The Arabized Jews

Ross Brann

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521471596.030

24 - The Arabized Jews

from PART V - MARRIAGES AND EXILES

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012

Ross Brann

Edited by

María Rosa Menocal ,

Raymond P. Scheindlin and

Michael Sells

Show author details

María Rosa Menocal: Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Raymond P. Scheindlin: Affiliation:
Haverford College, Pennsylvania
Michael Sells: Affiliation:
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In the Muslim East, a literary intellectual of Arabic and Persian traditions might well earn the honorific dhū l-lisānayn – one who commanded the two principal languages in which Islamic culture was then conducted, preserved, and transmitted. Members of the Muslim oikoumēnē of a different order and a singular socioreligious condition, the Jews of al-Andalus also esteemed cultural literacy in two languages, one of which was Arabic. Moses Ibn Ezra’s (d. c. 1138) epistolary lyric to Abū Ibrāhīm (Isaac) Ibn Barun (eleventh century), the author of a comparative grammar and lexicon, Kitāb al-muwāzana bayn al-lugha al-ʿibrāniyya wa l-ʿarabiyya (Book of Comparison between the Hebrew and Arabic Languages), and Judah Halevi’s (d. 1141) rhymed-prose salute to Ibn Ezra, the venerable dean of Andalusi-Jewish letters, among many texts expressing similar sentiments, unambiguously set forth the Andalusi Jews’ cultural ideal valorizing Arabic as well as Hebrew learning. Other texts authored by these figures bespeak a more complex and ambivalent sense of the Jews’ multiple cultural loyalties.

The literary culture of the Arabized Jews of al-Andalus represents, among other things, a particular instance of the general development of the Jews under Islam during the Middle Ages. Afforded economic opportunity, religious freedom, and social integration in the defined role of “protected people,” Jews were also caught up in the intellectual stimulation and challenges of Islamic civilization. The principal means by which the Jews of Islam west of the Iranian plateau gained access to the economic and social domain of Islam as well as its cultural realm was their apparently swift adoption of Arabic as the language of everyday life, an accommodation that also saw them employ Arabic as their primary although not sole literary language.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Literature of Al-Andalus , pp. 435 - 454

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521471596.030 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ibn Ḥazm. Ṭawq al-ḥamāma fī l-ulfa wa l-ullāf. Ed. Salāḥ al-Dīn al-Qāsimī. Baghdad, 1986.Google Scholar

Ibn Bassam. al-Dhakhīra fī maḥāsin ahi al-jazīra. Ed. Iḥsān ՙAbbās. 8 vols. Beirut, 1979.Google Scholar

Ibn Ḥazm. al-Fiṣal fī l-milal wa l-ahwā՚ wa l-niḥal. 5 vols. in 2. Cairo edn. 1899–1903. Rpt., 1964.

Ibn al-Khaṭīb. al-Iḥāṭa fī akhbār gharnāṭa. Ed. Muḥammad ՙAbd Allāh ՙInān. 2 vols. Cairo, 1973.Google Scholar

Allony, Nehemiah. “The Reaction of Moses ibn Ezra to ՙArabiyya.” Bulletin of the Institute of Jewish Studies 1 (1973): 19–40.Google Scholar

Ashtor, Eliahu. The Jews of Moslem Spain. 3 vols. in 2 with new introduction and bibliography by D. J. Wasserstein. Philadelphia, 1992.Google Scholar

Assis, Yom Tov. “The Judeo-Arabic Tradition in Christian Spain.” The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society, and Identity. Ed. Frank, Daniel. Leiden, 1995. 111–24.Google Scholar

Bassnett, Susan, and André, Lefevre, eds. Translation, History, and Culture. London, 1990.Google Scholar

Ben-Shammai, Haggai. “New Fragments from the Arabic Original of Mivḥar hapeninim” [Hebrew]. Tarbiz 60 (1991): 577–91.Google Scholar

Berger, Peter L., and Thomas, Luckman. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York, 1967.Google Scholar

Blau, Joshua. The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic. 2nd edn. Jerusalem, 1981.Google Scholar

Blau, Joshua. “Maimonides, al-Andalus, and the Influence of the Spanish-Arabic Dialect on His Language.” New Horizons in Sephardic Studies. Ed. Stillman, Yedida K. and Zucker, George K.. Albany, 1993. 203–10.Google Scholar

Brann, Ross. The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain. Baltimore, 1991.Google Scholar

Brann, Ross. “Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Muslims and Jews in Judah al-Ḥarīzī’s Taḥkemoni.” Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies 1 (1992): 1–22.Google Scholar

Brody, Heinrich, and Dan Pagis. Moshe ibn ezra: Shirei ha-ḥol.Berlin, 1935–77.Google Scholar

