Todros Abulafia: a Jewish poet in the court of the wise king Saul Kirschbaum

Abstract

Jewish life in medieval Spain is usually divided into three periods: the period of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the taifas period, and the period under Christian rule. In the taifas period, known as Golden Age, cultural activity reached its apex. The epoch under Christian rule, from about 1200 until the expulsion in 1492, however, is considered the post-classical period, because, for many critics, its a period of epigonism. Consequently, this literature has been scarcely studied. For others, however, some of the leading poets would have surpassed the Arab standards, as they were fluent in the Castilian romance language, knowledgeable with Christian literature, and acquainted with the works of the troubadours; thus, they would have given way to a highly original poetics. This article aims to address some links between the work of Jewish poets and that in vogue among Christians. Emphasis is given to the Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer genre, and to one of the exponents of the time, Todros Abulafia.

2 Toledo, capital city of the kingdom of Castile, late 13th century. It has been almost 150 years since the citys liberation from the Arabs during the Reconquista, but Arabic is still widely spoken. The cosmopolitan court of Alfonso X the Wise, who ruled from 1252 to 1284, is abuzz with culture. Alfonso gathered a multi-ethnic group of intellectuals Christian, Arabic and Jewish who worked in teams to translate important scientific and philosophical works from Arabic into Latin, using Castilian as a bridge language, and, later, from Arabic into Castilian when the language gained official status and started being used in royal decrees and public documents.1 While the sponsorship of translations was not an
1

Many authors refer to this officially sponsored initiative as the Toledo School of Translators; for Roth,

however, the very existence of the School is a romantic fiction, since translations were under way throughout Spain and not only nor mainly in Toledo (ROTH, Norman Jewish Collaborators in Alfonsos Scientific Work in BURNS, Robert I., S.J. (ed.) Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. Available at LIBRO: The Library of Iberian Resources Online Website, http://libro.uca.edu/alfonso10/emperor5.htm). Suarez Fernandes also points out that Entre 1125 y 1152 ocup la silla episcopal primada Raimundo de Salvetat, uno de los clrigos borgoones a quienes protegiera el padre del emperador. Protegi a los judos por razones muy distintas a las que movan a reyes o nobles: necesitaba traductores expertos en rabe y en filosofia que le ayudasen a verter al latn ciertos tratados. El procedimento seguido, que los documentos atestiguan en dos ocasiones, consistia en que un judio, castellanoparlante y experto en rabe, tradujese a la lengua romance el texto original; despus un clrigo el ms famoso ser Domingo Gonzles se encargaba de poner ese texto en latn culto. De este modo la ciencia cristiana recibi a Aristteles (Between 1125 and 1152 occupied the primal episcopal chair Raimundo de Salvetat, one of the Burgundian clerics protected by the Emperor's father. He protected Jews for very different reasons to those moving kings or nobles: he needed translators experts in Arabic and philosophy to help him pour into Latin certain treaties. The followed procedure, as documents testify on two occasions, was that a Jew, Castilian speaker and expert in Arabic, would translate the original text to the romance language, then a cleric - the most famous will be Domingo Gonzales - was responsible for

3 innovation on Alfonsos part, its political use certainly was. The kings decision to make Castilian the official language of the realm was part of a political strategy to create a unified nation with a language of its own.2 Because of the kings generous welcome, there were many Jews among the kingdoms officials, most often in positions concerned with finance and tax collection. Not only in Castile, but throughout the Peninsulas Christian kingdoms, Jews were appreciated for their managerial expertise, knowledge of Arabic, and contacts with lands still under Muslim rule. Alfonso, a poet in his own right,3 surrounded himself with poets and musicians (including Jews), and guests from Provence and Italy.4

putting the text in cultivated Latin. Thus Christian Science received Aristotle) (SUAREZ FERNANDEZ, Luis Judos Espaoles en la Edad Media. Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 1988, 288p., 72-3).
2

The strategic objective of national unity eventually demanded a single religion in addition to a local

language. As a consequence, the Arabic and Jewish ethnicities were to be excluded immediately after completion of the Reconquista; in the Jewish case, the exclusion took the shape of expulsion.
3

Lanciani and Taviani (LANCIANI, Giulia, TAVANI, Giuseppe As Cantigas de Escarnio. Salamanca:

Edicins Xerais de Galcia, 1995, 215p.), on Alfonso: ... poeta mariano pero tamn autor de cantigas de amor, de cantigas de amigo e sobre todo de cantigas de escarnio e de maldicir coas que tomaba parte nas disputas, nos debates e nos altercados en verso para os que faca de teatro o seu palcio ... (...a Marian poet, but also a writer of cantigas de amigo and, above all, cantigas de escarnio e de maldicir with which he took part in the poetry disputes, debates and challenges his palace hosted ...) (1995:66).
4

[] una corte brillante y cosmopolita donde actuaron poetas, msicos y eruditos cristianos, judos y

musulmanes y huspedes de Provenza e Italia [] En dicha corte, la raza y la religion carecian de importancia ([...] a bright and cosmopolitan court where acted poets, musicians and scholars, Christians, Jews and Muslims and also guests from Provence and Italy [...] In such a court, race and religion were not important). Droivke, P. The Medieval Lyric, Cambridge, 1968, p. 71, apud Doron, Aviva, La poesia de

4 Jewish cultural history during the Iberian Middle Ages is usually divided into three periods: the Caliphate of Cordoba period (10th and 11th centuries), the taifas period, when the Caliphate was divided into petty kingdoms (11th and 12th centuries), and the Christian rule period (13th -15th centuries). Jewish cultural activity reached its peak in the second phase, the taifas period5; dozens of Jewish poets emerged, including the four major ones: Shmuel Hanagid, Shelomo ibn Gabirol, Moshe ibn Ezra, and Yehuda Halevi. Jewish intellectuals made great advances in other areas besides poetry, including philosophy and philology. The period is aptly known as the Golden Age of Iberian Judaism. In the transition from the Muslim regime to Christian rule, besides military challenges, Christian rulers during the Reconquista faced the resettlement of the lands they

Todros ha-Levi Abulafia como reflejo del encuentro de las culturas: la hebrea y la espaola en la Toledo de Alfonso X el sbio, available at http://www.vallenajerilla.com/berceo/avivadoron/poesiadetodros.htm.
5

L. Suarez Fernandes, p. 50, points out that [l]os taifas, con su ambiente de libertad intelectual y cierta

corrupcin religiosa, proporcionaron un ambiente favorable a los sabios judos, que contaban con la proteccin de algunos correligionarios que ocupaban altos cargos en la Corte. La persecucin contra los filsofos, que practicara Almanzor, fue suspendida, y esto benefici tambin a los pensadores hebreos: el predomnio de los mtodos neoplatnicos explica que las matemticas y la astronoma, junto con la medicina, recibiesen la atencin principal ([t]he taifas, with their atmosphere of intellectual freedom and a certain religious corruption, provided an environment favorable to the Jewish sages, who were protected by some fellows who held high positions in court. The persecution of the philosophers, that was practiced by Almanzor, was suspended, and this also benefited the Jewish thinkers: the dominance of neo-Platonic methods explains why mathematics and astronomy, along with medicine, received the main attention).

