THE SOURCES OF HAR�Z�'S 'TENA'E HA-SHIR' (CONDITIONS OF POETRY) IN 'AM�D AL-SHI'R OF ARABIC POETRY

YOSEF TOBI*

A. Introduction: The Influence qf Arabic Poetry on Hebrew Poetry

The impact of Arabic poetry and Arabic poetics on Hebrew and Spanish poetry is unquestionable, as shown by many scholars . These scholars, to mention only a few, include Sha'ul 'abd-Allah Yosef, Ignaz Goldziher, David Yellin, David Semah, Noah Bar-On, Yehudah Rat- zahbi, Israel Levin, Raymond Scheindlin, and Arie Schippers.' Yet, there is much work to do in order to clarify the different ways, which are sometimes quite hidden, in which Arabic poetic influence was derived from the Arabic literary sources by the Hebrew poets and writers. In this paper, I would like to present a small contribution pertaining to this matter. It is well known that Yehudah al-Harizi elaborated upon many Arabic maqamahs, written by Hamadhani, Hariri, and other Arabic writers, and then included them in his maqamahjormed work, Tahkemoni. This is so despite Harizi's explicit declaration in the introduction to that book that nothing taken from Arabic sources is included therein. In addition, it is widely known that Moshe ibn 'Ezra was intimately attached to Arabic poetics in his work Kitab al Muhadarah r.?a-l-mudhakarah, as he, in contrast to al-Harizi, admits in his introduction. Nonetheless, as this paper will demonstrate, it was not only ibn 'Ezra who was greatly influenced by Arabic poetic writings, but also Harizi, beyond the aforementioned elaboration of Arabic maqamahs. Moreover, it seems that by discovering Harizi's Arabic poetic source, it will be possible to decipher a prima facie unconspicuous reference by ibn 'Ezra 3 to Arabic poetics in general, as this paper will show.3 As many Oriental and Andalusian Arab maqamah writers did, Harizi devoted a considerable part of his maqamah, the Tahkemoni, to literary criticism. The third and eighteenth chapters, as well as most of the last

* Thanks to my dear friend, Saul Zucker, for reviewing the English version of this article. 1 See Schippers, and the bibliography at the end of his book, pp. i-xxix. For further information regarding the research about the impact of Arabic poetry on Hebrew, see Scheindlm's study in the present volume, and my articles, to be published elsewhere. 2 See Kayyal, p. 9. 3 See Dana. 176 five chapters, express his almost hostile attitude toward non-Spanish poets.4 In the third chapter, Harizi deals with Spanish poets only, delineating the specialty of each poet and placing Yehudah Ha-Levi above all. In the eighteenth chapter, he compares Spanish poets to other poets. Following ibn 'Ezra's conclusion that Arab poets excel above every nation's poets, Harizi in a similar way points out the definite supremacy of Spanish Hebrew poets over Oriental and other foreign poets. Later, he evaluates the poetry of the four great Spanish poets, Shemu'el Ha-Nagid, Shelomo ibn Gabirol, Moshe ibn 'Ezra, and Yehudah Ha-Levi. Ultimately, while viewing their work, Harizi arranges all of the poets in five grades. However, between pointing out the Spanish poet's supremacy and presenting a detailed estimation of each poet's creativity, Harizi signifies that poetry has seven rules, whereby 'a poem becomes sweet and plea- sant, and its paths become paths of pleasure. Whoever does not observe these rules, his poetry will be fit only for trampling upon Actually, by these seven rules (tena'im), Harizi summarized the poetics of Hebrew poetry influenced by Arabic poetry, according to his view. Indeed, the tena'im did enjoy a certain attraction by some scholars;6 however, nothing was enunciated with regard to tena'im and a similar formulation of the seven principles of 'ami7d al-shi'r in Arabic poetics. It should be noted that Harizi' formulation of the seven tenae' ha-shir is not the first of its kind with regard to Hebrew poetry. Sa'adia had already attempted in his work Ha-Egron (or in the Arabic version, Kitab usul al- shi'r al-ibrani (The Book of the Elements of Hebrew Poetry) to base Hebrew poetry on three elements, as follows: [a] the acrostic, the beginning of the verse, [b] the rhyme, its end, and [c] the contents, what is between them.' Although Sa'adia was referring to the piyyut, the ancient Oriental Hebrew school unaffected by Arabic poetry, his formulation, which was highly mathematical, is Arabic in its spirit. In comparison to this, Harizi not only borrows the formulated rules for Hebrew poetry from Arabic poetics, but he deals with Hebrew poetry which is itself heavily influ- enced by Arabic poetry.

4 Concerning this question, the additions to the published version of Tahkemoniwhich Stern brought from various manuscripts, are crucial. 5 The English translations, throughout this article, are taken from Reichert. 6 See Pagis, pp. 78-79. For a Spanish translation of the eighteenth chapter of Tahkemoni,see Navarro-Vegas. 7 See Tobi, 1983, pp. 311-3112; Tobi, 1984, pp. 62-66.