One Thousand Years of Cultural Harmony between Judaism and Islam r 243poem, performed outside the liturgy, as a socioreligious process: “Thus in
the course of time the piyyut broke through the limitations of liturgy and
synagogue song and found an accepted niche during public and private
ceremonial occasions.” Shiloah does not mention any particular time at
which the PLS emerged. There are, however, scholars who tend to mark
the sixteenth century with Najarah’s poetry as a starting point for the ap-
pearance of the genre. His songs are described as a kind of para-liturgical
poetry performed at special pre-dawn rituals of devotion (Tietze and Ya-
halom 1995, 9). Najarah’s poems are not, however, radically different from
much earlier religious poetry and, therefore, the definite time in the past
at which this genre emerged is yet to be discovered.
- The History of the PLS in the Context of
the Arabo-Islamic Cultural Domain
Scholars agree that the Arabo-Islamic influence on Hebrew religious po-
etry was strong, long-lasting, and encompassed both time and place (e.g.,
Altmann 1969; Scheindlin 1991, 1994; Levin 1986; Tobi 2000; Mirski 1992;
and Schippers 1994). It continued for more than a thousand years and
took root wherever Muslims were the rulers and Jews were their subjects.
It had started as early as the ninth century in the most important spiritual
centers of both Judaism and Islam, i.e. ̔Abbāsid Baghdad, and continued
in Muslim Spain, roughly between the tenth and fifteenth centuries (Tobi
2000, 40). Both periods represent the “Renaissance of Islam” (Stillman
1997, 87). During later periods, when Islam was no longer as strong and
powerful, this influence moved to different places throughout the Otto-
man Empire.
The Arabo-Islamic impact on Hebrew poetry resulted in radical
changes that are evident in its form, style, content, and even language.
Indeed, the structural, poetic, and linguistic borrowings are so extensive
that some define it as a poetry that differs from Arabic poetry only in its
language (Tobi 2000, 7). In its content, Hebrew poetry expressed new
ideas, replacing themes of communal concerns and hopes with matters
involving the individual’s religious experience and wishes (Scheindlin
1991, 22). These ideas were inspired not only by Arabic poetry but also
by the Quran, the Hadīth (the sayings attributed to the prophet Muham-
mad), and Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism (Lewis 1984, 80).