5 liberated6. Their reaction was to encourage Jewish residents to remain and guarantee their possession of trade establishments, gardens and lands around the cities retaken from the Muslims7. Ben-Sasson8 points out that the Christian kings regarded the presence of Jewish

Zipora Rubinstein writes: por outro lado, a Reconquista continuava sua marcha para o sul pelo vale do

Guadalquivir e obrigava os judeus a emigrar e procurar abrigo nos Estados catlicos, onde foram acolhidos com boa vontade pelos seus respectivos governantes. E, medida que a Reconquista ia progredindo, os reis cristos se viram obrigados a aceitar a organizao social e econmica vigente nas terras conquistadas, ou seja, a islmica; portanto, partes das instituies sociais muulmanas passaram a integrar a vida pblica crist. E os judeus foram o fio condutor desse processo, pois, conhecendo a lngua rabe e tendo desempenhado importantes funes na administrao islmica, constituam valiosos colaboradores dos novos governantes, que os empregavam como almoxarifes, administradores de rendas, legistas, secretrios, cobradores de impostos, etc. (on the other hand, the Reconquista advanced south down the Guadalquivir valley, forcing Jews to migrate and seek asylum in Catholic States, whose rulers willingly took them in. As the Reconquista progressed, Christian kings were forced to accept the Islamic social and economic order present in the conquered lands; as a result, some Muslim social institutions became part of Christian public life. Jews enabled this process because, being familiar with the Arabic language and having played important roles in Islamic administration, they were valuable collaborators for the new rulers, who employed them as warehouse masters, revenue administrators, coroners, secretaries, tax collectors, etc.) (RUBINSTEIN, Zipora Shem Tov de Carrin: um elo entre trs culturas. So Paulo: Edusp, 1993, 148p.) (p. 28)
7

In the light of the Almohadan invasion of the Peninsula, Jews actually welcomed the Christian occupation.

Scheindlin (pp. 238-9 footnote 2) notes that [t]he Christian reconquest of Spain actually began in the eleventh century with the capture of Toledo in 1085, but for Jewish culture the watershed was c. 1145, when the capture of the Muslim territories by the fanatical Almohads drove the Jewish intelligentsia into the Christian territories and many of its members out of Spain altogether. (SCHEINDLIN, Raymond P. The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul. New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 274p.)

6 notables familiar with the Muslim culture as an important political and cultural factor; as such, the Jewish population represented a highly desirable element in the resettlement of conquered cities abandoned by their former Muslim residents. Correctly assuming that the Jewish masses would be loyal, the kings set aside extensive boroughs for them. These boroughs were usually favorably located for trade and easily defended. Some, in fact, were built with defense in mind. The Jewish part of Tudela, for example, was practically a separate fortified city. In 1170, in a document listing the rights given to Jews, the king promised to repair the walls of Tudelas Jewish borough in exchange for the Jews promise to defend them against their own enemies9. If assailants were killed during defensive action, the Jews would be exempt from punishment. That bill of rights indicates that, at the time, the king regarded the Jewish borough as his own fortress within the city. Spanish chivalric and monastic orders adopted the same policy of assuring Jewish involvement in the resettlement after the Reconquista10. Jews also found a warm welcome in their access to the economy. Jewish communities tax rolls in Christian Spain show that they were active in every aspect of urban trade. Jewish doctors, translators and managers especially those experienced in monetary affairs played a significant role in the Christian kingdoms. As a result, members of aristocratic and cultivated Jewish families who had fled from Muslim Spain came to hold
8

BEN-SASSON, Haim Hillel The Middle Ages (pp. 385-723) in A History of the Jewish People.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, 1170p, p. 68.

9

The ability to self-defense surely implies the possibility of organization and permission to hold armories,

build military fortifications, etc. This challenges the current opinion regarding Jewish passiveness, its exclusion from history during the Diaspora.
10

H. Ben-Sasson, 468.

7 high positions in the Christian courts, as royal financiers, managers, doctors, advisors, and translators of Greek-Arabic philosophical literature into Western world languages11. The Christian rule is seen as the post-classic period of Hebrew literature in Spain; it is sometimes deprecatingly called the Silver Age, since many critics see it as a decadent, epigonic period because Hebrew poetry clung to the standards of the Arabs, whose culture was still prevalent in the nascent Christian kingdoms. Others, however, point out the emergence of innovations and changes, chief among which the cultivation of the maqama, a narrative Arabic genre in rhymed prose with a wide variety of forms and themes12. Also, certain authors argue that some of the periods main poets went beyond Arabic standards, becoming receptive to the hegemonic Christian cultures influence and assimilating its forms of production, as they were fluent in the romance language of Castile that evolved into Castilian, and familiar with Christian vernacular literature and the work of the troubadours; in this way, they gave rise to a rather original lyric13. This article attempts to
11

See H. Ben-Sasson, 469. R. Scheindlin (p. 5) also notes that [f]rom the mid-tenth to mid-twelfth centuries

there existed in Muslim Spain an elite class of Jewish courtiers and officials who were as polished in Arabic language, literatures, and culture as they were learned in the Hebrew language and the Jewish religious tradition. With the gradual reconquest of Spain by Christianity from the mid-twelfth century on, this class continued to exist under the altered cultural and social conditions. This later period, which lasted until the expulsion in 1492, also had its great poets, philosophers, and scientists.
12

In this respect, see KIRSCHBAUM, Saul Presena judaica na Idade Mdia ibrica: a poesia laica e o

idioma hebraico. So Paulo: Targumim, 2008, 96p. pp. 55 ff.

13

R. Scheindlin (232), among others, holds this opinion: [i]n Spain about a generation passed before the

Jewish community recovered from the Almohad persecutions. By the end of the twelfth century literary activity had resumed, now relocated in the new centers of Jewish culture in the north of Spain. With the gradual decline of prestige and influence of Arabic culture and the rise of the vernacular literatures in the

8 outline potential similarities between the works of Jewish poets and the poetry en vogue among Christians. To address secular Jewish production in the most important Spanish Christian kingdom in the 1200s, which would two centuries later unify the entire Peninsula, this paper focuses on the work of one of the periods leading authors, Todros ben Yehuda haLevi Abulafia, particularly on three of his poems I believe to be representative of his chosen poetic genres. Todros Abulafia reinvented, subverted, or simply rejected many of the Andalusian periods formal conventions14. As we will see, his poetry lies close to the Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer genre of his Christian peers15.
various Romance languages of the peninsula, the character of Hebrew literature also changed. The second half of the literary history of Spanish Jewry, dating from about 1200 to the expulsion in 1492, is no longer considered merely epigonic. It is different from the Golden Age and deserves separate treatment.
14

WACKS, David A. Toward a History of Hispano-Hebrew Literature in its Romance Context (pp. 178-

209) in eHumanista: volume 14, 2010, available at http://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/volumes/volume_14/Arabic/Wacks.pdf, p. 194.

