Hebrew Sacred Poetry In The Middle Ages

The central feature of this book is an innovative critical approach, which understands medieval Hebrew poetry not only by revealing its ties with Arabic poetry but also by determining the specific characteristics by which it stubbornly distinguished itself from Arabic poetry.

A Matter of Geography deals with medieval secular Hebrew poetry from Spain and elsewhere, based on a “center and periphery” model. It delineates how Spanish school strove for centrality, as well as how the poets from elsewhere coped with it.

From the tenth century to the thirteenth, the Jews of Spain belonged to a vibrant and relatively tolerant Arabic-speaking society, a sophisticated culture that had a marked effect on Jewish life, thought, artistic tastes, and literary expression. In this companion volume to Wine, Women, and Death, we see how the surrounding Arabic culture influenced the new poetry that was being written for the synagogue service. The Hebrew poems here, accompanied by elegant English translations and explanatory essays are short lyrics of the highest literary quality.

In the Middle Ages, unconventional theological views were often expressed in poetic form. Jakob Petuchowski provides parallel texts of ten medieval theological poems in the standard liturgy that express unconventional and daring theological ideas, each with a commentary on the poem and its author, and a survey of Jewish thought on its particular theme.

Analysing well-known Hebrew medieval poets from a new, refreshing standpoint and focusing on less known authors and periods, this book shows the maturity of the research in this field. Written in English (and French) the articles make the Hebrew texts more easily available to scholars of comparative literature.

The central feature of this book is an innovative critical approach, which understands medieval Hebrew poetry not only by revealing its ties with Arabic poetry but also by determining the specific characteristics by which it stubbornly distinguished itself from Arabic poetry.