UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Hebrew Andalusian Elegies and the Arabic Literary Tradition Schippers, A. Publication date 1994 Document Version Final published version Published in Hidden Futures, Death and Immortality in Ancient Egypt, Anatolia, the Classical, Biblical and Arabic-Islamic World Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Schippers, A. (1994). Hebrew Andalusian Elegies and the Arabic Literary Tradition. In T. P. J. van den Hout, J. M. Bremer, & R. Peters (Eds.), Hidden Futures, Death and Immortality in Ancient Egypt, Anatolia, the Classical, Biblical and Arabic-Islamic World (pp. 177-194). Amsterdam University Press. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:09 Oct 2021 176 Pieter Smoor Lyall, Charles James, The Mufaddallyat an arakology of ancient arabian odes, compiled by al- Mufaddal son of Muhammad according to the recension and with the commentary ofal-Anbdri, Hebrew Andalusian Elegies and ed. Ch. J. Lyall. vol. II, Translanon and notes, Oxford 1918. the Arabic Literary Tradition al-Manuqi. Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Shark Diwan al-hamdsah, ed. Ahmad Amin en "Abd al-Salam Harun, vol. I-HL 2nd printing. Cairo 1967-'68, vol. IV, first print. Cairo 1953/1373. NOIdeke, Tbeodor, Beitrdge zur Kennmis der Poesie der alien Araber, Hannover L864, reprint Hildesheim 1967. al-Qali al-Baghdadi, Abu 'Ali. Kitdb ai-amdli, 2 vols, ed. Dar al-kutub, Cairo, reprint Beirut, no date. ai-Raghib al-Isbahani, Abu ]-Qasim Husayn ibn Muhammad, Muhadarat al-udabd' wa-muhdwardt al-shu'ara', Beirut no date: in particular vol. 3 : 483-503 and 503-535. the chapter 'Mimma ja'a Arie Schqipcis fi 1-ghumiiin wa 1-sabr wa 1-u'azi »a l-marathi". Rhodokanakii. N.. "Al-Hansa" und ihrc Traiierlicder, Ein literar-hisiorischer Essay mit textkritischen INTRODUCTION Exkur^en". in Sitzungsbericfue der Phiiosophisch-historischen Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademieder Wissenschaften 147ster Band (Vienna 1904). Abhandlung 4. For a long time, Hebrew literature was essentially a part of a religious tradition. Schippers. A.. "Abu Tammam's "unofficial' elegies" in Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islam- isants. lOih Congress Edinburgh 9-16 September 1980. Proceedings, ed. Robert Hillenbrand, TTiis, however, changed in the tenth century CE. when in Muslim Spain (al- Edinburgh 1982. Andalus) Jewish poets began to compose secular Hebrew poetry and inaugurated Skuruh Saqt al-zand li Abi l-'Ald' al-Ma'arri. 5 vols., ed. Taha Husayn eA, Cairo 1945-'48. the 'Golden Age of Hebrew .A.ndalusian' poetry" which reached its apogee tinder al-Tibrizi. al-Khatib, Shark ikhtiydr al-Mufaddal. san'at al-Kkatib al-Tibrizi, ed. Fakhr al-Din the Party kings (Muluk al-iawa'if) in the eleventh century-. The existence of Qabaw^ Damascus 1971-'72. several courts resulted in a competition that stimulated cultural life-. This emanci­ Wagner. E.. GrmdzUge der Idassischen aiabischen Dicktung, 2 vols., Darmstadt 1987. Wellhausen, J.. Siizzen und Vorarbeiten. Erstes Heft: 1. Abriss der Geschichte Israels und Juda's. 2. pation of Hebrew literamre can be explained by the special position the Jews Lieder der HudhaiUten. Arabisch und Deutsch. Beriin 1884. occupied in al-Andalus. as compared with the other regions of the diaspora. Winter. M.. "Content and form in the elegies of al-Mutanabbi" in Studia Orientalia D.H. Banetk Dfdicoia, Jerusalem 1979. This special position was the result of several historical factors. In the first place, Yalaoui. Mohammed. Un poete chiite d'Occident au IVeme /Xime Steele: 'Ibn Hani' al-'Andalusi, the relationship between the Muslim rulers and the Jewish community was a good publications de I" University de Tunis 1976. one. The Jews, who had been living on the Iberian peninsula from the first cen­ tury, had welcomed and even helped the Muslim conquerors in the eighth century. They saw them as their liberators since they had been oppressed by the Visigoth rulers. A second peculiarity was that Jews were not confined to certain profes­ sions but were to be found in all walks of life: among them were wage labourers, artisans, merchants and landowners. There were even exclusively Jewish cities such as Lucena and Granada. But perhaps most important for the development of Hebrew literature was the fact that there were Jews serving in high offices at Muslim courts. They often acted as Maecenases for Jewish scholarship and ait. 1 I use the term Hebrew Andalusian poetry in contrast with Arabic Andalusian poetry. The term Andalusian Arabic poetry is occasionally used in contrast with Oriental Arabic poetry. 