The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

Jewish Parody and Allegory in Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Spain r 235

7. For Samuel ibn Nagrela, see, e.g., in Schirmann, HPSP, 1:164. For Moses ibn Ezra,
   see, e.g., in Schirmann, HPSP, 2:372–73, #1.


8. See, e.g., Solomon ibn Gabirol in Schirmann, HPSP, 1:219, #79; Moses ibn Ezra in
   Schirmann, HPSP, 2:371–72, #144.


9. See, e.g., Samuel ibn Nagrela’s “Battle at Alfuente,” in Schirmann, HPSP, 1:85–92.
   For his distaste of war see HPSP, 142, #21, “war’s beginnings resemble a beautiful wench.”


10. See, e.g., Solomon ibn Gabirol, “I Am the Prince and the Song Is My Servant,” in
    Schirmann, HPSP, 1:192, #61.


11. See Schippers, Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary Tradition, 50, 140–
    203; A. M. Habermann, ̔Iyyunim ba-shira u-va-piyyut shel yemei habeynayyim (Jerusa-
    lem: Rubin Mass, 1972), 47–50; Shulamit Elizur, Secular Hebrew Poetry in Moslem Spain
    (Hebrew) (Ramat Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 2004), 3 vols., 2:69–127; Raymond P.
    Scheindlin, Wine, Women, and Death (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1986),
    77–89; Neal Kozodoy, “Reading Medieval Love Poetry,” in AJS Review 2 (1977): 115.


12. See Maimonides in his commentary to Mishnah ’Avot, 1:17, as cited by Kozodoy,
    “Reading Medieval Love Poetry,” 111–13 and n. 1; Schirmann, “L’amour spirituel dans la
    poésie hébraique du moyen âge,” Lettres Romanes 15, no. 4 (1961): 315–25, especially 315.
    For all Maimonides’ citations on poetry, see Kozodoy.


13. These erotic poems were interpreted by later investigators as multilayered, openly
    sensual on the simple (peshat) level, and descriptive of God’s and Israel’s love and at-
    tachment to each other on the rhetorical level (derash). Allegorical treatment of Song of
    Songs as the divine-human relationship is the essence of Rashi’s interpretation and for
    the Church fathers as the loving relationship between God and the Church.


14. Quotations are from Song of Songs 2:5; 1:9–11, 15.


15. For Israel as God’s bride, see Jeremiah 2:2 and Hosea 2:21–22. For God and Israel’s
    troubled relationship, see Moses’ recapping of Israelite history in Deuteronomy 32; the
    prophet Jeremiah’s indictment in 2:2–9, and the prophet Hosea’s recitation of God’s rejec-
    tion of Israel in 2:7–15, 3:1.


16. See S. D. Goitein, “Ha-maqāma ve-ha-mahberet: pereq be-toledot ha-sifrut ve-ha-
    hevra ba-mizrah,” Mahberot le-sifrut 5 (1951): 26–40.


17. For a more complete list of Arab maqāmāt, see Lois Anita Giffen, Theory of Profane
    Love among the Arabs: The Development of the Genre (New York: New York University
    Press, 1971). See especially ibn Hazm’s (994, Cordova–1064, Jativa) Dove’s Neck Ring, ed.
    and trans. W. J. Arberry (London: Luzac, 1953).


18. His philosophical works included Sefer pardes rimmonei ha-hokhmah ve- ̔arugat
    bosem ha-mezimah and Sefer gan ha-te ̔udot ve- ̔arugot huqqot hamudot. His grammati-
    cal work, which exists in fragmentary form in Arabic, was called Kitāb Al-Kamil (Sefer
    ha-shalem). Animal fables in the form of moral-didactic and philosophic lessons were a
    common feature in medieval literatures. For an in-depth discussion of Jacob ben Elazar
    and his works, see also Jonathan Decter, Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus
    and Christian Europe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), 136–49.


19. These comments were first made by Hayyim Schirmann, HPSP, 3:207–208, and
    followed by Yonah David, who edited the sole unique manuscript. See his introduction,
    iv and 7–11, for a brief biography of Jacob ben Elazar and details of his compositions. For