15

An anonymous author from the period attempts to divide this lyric into two distinct genres: Cantigas

descarneo som aquelas que os trobadores fazen querendo dizer mal dalguen en elas, e dizen-lho per palavras cubertas que hajan dous entendimentos, pera lhe-lo non entenderen ... ligeiramente: e estas palavras chamam os clerigos hequivocatio. E estas cantigas se podem fazer outrossi de mestria ou de refram. (Songs of derision are those that the troubadours compose wanting to speak badly of someone in them, and they say it with covered words, with two meanings, so they will not be understood ... lightly: these words, the clerics call hequivocatio. And these songs may also be made of mastery or refrain.) (apud TAVANI, Giuseppe (ed.) Arte de Trovar do Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa. Edio crtica. Lisboa: Edies Colibri, 1999, 57p. p. 42) and Cantigas de maldizer son aquela<s> que fazem os trobadores <contra alguem> descubertamente: e<m> elas entrarm palavras e<m> que queren dizer mal e nom aver<m> outro entendimento se nom aquel que queren dizer cham<ente>. (Songs of imprecation are those that the

9 The Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer (Songs of derision and imprecation) hold an important position in the Castilian medieval poetry of the 1100s, 1200s and 1300s: they are the corpus of one of the three most important genres in the Galician-Portuguese Lyric, alongside the Cantigas de Amor (Songs of Love) and the Cantigas de Amigo (Songs of Friend). They were also immensely popular. King Alfonso X himself was among the genres main proponents, entertaining guests in composition sessions where he played a prominent role. In this respect, Lanciani and Tavani wrote:

[...] the most receptive of all Peninsular courts was certainly Alfonso Xs. Alfonso, a Marian poet, but also a writer of cantigas de amigo and, above all, cantigas de escarnio e de maldicir with which he took part in the poetry disputes, debates and challenges his palace hosted, competing with guests in reproaching courtesans and wealthy men, jongleurs and troubadours, but also composing biting political satire and bitter criticism against disloyal vassals and cowardly knights, without sparing even the Pope, whom he accuses of meddling (inappropriately, the king believed) in the appointment of the Archbishop of Santiago, but who, in the kings eyes, was above all to blame for opposing his imperial succession candidacy16.

troubadours compose against someone openly: in them will enter words that mean badly and which will have no other meaning but that they want to tell clearly) (apud G. Tavani, 42-3). This similarity was pointed out to me by Prof Dr Yara Frateschi Vieira.
16

G. Lanciani, G. Tavani, 66: [...] a mis receptiva das cortes peninsulares foi, sen dbida, a de Afonso X,

poeta mariano pero tamn autor de cantigas de amor, de cantigas de amigo e sobre todo de cantigas de escarnio e de maldicir coas que tomaba parte nas disputas, nos debates e nos altercados en verso para os que faca de teatro o seu palacio, concorrendo cs seus hspedes hora de lanzar reprobacins contra cortess e

10

Lnia Mrcia Mongelli clarifies:

[...] the cantigas lie on the threshold of comedy, with all of its nuances, from subtle irony to easy laughter, from mockery to sarcasm, from the facetious to the burlesque in an endless range of procedures and interstices whose full realization requires the listener/spectators cooperation.17

Despite the presence of biting political satire and bitter criticism against disloyal vassals and cowardly knights, without sparing even the Pope, the cantigas were not often used as tools for social or political criticism. Some did have this purpose, but they were usually just plays on words, entertaining tournaments with openly forged and inconsequential accusations. Mongelli notes: The purpose of Galician-Portuguese derogatory poems lies far more in light entertainment than in making serious

ricos homes, xograres e trobadores, pero compoendo tamn stiras polticas mordaces e elaborando crticas corrosivas contra vasalos infieis e cabaleros medoentos, e sen aforrarllas nin papa, que acusa de inxerencias (que el considera indebidas) na designacin do arcebispo de Santiago, pero que s ollos do rei era culpable sobre todo de opoerse sa candidatura sucesin imperial.
17

MONGELLI, Lnia Mrcia Fremosos Cantares: Antologia da lrica medieval galego-portuguesa. So

Paulo: Editora WMF Martins Fontes, 2009, 522p. p. 183: [...] essas cantigas constroem-se nas fronteiras do cmico, com todas as nuanas que o moldam, da ironia sutil ao riso debochado, da zombaria ao sarcasmo, da faccia ao burlesco numa infinidade de procedimentos e de interstcios que, por isso mesmo, necessita da colaborao do ouvinte/espectador para realizar-se plenamente.

11 accusations18. Lanciani and Tavani point out that when a king such as Alfonso X accuses Pero da Ponte of the basest indignities but still offers him magnificent hospitality, the invectives must be understood as a jestful literary exercise and not taken to the letter19. The use of social satire in Jewish poetry does not begin with the Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer, since it had been present since the Arabic period. Yehuda ben Solomon al-Harisi (1165-1225) wrote his Sefer Tahkemoni (place or book of wisdom) around 1215, after the fashion of contemporary Arabic poet al-Hariri (1054-1121), whose work al-Harisi translated from Arabic into Hebrew20. However, there are no records to indicate that other Jewish poets from the Peninsula (or other areas) besides Todros Abulafia wrote in the specific and crystallized form of Cantigas de Escarneo e Maldizer.

* * *

1 - Three poems from prison21

My rings are gone my fingers

18

L. Mongelli, 184: [O]s poemas derrisrios galego-portugueses tm muito mais a finalidade de divertir com

leveza do que de acusar ou denunciar com gravidade.

19

G. Lanciani, G. Tavani, 94: [c]ando un rei coma Afonso X acusa das maiores indignidades a Pero da

Ponte, cal ofrece sen embargo a sa munfica hospitalidade, a sa invectiva deber lerse como un xocoso exerccio literrio, e non ser interpretada p da letra.
20 21

See S. Kirschbaum, 64 ff. apud Carmi, p. 415, translation by this author. I thank Nancy Rozenchan for her priceless help in the

translation of the analyzed poems, as well as the precious references to Biblical and Talmudic sources. (CARMI, T. (ed.) The Penguin book of Hebrew verse. London: Penguin books, 2006, 608p.)

12 remain. My glory lies not in my many rings. I still have faith and dignity, and a precious soul,22 this is the legacy of my forefathers and the estate of my ancestors. My heart is capable of many acts and good deeds, but in the absence of a purse my actions failed. I have hope in the Lord that has been, is and shall be, that there will still be time and days will be at my service. 5 Support me, O Lord, for Thou will is mine. Till when shall the fool prevail? Till when?

