Ibn Saruk, Hasdai’s secretary, compiled the first Hebrew dictionary.
Eventually he met a tragic end, when he was suspected of being a Karaite
and chased out of Córdoba. Ibn Labrat was born in Fez, Morocco, and edu-
cated in Babylonia. Under Hasdai’s tutelage, he became the first Hebrew
poet in the Muslim world, and the first secular Hebrew poet since ancient
times. He introduced Arabic meter into Hebrew poetry. Though not a great
poet, he prepared the ground for the great poets who would follow.
Hasdai was also involved in the discovery of the Khazars by the Jews in
Europe and the Middle East. The Khazars were a pagan people in Central
Asia whose king had converted himself and then his people to Judaism in the
eight century C.E., for reasons unknown. In Hasdai’s correspondence with the
king of the Khazars, he attempted to present himself as near-royalty, compa-
rable to the Jewish king of Khazaria.
The cultural development of Jews in Muslim Spain reached a high point at
the end of the tenth century during the life of Samuel ibn Nagrela
(997–1056), the most accomplished and successful Jew in Spain, if not in the
entire history of the diaspora. He was a product of the cultural developments
that preceded him. He received a dual education, Jewish and Arabic. He was
an accomplished talmudic scholar, but also a great poet, Arabic scholar,
statesman, and military leader. He would eventually hold the highest posi-
tion obtained by any Jew in the diaspora.
Ibn Nagrela was born at a time of growing political instability during the
breakup of the caliphate of Abd-ar-Rachman III at the end of the tenth cen-
tury. In 1013, a series of civil wars climaxed with the Berbers capturing
Córdoba, and the ensuing emergence of many petty states. The Berbers were
far less tolerant of non-Muslims than the Arabs had been, prompting the cen-
ter of Jewish life to shift from Córdoba to Grenada.
Against this background, Ibn Nagrela rose from humble beginnings to
greatness. As a young man, his knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic earned him
a job as a scribe, first for a local official and then for a courtier of King Habus
of Grenada, and finally for the king himself. In 1020, Habus appointed Ibn
Nagrela royal vizier owing to his skill as a scribe, and because the Berber king
ruled an Arab majority and deemed Jews to be the most trustworthy of his
subjects. As vizier, Ibn Nagrela had authority over all Muslims except the
king, and even led the Muslim troops into battle.
In 1027, he assumed the title of nagidof Granada, the de factoleader of the
city’s Jews. In this capacity, he supported academies not only in Granada and
elsewhere in Spain, but also in Babylonia and Jerusalem. He purchased man-
uscripts for poor Spanish Jews, and was a patron of leading Jewish scholars
such as the biblical commentator Abraham ibn Ezra, and leading Jewish
poets such as Moses ibn Ezra and Solomon ibn Gabirol.
The biblical commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra, in particular, under-
scores the complexity of Jewish culture in Muslim Spain. Building on the
70 The Jews of Islam