GENERAL BACKGROUND

Andalusia's Golden Age: New Directions in Hymnography

THE EMERGENCE of Hispanic Jewry in the tenth and eleventh centuries as an influential cultural force was due, in large part, to the political power and stability of the Ummayad caliph ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III (912-61). Cordoba, his capital, became a thriving commercial centre and a flourishing seat of Jewish life and learning. From the Cairo Geniza documents it is learned that the Mediterranean area during this period was an active free-trade community in which Jewish merchants from Spain prospered in trading silk, sugar, olives, pottery and corkwood. However, the largest percentage of Hispanic Jews were engaged in farming, manufacture and handicraft. In addition to Cordoba, Jews lived in Granada, Lucena, and Seville in Andalusia, where some were owners of huge estates which included entire villages.

One of the early leaders of the Jewish community in Spain was the court physician Ḥisdai Ibn Shaprut (c.915-c.970), who also served as chief of customs and foreign trade. As a result of his influence at court, Ḥisdai became the acknowledged representative of Spanish Jewry. From this position he was able to appoint the learned Moses b. Ḥanokh, chief rabbi and head of the academy at Cordoba. With this action the Jews of Spain began to assert their independence and, to a great extent, ceased to rely on the Babylonian academies for rulings in matters of Jewish law.

By his support of Jewish scholars and poets like Dunaš b. Labrat and Menaḥem b. Saruq and his interest in the Cordoba academy, Ḥisdai was to set the standards for the Jewish courtier. Several decades later, Samuel Ibn Nagrela (993-1056), vizier to the Zirid rulers of Granada, would exemplify to perfection the multidimensional character of the court Jew. Among Nagrela's credits were his pedigree: he claimed that he was a direct descendant of ‘the nobles of Jerusalem’ who settled in the Spanish city of Merida. Moreover, he was thoroughly familiar with classical Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic literature, rabbinic studies and Greek learning encompassing physics, logic, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, metaphysics and rhetoric, all of which had been translated into Arabic. Added to this was his influence at court, where his responsibili- ties included commanding the Zirid armies of Kings Ḥabbus and Badis against their Andalusian rivals.