Formally, the lines are divided into hemistiches and the first letters in each line form an acrostic of the poets name. In addition, he leans heavily on the termination otai, which means my in Hebrew, to make the lines rhyme: 1 - ab otai (my rings), 2 avotai (my ancestors), 3 - mifalotai (my actions), 4 - m r tai (at my service), and 5 - l mtai (till when) (lines 4 and 5 do not use the my form, but benefit from the connotations of the rhyming syllable, ai). Furthermore, the author creates rhymes between the hemistiches: 1.a ab otai ... b otai; 2.a - ... mirh ... y krh; 2.b - ... y rat horai v nah lat avotai; 3.a - ... p alim ... maallim; finally, he introduces alliterations: 4.a - ... w yihyh w hyh; 5.a - ... reonkh r oni. The use of rhyme aligns with a tradition from the Andalusian Golden Age where lines in monorhymed poems divide into two identical or
22

Hebr.: Nefe y krh. Lit. precious soul. See 1 Samuel, 26-21: because my soul was precious in thine eyes

this day (authors italics); nefe, soul, is translated as life because nefe y krh means respect for life. See, also, Proverbs 6-26: For by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

13 near-identical hemistiches; a single rhyme is used throughout the piece, and the rhyme is often also present in the first hemistich of the first line23. In 1279, Alfonso orders his chief tax collector, the Jew Isaac Solomon ibn Zaddok (also known as Don aq de la Maleha, or Don uleman), to raise a significant amount from the Jewish community in order to fund a military campaign. The collector did his duty, but the kings son diverted the funds to other ends and the troops were stuck. The kings wrath led to Don Isaacs execution24. With this event, the fortunes of one of his protgs took a turn for the worse. Todros ben Yehuda haLevi Abulafia was born in 1247 to a noble family from Toledo, and spent most of his life in that city. There are no clear records of his death, but certain indications suggest it came after 130025. He studied Arabic and was proficient in both the language and its literature. In his early career, he was ibn Zaddoks protg, companion and poet; Todros followed ibn Zaddok on his diplomatic missions and wrote poems in his praise. The patron,
23

R. Scheindlin p. 259 footnote 3 points out that A poems rhyme syllable, by dint of repetition, may

contribute to its semantic content over and above its function as part of the word to which it belongs. Every monorhymed poem must be examined to see if this principle applies, and to what extent. In the poem at hand, as I have noted, the rhyme syllable is ai, which conveys the idea of my.
24

COLE, Peter The Dream of the Poem. Hebrew poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492.

Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007, 548p., p. 256; GOLDSTEIN, David (ed.) The Jewish Poets of Spain (900-1250). London: Penguin Books, 1975, 224p., p. 175.
25

SCHIPPERS, Arie Arabic Influence in the Poetry of Todros Abulafia (pp 17-24) in Divre ha-Qongres

ha-olami ha-ahad-asar le madda`e ha-Yahdut, Vol III, World Union of Jewish Studies, 1994, available at http://dare.uva.nl/record/1705, viewed on Sep/05/2010, p. 1306. Unlike this paper, Schippers stresses Arabic influence in Todros Abulafias poetry.

14 who held an important position in the court, gave him access to the brilliant group that surrounded the king. It was a short way from there to the sovereigns inner circle and, in time, Todros joined the tax collectors team, since he was also a talented financier26. From his new position as court poet, he dedicated poems to the king himself. His namesake relative, born in 1220, was an important Chief Rabbi in Toledo, a Cabbalist of renown, and the holder of a high position in Alfonsos court27. Todros dedicated poems to him as well. The Catholic Church, however, frowned upon the Jewish influence with the court. In January 1281, during a Shabbat, under pressure from the Bishop (in hopes of forcing Jews into conversion), the king had many of Castiles Jews including Todros surrounded while in the Synagogue and ordered their arrest and the seizure of their assets28.
26

According to Schirmann (SCHIRMANN, Jefim (Hayyim) Abulafia, Todros ben Judah ha-Levi in

Encyclopedia Judaica, s.d.), his time was divided between poetry and finance, and he succeeded in both.
27 28

A. Schippers, 17. L. Suarez Fernandez (pp. 134-5) blames the disaster on internal economic, social and political troubles

Alfonso Xs rule had been facing: El corrompido poeta Todros ibn Judah Abulafia se remonta a algunos aspectos de la dura y deshonesta competencia que haba llegado a establecerse entre los jefes de fila de los empresarios judos dedicados al negocio de los tributos, don Mayr y don ulema, segn la grafia de los cronistas cristianos, es decir, Mair ibn Shosan y Salomn ibn Sadoq. No era posible que la mala fama, de codiciosos y arteros, que ambos grupos rivales adquirieron, dejase de repercutir de un modo desfavorable en el buen nombre de la comunidad judia como tal. En una poca de acentuado declive econmico, como la que se inicia en Castilla a mediados del siglo XIII, avance ya de la gran recesin, se buscaban instintivamente culpables fciles a quienes atribuir la escasez de dinero, la subida de los precios y la insuficiencia de los salrios. Una poltica exterior imprudente, junto a las debilidades del rey respecto a los nobles, parientes suyos, acentuaba la flexin desfavorable de la coyuntura. Los judos, arrendatarios de los impuestos, fueron sealados como principales culpables de una situacin que nadie entendia y que tampoco estaba en sus manos remediar (The corrupted poet Judah ibn Todros Abulafia points back to some aspects of the hard

15 The specifics are unknown, but the poet was released after a few months, recovered his wealth, and resumed work under Alfonso; he also retained his ties with the Castilian court: after a few years (1289) he still emerges in a somewhat prominent position alongside Sancho IV, Alfonsos son and successor, and later led a group of Jewish financiers that benefited from important monopolies. While in prison, Todros wrote several poems (which T. Carmi gathered under the collective title of Poems from prison); for Cole, the quality of his poetry actually improved29. The poem above is one of these, and displays one of the main characteristics of Abulafias work: unlike previous Jewish poets who only sought Gods help in defense of the collective interests of the people and whose conversations with the deity addressed sublime topics such as the Reconstruction of the Temple, or the long-awaited messianic

and dishonest competition that had become established among the leaders of the Jewish businessmen group dedicated to the business of taxes, don Mayr and don ulema, according to the spelling of Christian chroniclers, that is, Mair ibn Shoshan and Solomon ibn Sadok. It was not possible that the notorious fame, of greedy and devious, that both groups acquired, could not affect unfavorably on the good reputation of the Jewish community as such. In a time of sharp economic decline, as the one which starts in Castile in the middle of the thirteenth century, already the advancement of the great recession, people instinctively seek for weak groups on whom to blame the money shortage, the rising of prices and the inadequate wages. A reckless foreign policy, along with the weaknesses of the king over the nobles, his relatives, accentuated the junctures flexion downturn. The Jews, lessees of taxes, were identified as major culprits of a situation that nobody understood and even whose remedy was not in their hands).
29

COLE, Peter, interview to Mark Thwaite in Mar/03/2007, viewed on Sep/06/2010, available at

http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=petercole.

16 Redemption, the poetic self in Todross devotional poems30 asks for His intervention to solve not only personal problems, but material ones as well; in this poem, he beseeches the end of his confinement and the recovery of his former status; in another, he begs being granted an opportunity for a hearing with the king. In this sense, he shows affinity with his Christians peers in the secular interference with religious poetry, as seen in the romance tradition of Marian poetry, especially the Cantigas de Santa Maria, whose author was Alfonso X himself31. Cantiga 279, for example, is titled Of how the King begged Saint

30

Remarkably, Abulafias poems are autobiographic and make reference to actual events in the poets life.