2 More information on the subject is to be found in Ane Schippers. Arabic Tradition & Hebrew Innovation. Arabic Themes in Hebrevi' Andalusian Poetry (Amsterdam, dissertation Institute for Modem Near Eastern Studies 1988), 290-338 and Arie Schippers, Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary Tradition. (Leiden. EJ. Brill 1994). 244-286. 3 Muslim Spain was divided into several Muslim kingdoms led by ethnic Arabs. Berbers. Slavs, or Africans. In the eleventh cenniry there was a rich culmral life at the courts, which competed with each other in wine drinking and poetry parties. Cf. for political history and the position of the Jews: Eli Ashtor, The Jews of .Moslem Spain. (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society 1973, 1979, 1984). 1-ni; David Wasserstein. The Rise and Fall of the Parry-Kings; Politics and Society in Islamic Spain. 1002-1086. (Princttoiu University Press 1985): Raymond R ScheindUn. The Jews in Muslim Spain', in The Legacy of Muslim Spain. S.Kh. Jayyusi. ed., (Leiden. EJ.Brill 1992). J 88-200. 178 Arie Schippers Hebrew Andalusian Elegies and the Arabic Literary Tradition 179 One of the branches of Jewish scholarship that flourished in al-Andalus was genre, consisting of several rhymes and metres, called muwashshah ('girdle Hebrew grammar. Hebrew had already disappeared in the second century as a poem', the girdle being the refrainlike end of each of five strophes)". Both forms spoken language, to be replaced first by Romance and later by vernacular Arabic. are also used in elegies. The themes and motifs of these elegies can be traced back Inspired by the methods of the Arab grammarians who studied the Classical to the sixth century poetry of the Arabian peninsula. Unlike the other poems, the Arabic language, the focus of Hebrew grammatical studies was on the Classical elegiac poems did not begin with an amatory introduction (nasib). Instead, they Hebrew of the Holy Writ. These studies were greatly encouraged by the famous began with the following motifs: Maecenas and Cordoban vizier Hasday ibn Shaprut (ca. 910-970)''. 1. Descriptions of weeping and crying: hot tears and eyes tired because of sleep­ The Hebrew poets tried to demonstrate that Classical Hebrew had the same less nights. Sometimes 'reproachers' ('awadhit) intervene: now you have possibilities as Classical Arabic for composing poetry and used it for correspon­ wept enough. Descriptions of sorrow and affliction. Participation of the uni­ dence in courtly circles and among friends, and for panegyrics. One of the first verse (cosmos, animals, doves, other human beings) in the poet's grief'^. Hebrew poets to make a living out of poetry was Ibn Khalfun (ca. 970-ca. 1020)^, 2. 'Consolation' motifs: proverbs concerning the irreversibility of Fate'-', the who travelled around and sang the praise of high and influential Jewish statesmen transitoriness of earthly life, and the perfidy and faithlessness of the World. and merchants. In this Hebrew Andalusian poetry the metres and themes' were Every living being is doomed to die. adopted from Arabic poetry. Like in Arabic literature, we find here poems 3. The weeping over the effaced traces of the grave of the deceased. The poet dedicated to wine, love, nature and war, and laudatory and elegiac poetry. tries to make contact with the person who is buried, but to no avail. He addres­ ses him, but gets no answer. This motif resembles the amatory introduction to In the following, we will try to show the dependence of the Hebrew Andalusian other motifs of the qasida, where the poet wept at the abandoned campsite of poets on their Arabic examples, mosdy Eastern Arabic poets. In doing so we will his beloved. use examples from the four main poets of the Golden Age, namely Samuel ha- Nagid (993-1055)', Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1058)*, Moses ibn Ezra (1055- In the middle of the elegies we find the following motifs: 1138)'. and Yehudah ha-Lewi (1075-1141)'°. We will show how these poets in 4. Laudatory passages on the deceased. the expression of their feelings about death and immortality made use of motifs 5. Condolences by members of the family of the deceased; ImutalOfy pass^a and images borrowed from ancient Arabic poetic tradition. This does not imply on the Maecenas. that their feelings were not intense or serious enough. They just considered these Arabic themes and motifs, put into Classical Hebrew language, the best way to At the end we often find: convey their feelings.