244 r Merav Rosenfeld-Hadad
The intense presence of these sources in Hebrew religious poetry makes
the poems impossible to understand without a thorough acquaintance
with the wider cultural surroundings that nourished the mind-set of the
Jewish poets (Tobi 2000, 7).
However, this immense influence does not imply that Hebrew religious
poetry is a pure imitation of Arabic poetry. The Hebrew poets reached
literary peaks no less sophisticated than their Arabic counterparts—oth-
erwise these poems would not have been treasured as a very important
form of Jewish poetry from the ninth century until the present day (Tobi
2000, 8, 11).
The pivotal role that Arabo-Islamic culture had in shaping the PLS is
also attested in its music. As early as the 1930s, major studies in ethno-
musicology describe this strong influence on many aspects of the melody
and its rendition. Idelsohn (1923) and Lachmann (1929), two pioneering
scholars in the study of Jewish musical traditions among the communities
who lived in Arab countries, were the first to identify the strong presence
of this culture in their Jewish religious songs. From this point onward, the
way was opened for studies addressing religious songs in Jewish commu-
nities that still live in the same countries, such as the Djerba community
(Lachmann 1929; 1940; Davis 1985; 2002), communities that immigrated
to Israel, such as the Babylonian Jews (Idelsohn 1923; Shiloah 1983) or
to the West, such as the Syrian Jews in New York and elsewhere in the
Americas (Shelemay 1998; Kligman 2001). These studies show unequivo-
cally that the Arabic musical tradition has long been a pivotal component
in the cultural life of these communities, religious as well as secular, and
in their identity as Arab-Jews (Shelemay 1998).
It is important at this stage to note that, regarding the influence of
Arabo-Islamic culture on Hebrew religious poetry and its music, this
study follows the path paved by findings made in previous works and
does not address any of the influences that Judaism had on Arabic culture
and Islamic religion. This presentation should by no means be seen as an
attempt to undermine the Jewish influence; rather, it is a reflection of the
particular focus of this study. That is to say, in literature and the arts in
general, and in Hebrew poetry in particular, “the Muslim influence on
the Jews is enormous, and it is almost entirely one way” (Lewis 1984, 81).
This assertion is equally valid in the case of the melodies, which are all
borrowed from the Arabic repertoire of songs, and which also dictate the
singing style of these Hebrew poems.