Notwithstanding, we must not dismiss G. Lanciani and G. Tavanis (p. 148) admonition: hai que exclur toda interpretacin autobiogrfica [...] en calquera producto literario medieval (we must exclude any autobiographical interpretation [...] in every medieval literary product).
31

Dorn, 1986, 1989, 1992, apud D. Wacks, 194. See also DORN, La poesia de Todros ha-Levi Abulafia

como reflejo del encuentro de las culturas: la hebrea y la espaola en la Toledo de Alfonso X el Sbio, s.d.: Ante todo, es digno recordar a Alfonso X el Sabio quien compuso las 400 cantigas de Santa Mara, en las cuales sobresalen los motivos tradicionales religiosos y su entrelazamiento en poemas de carcter profano, basados en el frenes de los poemas de amor, deseo y amistad. El rey, El Sabio, quien manifestara su amor por la virgen Mara mediante estructuras poticas profanas, abandon la escritura en latn, lengua potica sacra, escribiendo en galaico-portugus, lengua de las cantigas de amor (Above all, it is worth remembering Alfonso X the Wise who wrote the 400 Cantigas de Santa Maria, on which stand the traditional religious motifs and their intertwining in profane poems, based on the frenzy of the poems of love, desire and friendship. The King, The Sage, who declared his love for the Virgin Mary through secular poetic structures, abandoned writing in Latin, sacred poetry language, writing in the Galician-Portuguese language of the songs of love). Mongelli points out that para falar das coisas sagradas, de Maria e de seu Filho, Afonso X utiliza como lngua o galego-portugus, idioma de prestgio reservado produo potica peninsular na Idade Mdia, sendo que sua obra cientfica e jurdica foi escrita em castelhano (to discuss sacred things, Mary and her Son, Alfonso X writes in Galician-Portuguese, a prestigious language reserved

17 Mary to guard him from a grave disease; and she, mighty mistress that she is, did guard him32. As a learned scholar of the Scriptures and the Talmud, Todros relies heavily on these sources; he does so, however, on a rude key loaded with double-entendre33 which he achieves by decontextualizing or even reversing the original meanings. For example, while the expression precious soul has a sublime connotation in 1 Samuel for its indication of the respect for life which lies at the root of the prohibition of suicide , Todros uses it in the poem as reference to his deplorable individual situation, since, having been deprived of his wealth, all that he has left is a precious soul; the final line uses reverse irony by including
for the Peninsular lyric in the Middle Ages, while his scientific and legal works were written in Castilian) (M. Mongelli, 283), and emphasizes that [a] galeria de tipos e fatos [nas cantigas religiosas afonsinas] muito variada: monges e monjas prevaricadores; judeus maldosos; hereges abusados; [...] animais resgatados; assassinatos crudelssimos e mais um sem-nmero de pessoas e situaes diversas, que oferecem amplo panorama da organizao social no medievo e de sua espiritualidade no necessariamente crist ([the] gallery of characters and facts [in Alfonsos religious cantigas] is variegated: prevaricating monks and nuns; evil Jews; abusive heretics; [...] rescued animals; egregious murders, and an endless succession of people and situations that provide an overview of social organization in medieval days and of their not necessarily Christian spirituality) (M. Mongelli, 284).
32

M. Mongelli, 384. Como el Rey pidiu mercee a Santa Maria que o guarecesse da grandenfermidade que

avia; e ela, como sennor poderosa, guarec-o.

33

In the Iberian Middle Ages, Jewish intellectuals were so well versed in religious and traditional Jewish

literature, that any references and double-entendre were easily recognized. Scheindlin (1999:20) points out that [s]ince Hebrew was learned mostly by memorizing the Bible, the poet could count on the learned in his audience being able to recognize allusions and to recall the biblical context of any word. [] The biblical context from which a word was taken and the words traditional rabbinic interpretation were all part of its semantic range; to neglect them is to miss the effect.

18 the word fool (k sil), which brings to mind the Book of Proverbs, where the subject is usually the wise man, hakhm.

* * *

2 - For love I endured labor pangs34

An Arab woman aroused my love and in the company of other women I saw her, and they kissed each other

For love I endured labor pangs,35 but did not give birth, and in the Arabian does trap I was ensnared. My soul desired to kiss her mouth, and even, for her, I would be a woman for she kisses women, and I, being a man, am lost!36

34 35

apud T. Carmi, 410-411, translation by this author. Hebr.: Halti. Lit. birth pangs. See Isaiah, 23-4: I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish

up young men, [nor] bring up virgins.

36

Tractate Ketubot, 108b, Mishnah: Admon laid down seven rulings: 4 - if a man dies and leaves sons and

daughters, if the estate is large, the sons inherit it and the daughters are maintained [from it] and if the estate is small, the daughters are maintained from it, and the sons can go begging. Admon said, am I to be the loser because I am a male!. R. Gamaliel said: Admons view has my approval. (authors italics)

19 Formally, Abulafia uses the Hebrew languages characteristic according to which the past tense of the first-person singular ends in -ti to rhyme the final three syllables in each line: 1 - nil kad ti (I was ensnared), 2 - hamad ti (I desired) e 3 - hifsad ti (I [am] lost); in addition, all the lines are dodecasyllable hemistiches. As in the first poem analyzed here, the hemistiches in line 1 also rhyme: yalad ti (I did not give birth) / nil kad ti (I was ensnared). For many critics, Abulafia is most innovative in love poetry; in the HebrewAndalusian tradition of the Golden Age, the subject was nothing but a convention of genre, celebrating beautiful archetypical does of either gender, idealized types framed in standardized situations and forms of expression, as they were ever pouring wine into crystal cups, attending luxurious parties in exuberant gardens; this view finds support in Dan Pagis, for whom

Love poetry in the classical Andalusian period presented stock situations and characters. The lover (or rather, the suitor) was hopelessly devoted to a cruel and beautiful lady who rejected him; by withholding herself she doomed him to great suffering which, because it came from her, he reckoned as joy. Alternatively he was attracted to a coquettish youth, the fawn, who also rejected him or, if the boy yielded, later deceived him. The lover and his beloved, then, were archetypes. So too were other recurrent figures carried over from Arabic poetry who also took part in the typical love situation such as the reproacher (a tedious moralist who rebuked the lover for his folly) or the spy (an even nastier character, who followed

20 the couple or the solitary lover around). These and other archetypes were so pervasive that a mere mention would suffice to evoke the entire situation.37

Todros now explores the persona of a libertine, in line with his fame for being a womanizer, and attempts to seduce flesh-and-blood non-Jewish women whether Arab, Christian, or even Slavic; whether maidens or loose women38 . In this short, three-line poem,39 the author resorts at least twice to quotes from traditional Hebrew texts, as he often does throughout his work: line one quotes Isaiah, 23-4; line three mentions the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ketuboth, 108b. The portion borrowed from Isaiah reverses its original meaning: the prophet recognizes that the strength of the sea has not yet felt the pangs of labor, but will when news comes from Tyre; he announces that Gods vengeance will befall cities that are the Hebrew peoples

37

PAGIS, Dan Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. With a foreword by Robert Alter.

Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991, 85p., p. 49.
38

D. Wacks, 194. Note that during the Arab rule Muslims, Christians and Jews kept good social relationships,

but without more intimate inter-ethnic contacts, since the three ethnicities lived in marked segregation; under the Christian rule, the situation changed and Jewish men had intimate contact with women from other ethnicities, with high propensity to assimilation; according to Schirmann, the episode of the arrest of the Jews of Toledo, which caused our poet so much trouble, was interpreted by the Rabbis as divine punishment for the loosening of customs these illicit relationships reflected. Soon after the prisoners were released, the poets elder relative and namesake, Cabbalist Todros ben Iosef Abulafia, gave a sermon calling for repentance and demanding the excommunication of those that insisted on having relations with Muslim or Christian women. He was apparently not very successful.
39

Here, as in the other two poems, I use the convention of representing hemistiches as separate lines, so that a

three-lines poem is written in six lines.

21 enemies (the following verses go on to mention Egypt and Tarshish); the poet, however, does not hide his lust for the young Arab woman whom he admits to be inaccessible despite his suffering, which he compares to the pangs of birth, using to give birth as a metaphor for the desired conquest. But he is not threatened by the prophets words. By referring to the Talmudic comment and casting himself in the role of the son who, being a man, must go begging, he accuses the young woman of being far too parsimonious with her favors, since the status of a loser is that of the male son when the legacy is small. The frequent rudeness in Abulafias lyric again emerges: the word translated as woman (in line 2 and, in plural form, in line 3) would be better translated as female: n kevh is a derivative from nkv, which means hole, opening, in reference to female mammalians sex organ40. The poet may be reducing women to the animal aspect of sex objects and accepting his own demotion41 to a female sex object, if such is the price to pay for approaching the desired female. This poem displays physical love and intense fleshly desire, unlike Christian poets who influenced by the troubadours from Provence cultivated sublimated love42; both
40

Concerning the Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer, G. Lanciani and G. Taviani (99) write that [] rgano

sexual feminino, ademais do especfico cono (coa forma aumentativo-despectiva conon), fan referencia dun modo mis ou menos abertamente alusivo caldeira, chaga, vinha, prison e quizais a secuencia obscurofurado-fendedura-buraco usada, en progresin paralelstica, por Johan Ayras (to the female sexual organ, in addition to the specific cono (with the augmentative-contemptuous form conon), make reference in a more or less openly allusive boiler, wound, vine, prison and maybe the sequence dark-hole-holed-cavity used, in parallelistic progression by Johan Ayras).
41

I believe that in the Middle-Ages patriarchal-chauvinistic society, a man becoming a woman was clearly

regarded as a severe demotion.

42

In the Cantigas de amor.

22 genres abide by the periods conventions, but it is worth noting, as we have earlier, that they break away from the Andalusian tradition. Todros Abulafia, a master in several domains, also ventured in this genre. On the other hand, Aviva Dorns comments on the poem When I was not yet wise point out the expression of a different kind of love, of the spiritual bond typical of troubadour poetry: the poet claims not to seek sensual contact (And I would never think of touching her [l. 15], Her image in my heart is enough for my time of thought [l. 18], I do not seek your desire for carnal pleasure, but just the pleasure of the soul [l. 21]). Therefore, the poet writes of a quest for spiritual harmony43. It might perhaps be interesting to investigate when each of these poems was composed, since Abulafias attitude toward women, or toward poetic conventions, may have changed as he matured. Regardless, it is important to bear in mind the caution Lanciani and Tavani recommend in attempting to identify the poets subjective self in poetry:

In this respect it is worth emphasizing the danger that lies in interpreting medieval texts from a modern-day perspective, particularly in connection with lyrical poetry. It is also worthwhile to give up the myth of the creative poet inspired by a muse: understanding that poets whether medieval or modern spontaneously and sincerely express their feelings in poetry in much the same way that one might write a personal letter or private journal prevents a properly reading the piece and evaluating it based on aesthetic standards appropriate to the time and place of production. If this applies to modern poets, it does all the more so for medieval

43

A. Dorn, 76-7.

23 ones, who seldom rely on invention to write poems and, rather even more so than modern ones , refrain from expressing personal feelings or creating original works, given that there is no place for such behavior in either their mentality or the expectations of their readers.44

Lnia Mongelli supports this view:

Let us make this clear: the Galician-Portuguese troubadour lyric is clearly not confessional poetry. It cannot be expected to yield an individual self expressed with the introspective density of Romanticism, or the level of psychological verticality of Symbolism, or with the modern awareness that doing is revealing45.

44

G. Lanciani, G. Tavani, 146-7. A este respecto, ser oportuno chama-la atencin sobre o perigo que

representan as interpretacins actualizadoras dos textos medievais, sobre todo, cando se ten entre mans unha poesia lrica. Como tamn ser oportuno desembarazarse, en primeiro lugar, do mito do poeta creador inspirado pola musa: considerar que un poeta medieval ou moderno expresa espontnea e sinceramente os seus sentimentos nos poemas, nin mis nin menos que como se redactase unha carta privada ou como se se confiase nun diario ntimo, cerra de antemn a posibilidade de ler correctamente a sa produccin, e avaliala segundo parmetros estticos adecuados tempo e lugar da composicin. E se isto as para un poeta de hoxe, tanto mis o ser para un poeta medieval, que compoe-los seus poemas rara vez bota man da invencin, senn que se gardar mis anda ca un poeta moderno de expresar sentimentos persoais ou de crear obras orixinais, dado que un procedemento deste tipo non ten lugar na sa mentalidade, nin nas expectativas do seu pblico.
45

M. Mongelli, xxiv. Deixemos bem assentado: o lirismo trovadoresco galego-portugus no ,

evidentemente, uma poesia confessional. No se pode esperar encontrar nela um eu individual expresso

24

Concerning the above, it is also important to bear in mind the representation of women in the various genres of Christian medieval poetry. Also according to Lanciani and Tavani:

On the other hand, antifeminism plays a significant role in medieval Galician and Portuguese satire, in line (obviously) with the official position of the Church and the prevalent mindset in a decidedly chauvinistic society, where women despite represented and exalted in love poems are simply objects not only devoid of rights and dignity, but actually mocked, denigrated and decried. When the cantiga de escarnio e maldicir offers the negative and realistic aspect of the positive and idealized contents of the cantiga de amor, it assumes (with a few exceptions) that women, regardless of social standing, cannot help but be loose, easily accessible to men and open to any abject proposition.46

com a densidade introspectiva romntica ou com o nvel de verticalidade psicolgica dos simbolistas ou com a conscincia moderna de que fazer revelar.
46

G. Lanciani, G. Tavani, 167. Por outra parte, o antifeminismo ten un papel relevante na stira medieval

galega e portuguesa, en consoancia ( obvio) coa actitude oficial da igrexa e coa mentalidade imperante nunha sociedade decididamente machista, na que a muller a pesar de ser cantada e exaltada en positivo na poesia amorosa non pasa de ser un obxeto carente de dereitos e de dignidade que, ben contrario, polo regular escarnecido, denigrado e vilipendiado. Cando a cantiga de escarnio e maldicir nos ofrece a faceta negativa e realista doutra visin, esta positiva e ideal, que exhibe a cantiga de amor, asume, como proba contrastada, que (ags unhas poucas excepcins) a muller, calquera que sexa a sa posicin social, non pode ser mis que de costumes fciles, presa sempre dispoible do home, accesible a tdalas abxeccins que se lle propoan.

