Between Hebrew and Arabic Poetry

Yosef Tobi, Ph.D. (1980) in Hebrew Literature, Hebrew University, is Professor of Hebrew Literature at The University of Haifa. Won the Bahat Prize for Scholarly Books (1988) and the Jerusalem Prize for Research (1999). He has published extensively on medieval Hebrew poetry, Judeo-Arabic, and the Jews of Yemen and Tunisia, including The Jews of Yemen (Brill 1999) and Proximity and Distance: Medieval Hebrew and Arabic Poetry (Brill 2004).

• Preface ... ixPART ONE: INTRODUCTIONChapter One: Secular Hebrew Poetry in Spain as Courtly Poetry: Is It Indeed? ... 3Chapter Two: The Secular Hebrew Poet as Culture Hero in the Middle Ages... 25PART TWO: GENRES AND THEMESChapter Three: The Land of Israel and the National Theme in Hebrew Poetry from Saadia Gaon to Šemuel Ha-Nagid ... 53Chapter Four: The Religious Element in the War Poems of Šemuel Ha-Nagid and in the Arabic Panegyrics in Andalusia ... 93Chapter Five: Love in Hebrew Secular Poetry in the Setting of Medieval Arabic Poetry ... 116Chapter Six: Music and Musical Instruments in Spanish Medieval Hebrew Poetry: The Poem of Yosef Ibn addīq (Justo) in Praise of Yi_aq ibn Barun ... 148Chapter Seven: The Chase as an Allegory for the Wrong and Sufferings in the World as Found in Takemoni by Yehuda Alarizi against the Background of Arabic Poetry ... 190PART THREE: POETRY AND WISDOMChapter Eight: The Beloved Woman as a Metaphor for Divine Wisdom in the Poems of Šelomo ibn Gabirol ... 229Chapter Nine: Šelomo Ibn Gabirol: He That, From His Youth, Chose Wisdom 261 Chapter Ten: Body and Soul in Spanish Hebrew Poetry against the Background of Muslim-Arabic Culture ... 293Chapter Eleven: The Hebrew Transcription of Risālat al-_ātimī: A comparative study between sayings attributed to Aristotle and poetic verses attributed to Mutanabbī (Cambridge, T.S., Arabic, 45.2) ... 321PART FOUR: ARABIC RHETORIC AND POETRY IN MEDIEVAL HEBREW POETRYChapter Twelve: Preliminary Study in _ilyat al-Mu_ā_ara [_M] by Abū Alī Muammad al-_ātimī: The ‘Lost’ Source of Moše Ibn Ezra for His Kitāb al-Mu_ā_ara wa-al-Mudhākara [KMM] ... 355Chapter Thirteen: Yehuda Ha-Levi’s Hebrew Translations of Arabic Poems ... 369PART FIVE: CRITICISM OF VERSEChapter Fourteen: Yehuda Ha-Levi’s Attitude Toward Arabic and Hebrew Secular Poetry and Literature in the Kuzari ... 389Chapter Fifteen: Maimonides’ Attitude towards Secular Poetry, Secular Arab and Hebrew Literature, Liturgical Poetry, and towards Their Cultural Environment ... 422Chapter Sixteen: Šem _ov Ibn Falaqera’s Critique of Poetry ... 467Bibliography ... 483Index... 511