Tov’s Hebrew compositions Ma‘aseh ha-rav, a maqáma
featuring a debate between pen and scissors; Vam qo-
helet, a baqashah consisting of two thousand words
beginning with the letter mem; and, fi nally, Ha-vidui
ha-gadol, a prayer of confession for Yom Kippur. This
oeuvre provides a useful frame of reference for gauging
the ethical, rhetorical, and philosophical dimensions
of the Proverbios morales. Shem Tov also translated
Yisra’el ha-Yisra’eli’s liturgical treatise Miz.vot zemani-
yot from Arabic into Hebrew; the authorship of other
titles sometimes attributed to him is dubious. Excluding
inferences from his work, the scant known biographical
information is obtained from a dı ̄wán (book of poetry)
written by Shmu’el ben Yosef ben Sason, and places
him in Carrión de los Condes in 1338.
Drawing on the language of paremiology, medieval
philosophy, the Bible, Talmud, and Arabic wisdom an-
thologies, Proverbios morales examines the ostensible
dilemma posed to the individual by the unpredictabil-
ity of human existence and endorses adherence to the
Aristotelian mean in ethical matters, recognition of
circumstances in social conduct, and ultimate faith in the
Creator. Here, all things exist in complementary opposi-
tion—night and day, loss and gain, and so on; therefore
wealth is ephemeral, happiness is momentary, and power
mere vanity. For the individual, successful negotiation of
such a world requires the perspicacious appraisal of cir-
cumstance since an action once advantageous may now
be disadvantageous, as Shem Tov shows in a paradox on
speech and silence. For the monarch, God’s representa-
tive, duty requires that he vouchsafe truth, justice, and
peace, the foundations of political order.
The poem’s language is consistent in its general
phonetic, morphological, and syntactic features with
medieval Castilian. Its distinctive traits include homoio-
teleuton rhyme, complex hyperbaton, phraseological
parallelism, the prevalence of parataxis over hypotaxis,
and the accumulation of grammatical functions in pleo-
nastic pronouns.
The suggestion that the poem may be a vestige of
a rabbinical mester de clerecía (clerical poetry) could
ultimately establish its otherwise uncertain generic
identity. The 725 alexandrine stanzas reveal a sustained
tone of self-assurance in Shem Tov’s poetic voice,
equally adept at evoking poignancy, melancholy, or
whimsy. The antonymic parallelism of his compositional
technique, derived from Arabic and Hebrew poetics,
sometimes interpreted as indicative of moral relativ-
ism, serves to enunciate extremes that defi ne a center
of equilibrium.
Each of the six extant manuscripts preserves mul-
tiple variants and stanza sequences, several suggest the
complex social profi le a single work may possess. One
is redacted in Hebrew aljamía (Cambridge), another
includes an anonymous prose prologue (Madrid), and
a third records 219 stanzas written from memory and
entered into evidence during proceedings for the crime
of heresy (Cuenca). The fi rst example implies genesis of
the poem’s main body for purposes of Jewish education.
The latter pair allude to its essentially oral performance
character; the commentator advocates memorizing the
work, “que todo omne la deuiera decorar. Ca esta fue la
entençio del sabio rraby que las fi zo,” [“that each person
should memorize. That was the intention of the wise
rabbi who made it”] and the defendant charged with
heresy swears he recorded “quantas a la memoria me
han venido” [“as many as have come to memory”].
That the Proverbios morales were presented to Pedro
I for his edifi cation seems apparent, but the assertion
that it was written specifi cally for a Christian audience
warrants appraisal. That hypothesis relies upon the
poem’s redaction in Castilian, an opening apostrophe
and closing reference to Pedro I, and a captatio be-
nevolentiae summarizing the Jewish poet’s situation
when addressing a Christian audience of superior
social rank. The delivery of medieval Jewish sermons
in a vernacular places a correlation between language
choice and intended audience here in doubt. The use
of the V(os) form of address, required for addressing
a social superior, is limited to the poem’s introductory
and concluding passages, the main body prefers the
T(ú) form suitable for an equal or inferior in status. It
may be inferred therefore that Shem Tov composed the
Proverbios morales for a destinatory of equal or inferior
status—that is, the Jewish community, and redacted oc-
cassional material in order to accommodate the poem
for presentation before a different audience.
A subtle poetic composition, Proverbios morales
succeeds in incorporating the complexity of human
existence into a persuasive discourse on ethics and
philosophy that addresses the dynamic of the individual
in society.See also Pedro I the Cruel, King of CastileFurther Reading
Alarcos Llorach, E. “La lengua de los Proverbios morales de
don Sem Tob,” Revisía de Filología Española 35 (1951),
249–309.
Perry, T. A. The “Moral Proverbs” of Santob de Carrion: Jewish
Wisdom in Christian Spain, Princeton, N.J., 1987.
Zemke, J. Critical Approaches to the “Proverbios Morales” of
Shem Tov de Carrión. Newark, Del., 1997.
John ZemkeSHUSHTARI ̄ , AL-, ABU ̄ AL-H. ASAN
(b. 1212)
The medieval Hispano-Arabic mystical poet Abu ̄ al-
H.asan al-Shushtarı ̄ , who was born and who lived mostSHUSHTARI ̄ , AL-, ABU ̄ AL-H.ASAN