25 * * *

3 - I have known you to be generous47

To ben Shoshan, after I asked him to send me figs:

I have known you to be generous with figs, and that you keep not figs from a brother. How, then, did you recant and become a miser and become evil in your heart and eyes48? You called my mare an ass and your eyes truly cannot see.49 In fact, I see a judge from Gomorrah in your behavior, at every moment and in every age.
47

apud T. Carmi, 414-415, translation by this author. Hebr.: Lib v eyn. Lit. your hearts and your eyes. Comment at http://scripturetext.com/psalms/17-

48

2.htm, translated by Nancy Rozenchan, whom I thank: Jewish tradition forbids intentionally looking at things that may arouse sexual interest and lead to sexual thoughts; the main prohibition concerns looking at women that are forbidden to men, to take pleasure or derive sexual excitation from their beauty; selfpreservation is called mirat eynayim (guard/mind/preserve the eyes) or k duat eynayim (holding eyes holy). It is based on the end of the chapter on tsitit, Numbers 15, 39, that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes. (heart sexuality; eyes prostitution). A similar interpretation exists in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Berachot 1 5: Rabbi Levi said: lib v eyn [as in the poem] tarei sarsurei deaveira = the heart and the eye are agents of trespass. Therefore, looking leads to sexual perversion.
49

Psalms, 17-2: Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

26 5 I know of you many things that prevent you from judging me.50 And hidden things I shall not yet reveal, but will give you righteous advice: Figs not yet ripe51 do send to me, and enough for seven give to me, and for eight as well. And here, from you, is my vine barred,52 I shall hereafter give it to no stranger.
50 51

Line in Aramaic in the original. Hebr.: Teeinah hantah. Song of Songs, 2-13: The fig tree putteth forth her green figs; note that, in the

verse, vines are mentioned immediately after the fig tree.

52

Hebr.: z morah. Lit.: New vine with leafs and clusters; Carmi translates it as flatus, flatulence; Adelman

(ADELMAN, Howard Tzvi Poetry and History in Jewish Culture, a lecture that is part of Jewish history and culture programs delivered at the University of Massachusetts and other institutions, 2006, available at http://medievalhebrewpoetry.org/adelmanarticle.html, viewed on Sep/06/2010) p. 10, in turn, claims that zmorah means penis, and that fig is a reference to the vagina, and that the allusion is therefore sexual rather than scatological; this interpretation finds support in Bos (BOS, Gerrit Medical terminology in the Hebrew tradition: Shem Tov ben Isaac, Sefer ha-immu, book 30 (pp. 53-101) in Journal of Semitic Studies LV/I Spring 2010, at http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/juda/mitarbeiter/professoren/bos/shem_tov_jss.pdf, viewed on Sep/18/2010) p. 74, who writes that in medical medieval Jewish terminology the word z morah meant [testicular] varices; the authors description clearly shows the association with vine with leafs and clusters: A varix is a twisted tumour resembling a cluster of grapes, with relaxation of the testicles, which makes movement and exercise and walking difficult for the patient. Thanks to my friend Margarida Goldsztajn for this precious reference. On the other hand, reaffirming Abulafias tendency toward double-entendre, see Scheindlins comment on a poem by Yehudah Halevi (1999:47): The vine is a classic image of exiled Israel as a ruined vineyard, derived from Psalm 80:16.

27 But do not seek to quarrel with a hero, and do not set out to sea without a boat.

At the formal level, all lines rhyme at the end nah: teinah, veinah, tehezeinah, vonah, ldinah, nhonah, shmonah, etnenah, sfinah. To achieve this effect, Abulafia occasionally uses poetic license to modify the form a word should ordinarily take. For example, the end of line 1 should be teinim, plural for teinah, fig; in verses 2 and 5, he uses veinah and dinah respectively, both of which are Aramaic words. Furthermore, all lines are hendecassyllable hemistiches, but the poet parts with monorhymed tradition, since the first lines first hemistich does not display the poems overall rhyme. This poem illustrates the third topos of Abulafias lyric, which is characterized by invective and insult: disgusted with ben Shoshan, a fig seller (?) who for some reason refuses to fill an order, the poet calls him a miser, evil in his heart and eyes (line 2). The Talmudic expression Lib v ein (Aramaic, your heart and your eyes) comes from Numbers, 15:39:

(...) and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.

That is, the poet accuses ben Shoshan of letting himself be dragged by his heart and eyes, which lead to unlawful relations; hence the double-entendre over figs and vines, possible metaphors for sexual organs as suggested by Adelman (who, however, fails to follow through to the necessary conclusions). This is but conjecture, but assuming Adelmans etymology is accurate, ben Shoshan may perhaps be not a fig vendor, but a

28 facilitator of love encounters, and a homosexual as well. If so, figs not yet ripe may be a euphemism for young women and here, from you, is my vine barred may be a rude allusion to ben Shoshans sexual preferences53. This is not homoerotic poetry after the Andalusian tradition, known as artificial and conventional, but an apparently real reprimand from Abulafia to ben Shoshan for the latters failure to provide certain (sexual?) arrangements asked of him. We lack historic information on ben Shoshan, but if the analysis is accurate, then there is truth to the comments that the days of Todros Abulafia were marked by a degradation of customs, by lassitude, when Jewish men went far beyond intimate contact with non-Jewish women54.

53

Abulafias denouncement of ben Shoshans homosexuality may simply be a literary resource; on

Cantigas de Escrnio e Maldizer, G. Lanciani and G. Tavani (61-2) point out that [] o aspecto publicista da poesia o que aqui entra en xogo (se cadra un dos mis interesantes da cultura medieval), que se confiaba o deber xenrico de transmitir noticias, e en particular de crear ou destruir reputacins, de difundi-la boa ou mala fama deste ou daquel seor, de exaltar ou denigra-lo seu aspecto fsico, o comportamento e a vida e costumes, as relacins homosexuais verdadeiras ou supostas, os contactos con mulleres de vida airada, as relacins conxugais (it is the poetrys publicist aspect that comes into play here (maybe one of the most interesting in the medieval culture), upon which was relied the general duty to transmit news, and in particular to create or destroy reputations, to spread the good or bad fame of this or that lord, to exalt or denigrate his physical appearance, his behavior and life and morals, his true or alleged homosexual relationships, contacts with women of angry life, his conjugal relationships).
54

Schirmann, in the Encyclopedia Judaica, writes simply that [i]n common with others of his class at that

period, his morals were lax and he had many liaisons with non-Jewish women. [...] After the release of the prisoners, with the impact of their misfortune still fresh in their minds, the rabbi Todros ben Joseph Abulafia called upon his kinsmen to repent and demanded that all those who continued to consort with Muslim or Christian women be excommunicated, but we may suspect that the moral lassitude went deeper. D. Pagis

29 In contrast with the charge that ben Shoshan is an unjust judge who lets himself be dragged by his heart and eyes, line 3 of the poem references Psalm 17, verse 2, where David begs God to lay down a fair sentence. The word translated as see, tehezeinah, derives from hazon, which means dream, vision, prophecy; a word, that is, associated with prophetic vision, with a vision that is true because it is inspired by God. At the same time, it implies that ben Shoshan sees [understands] less than Abulafias mare, which he called an ass. We do not know the reasons for ben Shoshans refusal, but it seems to be connected to his impression of Abulafia, who, as a result, considers him an unjust judge (judge from Gomorrah55), unfit to pass judgment upon him. Ben Shoshans perception may arise from Abulafias fame as a womanizer. In his wrath, the poet even threatens blackmail, and professes to know hidden things [about ben Shoshan] he will not yet reveal (authors bolds). The price for his silence is seven or eight servings of figs. Finally, in a parody of the sapiential literature that was very popular at the time, the poet recommends that the vendor should take better care of himself because of his notorious vulnerability: do not seek to quarrel with a hero and do not set out to sea without a boat.