Cohen, Gerson D.Sefer ha-Qabbalah by Ibn Daud: The Book of Tradition. Philadelphia, 1967.Google Scholar

Constable, Olivia Remie. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900–1500. Cambridge, 1994.Google Scholar

Dana, Joseph. “The Influence of Arabic Literary Culture on the Judeo-Arabic Literature of the Middle Ages as Reflected in Moses Ibn Ezra’s Kitāb al-muḥāḍara wa l-mudhākara” [Hebrew]. Sefunot, n.s., 5 (1991): 21–36.Google Scholar

Dana, Joseph. Poetics of Medieval Hebrew Literature According to Moses Ibn Ezra [Hebrew]. Jerusalem, 1982.Google Scholar

Drory, Rina. The Emergence of Jewish-Arabic Literary Contacts at the Beginning of the Tenth Century [Hebrew]. Tel Aviv, 1988.Google Scholar

Drory, Rina. “Literary Contacts and Where to Find Them: On Arabic Literary Models in Medieval Jewish Literature.” Poetics Today 14 (1993): 277–302.CrossRef Google Scholar

Drory, Rina. “‘Words Beautifully Put’: Hebrew versus Arabic in Tenth-Century Jewish Literature.” Genizah Research after Ninety Years: The Case of Judaeo-Arabic. Ed. Joshua Blau and Stefan C. Reif. Cambridge, 1992. 53–66.Google Scholar

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. New York, 1967.Google Scholar

Goitein, S. D. “The Interplay of Jewish and Islamic Law.” Jewish Law in Legal History and the Modern World. Ed. B. S. Jackson. Leiden, 1980. 61–77.Google Scholar

Goitein, S. D.Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts through the Ages. New York, 1974.Google Scholar

Goitein, S. D.A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Genizah. Vols. 1–5. Berkeley, 1976–88.Google Scholar

Goldreich, Amos. “Possible Arabic Sources of the Distinction between ‘Duties of the Heart’ and ‘Duties of the Limbs’” [Hebrew]. Teՙuda 6 (1988): 179–208.Google Scholar

Halkin, Abraham S. “Judeo-Arabic Literature.” The Jews: Their Religion and Culture. Ed. L. Finklestein. 4th edn. New York, 1971. 121–54.Google Scholar

Halkin, Abraham S. “The Medieval Jewish Attitude toward Hebrew.” Biblical and Other Studies. Ed. A. Altmann. Cambridge, Mass., 1963. 233–48.Google Scholar

Hary, Benjamin H.Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic, with an Edition, Translation, and Grammatical Study of the Cairene Purim Scroll. Leiden, 1995.Google Scholar

Ibn ՙAqnīn, Joseph. Inkishāf al-asrār wa-ẓuhūr al-anwār. Ed. Abraham S. Halkin. Jerusalem, 1964.Google Scholar

Ibn Ezra, Moses. Kitāb al-muḥāḍara wa l-mudhākara. Ed. Abraham S. Halkin. Jerusalem, 1975.Google Scholar

Ibn Janāḥ, Jonah. Kitāb al-lumaՙ (Le livre des parterres fleuris). Ed. Joseph Derenbourg. Paris, 1886.Google Scholar

Ibn Paquda, Bahya. al-Hidāya ilā farā՚ iḍ al-qulüb. Ed. A. S. Yahuda. Leiden, 1912.Google Scholar

Ibn Saՙīd, ՙAlī ibn Mūsā al-Maghribī. Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyazīn. Ed. al-Nuՙmān ՙAbd al-Mutaՙālī al-Qāḍī. Cairo, 1973.Google Scholar

Ibn Saruq, Menaḥem. Maḥberet. Ed. Ángel Sáenz-Badillos. Granada, 1986.Google Scholar

Jarden, Dov, ed.Divan shmuel hanagid: Ben tehillim.Jerusalem, 1966.Google Scholar

Judah, Halevi. Kitāb al-radd wa l-dalīl fī l-dīn al-dhalīl (al-kitāb al-khazari). Ed. David H. Baneth and Haggai Ben-Shammai. Jerusalem, 1977.Google Scholar

Ṣāՙid ibn Aḥmad al-Andalusī. Kitāb ṭabaqāt al-umam. Ed. Louis Cheikho. Beirut, 1912.Google Scholar

Kraemer, Joel L. “The Andalusian Mystic Ibn Hud and the Conversion of the Jews.” Israel Oriental Studies 12 (1992): 59–73.Google Scholar

Kraemer, Joel L. “Maimonides on the Philosophic Sciences in His Treatise on the Art of Logic.” Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies. Ed. Joel L. Kraemer. Oxford, 1991. 77—104.Google Scholar

