200 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINnoted philologist who produced a very influential Hebrew dictionary,
the Mahberet. Having in this criticised one of the greatest Jewish
teachers of the previous generation, Saadia, gaon or head of the
academy at Sura, he was in turn attacked by one of the latter's pupils,
Dunash Ben Labrat, who had been attracted over from Mrica by the
lure of l:Iasdai's patronage. The ensuing academic feud, in which
Dunash ousted his opponent from Ibn Shaprut's favour, was pursued
on into the next generation by pupils of the two antagonists. Arid as
a fight over philology may now seem, it is testimony to the new found
strength of Jewish learning in Al-Andalus.^39
This was further developed by the arrival in Cordoba and support-
ing by l:Iasdai of the great religious teacher Rabbi Moses. Under him
and his son Rabbi l:Ianok, who died in 1026 when his pulpit col-
lapsed under him, an academy was created in Cordoba that even
eclipsed the long-established ones in the East as a centre of Jewish
study of the scriptures, the Mishnah and the rabbinical commentaries
on them.^40 As well, the poetic innovations of Dunash Ben Labrat, who
had adopted Arabic poetic metres for use in Hebrew verse, evoked
responses in subsequent generations. With Samuel Ha-Nagid (993-
1056), Solomon ibn Gabirol (l021/2-c.1058) and Judah Ha-Levi
(c. 1075-1141) a 'renaissance' took place in Hebrew poetry, matched
in the same period by the productions of such classics of Jewish re-
ligious and philosophical exposition as Moses Maimonides' Guide for
the Perplexed and Ha-Levi's Kuwri, a fictitious dialogue with the king
of the Khazars.^41
Although from the mid eleventh century onwards Jewish commun-
ities were subjected increasingly to periodic violence and oppression,
under the Umayyads they were untroubled. Under the direction of
leaders with influence at court such as l:Iasdai, and his successor in
the time of Al-Man~Ur, Jacob ibn Jau, communal life was preserved
and religious toleration assured.^42 New synagogues were built, such as
the one founded in Cordoba by I:Iasdai ibn Shaprut's father Isaac,
while a theoretical ban existed on the erection of Christian churches.
Like the Christians, the Jews were obliged, as non-Muslims, to wear
distinctive dress, and both groups were forbidden, by a survival of
principles from earlier Roman and Visigothic legislation, to own
Muslim slaves. Their other slaves could in theory obtain liberty by
embracing Islam, but it is tempting to wonder if the difficulties of
applying these rulings in practice differed appreciably from those of
earlier centuries.