* * *

(66) quotes Schirmann to write: There are, of course, documents relating to incidental homosexual acts among Andalusian Jews, but they are irrelevant to the literary issue.
55

T. Carmi, 414, footnote: the judges of Sodom and Gomorrah were notorious for their injustices.

30 Womanizer, fighter, misfit; don Todros ben Yehuda haLevi Abu-l-afiah led an eventful life: protg to Isaac Solomon ibn Zaddok; poet and financier to king Alfonso X the Wise; jailed and deprived of his estate; back in the graces of the Castilian court, where he remained active after the death of Alfonso, during the rule of his successor Sancho IV; the leader of a group of financiers given important monopolies. Peter Cole regards him as one of the most surprising poets of the [Christian rule] period.56 His work was just as eventful. In 1298 (at the age of 51), Abulafia gathered over one thousand of his poems in a diwan57 titled Gan HaMeshalim veHaHidot (Garden of Parables and Enigmas); after that, the poet and his work disappear without a trace. After his death, the diwan remained practically ignored for over six centuries. We now know that it was copied in Egypt in the 1600s and that the manuscript has since then been passed around among antiques collectors in Iraq and India. At some point, Shaul Abdullah Yosef, an Iraqi trader and scholar of Hebrew poetry, acquired the 17th century manuscript and made a copy for his own studies. With the death of Shaul in 1906, the copy ended up in the hands of David Yellin, one of the leading medieval Hebrew poetry scholars of his time. Yellin prepared a critical edition published in three volumes between 1934 and 193758. The Yellin edition remains the available reference for the work of Todros Abulafia.

56 57 58

P. Cole, 257. A collection of poems, usually in Persian or Arabic and by a single author. P. Cole, 256-7. In his monumental discussion of Jewish literature, first published in 1933, Waxman

(WAXMAN, Meyer A History of Jewish Literature. (5 vols.) New York: London, Thomas Yoseloff, 1960) makes a very brief reference to the work of Todros Abulafia, simply mentioning his poems in praise of Jewish personalities (p. 57).

31 The question I proposed to investigate in this paper is whether Todros Abulafias work may have shared the same social and literary universe in which the Christian poetry of his age developed. On the cultural atmosphere that marked the court of Alfonso X, Giulia Lanciani and Giuseppe Tavani write that

In 1274-75, Provenzal troubadour Giraut de Riquier, a guest at Alfonso Xs court for almost ten years between 1271 and 1279, wrote his famous complaint to the king to bring order to jongleur nomenclature, attributing to the sovereign a poetic decree dictating strict distinctions among buffoons and their vain games, jongleurs who know how to hold themselves among the wealthy, troubadours deft in combining lyrics and music and, finally, the doctors of poetry, masters of courtly manners and the composition of rhymes, songs and other poetic works.59

Todros Abulafia was 27 years old in 1274. It is possible that he may already have been associated with the court of Alfonso X in 1279 and met Giraut. The question is: were Jewish poets in Alfonsos court included in the classes of buffoons, jongleurs, troubadours and doctors of poetry? If so, in which one/ones? If not, was there a specific class for Jewish poets? One more question: if troubadours at the time wrote poems of love, poems of
59

G. Lanciani, G. Tavani. o trobador provenzal Giraut de Riquier, convidado na corte de Afonso X durante

case dez anos entre 1271 e 1279, escribe em 1274-75 a sa famosa reclamacin rei para poer orde na nomenclatura xograresca, e atribe soberano unha especie de decreto potico no que este dicta unha rigorosa distincin entre os bufons, que fan os seus xogos vans, os xograres que saben comportarse ben entre os ricos, os trobadores destros na combinacin de versos e msica e, para rematar, os doutores en poesia expertos na etiqueta cortes e mestres na composicin de versos, cancins e outras pezas poticas.

32 friendship, and poems of scorn and slander, then the Jewish poets active in court at that time were probably familiar with all three genres; did they write in their own genres, without contagion from the troubadourial ones? I believe that Jewish poets were indeed familiar with Christian poetry genres and that their work did in fact suffer contagion from troubadourial genres; different social circumstances (lower community autonomy, difference in Catholic Church presence, pressures from the Rabbinate, a tradition of liturgical poetry) certainly created distinctions and prevented them from simply becoming additional jongleurs or doctors of poetry. The issue of influences should perhaps be more comprehensively addressed. In her peerless Antologia, Lnia Mongelli emphasizes that

[the] territorial and human boundaries between Muslims, Christians and Jews were far from homogeneous because there were Mudjars (Muslims living in Christian domains) and Mozarabs (Christians in Muslim territory) that were sometimes tolerantly accepted and sometimes bitterly repelled, but continuously absorbed in cultural exchange. A good example of this trilingual society lies in the kharja a short poem with enormous linguistic variety that serves as the final refrain in the Hispanic-Arabic and Hebrew muwashshah, written in the upper form of literary Arabic and Hebrew. Amid endless controversy, kharja are claimed to be one of the sources of inspiration of the Galician-Portuguese Cantigas de amigo.60
60

M. Mongelli, xliii. [a]s fronteiras territoriais e humanas entre muulmanos, cristos e judeus estavam

longe de ser homogneas, porque havia mudjares (muulmanos vivendo sob domnio cristo), bem como morabes (cristos em territrio muulmano) s vezes se admitindo com tolerncia, s vezes se repelindo com acidez, mas sempre se absorvendo em trocas culturais. Bom exemplo dessa sociedade trilngue a

33

Instead of arguing about who influenced whom according to an one-way and sterile schematics, it may be more prudent to imagine a fruitful cultural environment made up of three ethnicities that at once coexisted and repelled one another, and where secular poetry was among the literary productions shared and highest points; newer generations emulated or rejected the forms of expression of their predecessors, and they all kept a watchful eye on the work of poets from the other ethnicities.

chamada kharja poema curto, de enorme variedade lingustica, que arremata as muwaxaha hispano-rabes e hebraicas, escritas na modalidade culta do rabe e do hebraico literrios. Para as kharja se reivindica, em meio a infindvel polmica, uma das fontes de inspirao das cantigas de amigo galego-portuguesas.

34 Bibliography

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