Levin, Israel. The Embroidered Coat: The Genres of Hebrew Secular Poetry in Spain [Hebrew]. 3 vols. Tel Aviv, 1994–95.Google Scholar

Libson, Gideon. “Halakhah and Law in the Period of the Geonim.” An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law. Ed. N. S. Hecht et al. Oxford, 1996. 197–250.Google Scholar

Lobel, Dianna Nicole. “Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Arabic Terms for Religious Experience in Yehudah Halevi’s Kuzari.” Diss., Harvard University, 1995.Google Scholar

al-Maqqarī. Nafḥ al-ṭīb min ghuṣn al-andalus al-raṭīb. Ed. Iḥsān ՙAbbās. 8 vols. Beirut, 1968.Google Scholar

Nutt, John William, ed. Sheloshah sifrei diqduq.London, 1870. Rpt., 1968.Google Scholar

Pines, Shlomo. “Shiՙite Terms and Conceptions in Judah Halevi’s Kuzari.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 2 (1980): 165–251.Google Scholar

Ratzaby, Yehuda. “Arabic Poetry Written by Andalusian Jews” [Hebrew]. Israel Levin Jubilee Volume. Ed. Reuven Tsur and Tova Rosen. Tel Aviv, 1994. 329–50.Google Scholar

Rosenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam. Trans. Emile and Jenny Marmorstein. Berkeley, 1975.Google Scholar

Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel. A History of the Hebrew Language. Trans. John Elwolde. Cambridge, 1993.CrossRef Google Scholar

Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel. Tešubot de Dunaš ben Labrat. Critical edn. and Spanish trans. Granada, 1980.Google Scholar

Safran, Bezalel. “Bahya ibn Paquda’s Attitude toward the Courtier Class.” Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature. Ed. Isadore Twersky. Cambridge, Mass., 1979. 154–96.Google Scholar

Scheindlin, Raymond P.The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul. Philadelphia, 1991.Google Scholar

Scheindlin, Raymond P. “Ibn Gabirol’s Religious Poetry and Sufi Poetry.” Sefarad 54 (1994): 110–42.Google Scholar

Scheindlin, Raymond P. “Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra on the Legitimacy of Poetry.” Medievalia et Humanistica, n.s., 7 (1976): 101–15.Google Scholar

Scheindlin, Raymond P.Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life. Philadelphia, 1986.Google Scholar

Schippers, Arie. “Arabic and the Revival of the Hebrew Language and Culture.” Jews under Islam: A Culture in Historical Perspective. Ed. Julie Marthe-Cohen. Amsterdam, 1993. 75–93.Google Scholar

Schippers, Arie. Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary Tradition: Arabic Themes in Hebrew Andalusian Poetry. Leiden, 1994.Google Scholar

Dunash ben Labrat. Shirim. Ed. Nehemiah Allony. Jerusalem, 1947.Google Scholar

Simon, Uriel. Four Approaches to the Book of Psalms: From Saadiah Gaon to Abraham ibn Ezra. Trans. Lenn J. Schramm. Albany, 1991.Google Scholar

Stern, Samuel M. “Arabic Poems by Spanish-Hebrew Poets.” Romanica et Occidentalia: Etudes dédiées a la mémoire de Hiram Peri. Ed. Moshe Lazar. Jerusalem, 1963. 254–63.Google Scholar

Stern, Samuel M. “The Life of Samuel the Nagid” [Hebrew]. Zion 15 (1950): 135–45.Google Scholar

Moses Maimonides. The Guide of the Perplexed. 2 vols. trans. with an introduction and notes by Shlomo Pines and introductory essay by Leo Strauss. Chicago, 1963.Google Scholar

Tobi, Yosef. “A Second Manuscript of Kitāb iṣlāḥ al-akhlāq by Solomon ibn Gabirol” [Hebrew]. Hebrew and Arabic Studies in Honour of Joshua Blau. Jerusalem, 1993.Google Scholar

Vajda, Georges. “Judaeo-Arabic [Judaeo-Arabic Literature].” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd edn. Leiden, 1954–. 4:303–7.Google Scholar

Wasserstein, David J. “Jewish Elites in al-Andalus.” The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society, and Identity. Ed. Daniel Frank. Leiden, 1995. 101–10.Google Scholar

Wasserstein, David J.The Rise and Fall of the Party Kings: Politics and Society in Islamic Spain, 1002–1086. Princeton, 1985.Google Scholar

Wise, Stephen S., ed. and trans. The Improvement of the Moral Qualities by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Rpt., New York, 1966.Google Scholar

Book contents

24 - The Arabized Jews

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive