the cultures of 104, 318-19 and passim. For a catalogue of North African Jewishperiodicals, many in Iudeo-Arabic, see Robert Attal, Periodiques juifs d'Afrique du Nord (Jerusalem: Slavic peoples, and still later, with the cultures of western Europe. At other Institut Ben-Zvi, 1980). For an excellent sociohistorical study on Yiddish and times, new Jewish cultures were created when Jews residing in a particular Ladino journalism, see Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish area became highly influenced by the arrival of a group foreign to the area. and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires (Bloomington: Indiana Uni­ Of the Jewish people's diverse subculture groups-Yiddish, Judeo- Ara­ versityPress, 2003). maic, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Italian, and others-the Span­ 24. Nancy Berg, Exile from Exile: Israeli Writers from Iraq (Albany: State Uni­ ish or Sephardic Jews were especially interesting. Much of Yiddish culture versityof NewYorkPress, 1996). Some of these writers were pioneers in the devel­ in Europe is connected with Jewish migration and resettlement, all of it opment of modern Iraqi literature. within the Christian world. This led to interaction with neighbors who all spoke Indo-European languages and shared certain basic elements of cul­ ture and belief. The traditional Judeo-Arabic culture of North African Jews developed essentially through interaction with the culture and belief system introduced there in the late seventh century by Arabic-speaking Muslim conquerors. Thus, the elements of Yiddish culture, which may be linked to the interaction between the Ashkenazim and their non-Jewish 55 5t> n A V I Il M. 1\ 1I N I S }lIIleo-S/'lmi,iI (;/111141'1' in Medieval and Modem Times 57 neighbors, had a European character. The cultural elements of North remaining Muslim leaders in Andalusia was followed by the Arab retreat African Iudeo-Arabic speakers deriving from contact with their non­ from Spain, and the end of Arabic cultural dominance in the country. Jewish neighbors had a primarily North African/Middle Eastern charac­ In Christian Spain, Jewish contact with speakers of Castilian and other ter. The development of traditional Sephardic culture was distinctive. It Romance languages led to incipient Jewish Ibero-Romance languages. Like reflected an intimate encounter over centuries with local and imported ludeo-Arabic, these languages were written in the Hebrew alphabet. Their non-Jewish cultures of European and Eastern character, in the land of its linguistic raw material consisted of elements of local Romance origin, ele­ earliest origins as well as other regions. ments of Hebrew-Aramaic origin,' and preservations from the Diaspora Sephardic or "Iudeo-Spanish" culture first arose through migration, languages formerly spoken by their ancestors. Preservations from Jewish as Jewish speakers of varieties of Greek and Latin from the Roman Em­ Greek (e.g., meldar' "to read, study" [especially a Jewish text], cf. Greek pire reached Iberia. They came into contact with its indigenous popula­ meletaoi" memorialized the Iudeo-Greek roots of the community. Follow­ tions, of European stock, most of whom-under Roman influence-came ing the Muslim conquest of much of Spain, the Jews in the conquered to speak Romance and other Indo-European languages. They accepted territories adopted Arabic, while those in free areas continued to use Christianity. It was through interaction with these groups that Iberian Ibero-Romance. The gradual Christian reconquest and re-Hispanization Jews developed their earliest varieties of Jewish Ibero-Romance-Jewish of Islamized Spain led to a return to Ibero-Romance by the formerly Ara­ Castilian, Aragonese, Catalan, and others-and created Jewish variants of bicized Iews." the local cultures in those languages. Nevertheless, in their re-adopted Ibero-Romance speech and culture, From 711, the culture of much of Iberian Jewry took quite a different they continued to preserve certain elements of Arabic origin to which they turn: with the conquest of most of Iberia by Muslims from North Africa, had grown accustomed. For example, in their Ibero-Romance, the Jews the Arabic language began to predominate throughout the territory which continued to call Sunday alhad, from the North African Arabic form al­ came under Muslim domination. Jews in the extremities of Iberia, such hadd, literally meaning "first (day)." This was to avoid using Castilian as the far north and west (which remained free of Muslim occupation) domingo (from Latin [diesJdominicus) meaning" [day of the] Lord," which continued to use Jewish Ibero-Romance. But Iberian Jews under Islam they understood as a reference to Jesus. adopted the newly introduced Arabic and evolved unique Iudeo-Arabic Among the speakers of Jewish Romance in Spain, the traditions of His­ variants of their own. Besides its elements of North-African Arabic origin, panic oral folk literature-proverbs, ballads and popular songs, stories, which the Jews sometimes used in innovative ways, their language con­ and legends-as well as the dramatic arts were beloved. Scholarly works tained a Hebrew and Aramaic component, comprised mostly of elements were composed mostly in Hebrew, although some serious writing was in referring to Judaism. The Jews wrote Iudeo-Arabic in a distinctive Hebrew Jewish Romance. The latter consisted mostly of collections of communal cursive script. regulations, poetry having a Jewish motif, and translations of sacred During the centuries of contact with Moorish culture, the Jews of Mus­ texts. Like their language and literature, the material culture of the Jews lim Spain, using Iudeo-Arabic and Hebrew, produced liturgical and secular of Christian Spain displayed some features reminiscent of those found poetry, composed legal and scientific tracts, and delved deeply into the among their Christian neighbors, as well as preservations from the earlier fields of mysticism, philosophy, and ethics. The Jews shared aspects of ma­ Iberian Iudeo-Arabic culture. terial culture (e.g., costume, cuisine, and religious artifacts) and fine arts (e.g., music and calligraphy) with their Muslim neighbors.' But with the increasing success over the centuries of the Reconquista, the Jews residing After the Expulsion of1492 in newly re-Christianized areas began substituting their ludeo-Arabic lan­ guage and culture with Jewish Hispano-Romance replacements. Asan inde­ Those Jews who insisted on maintaining their ancestral religion in fif­ pendent entity, the Iudeo-Arabic culture of the Iberian Jews came to an end teenth-century Spain were forced to leave the country with the Edict of in 1492. In that year, the final military triumph of the Spaniards over the Expulsion. But unlike the case of the Iberian Iudeo-Arabic culture, which 58 U A V 1 D M. BUN 1 S jwJI'(I-S/'tlllish U411Uf/' ill Medieval and Modern Times 59 had sung its swan song even before the Expulsion, the forced emigration ranean basin result in their loss of contact with either Christians or Mus­ from Spain did not put an end
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