Advertisement
Articles

The ‘Wiles of Women’ Motif in the Medieval Hebrew Literature of Spain

The ‘Wiles of Women’ Motif in the Medieval Hebrew Literature of Spain

By Norman Roth

Hebrew Annual Review, Vol. 2 (1978)

Jewish Women of Aragon dancing

Introduction: The role of the Jews in Spain as intermediaries in the transmission of science, literature and philosophy from the Muslim to the Christian world in the Middle Ages is generally known. Yet, while the complete story of that transmission has not yet been adequately told, even less perfectly realized is the extent to which the Jews were creators and originators, and not mere transmitters. Particularly in literature, even that which purports to be translation from the Arabic into Hebrew, the role of the Jewish author was usually closer to what has been termed “redactor” or “narrator” than translator.

In spite of the admirable work of a number of scholars, the complete account of the development of medieval Hebrew literature remains to be written. A major chapter in that story must be the genre of literature known in Arabic as maqama and in Hebrew as mahberet.

Advertisement

Israel Davidson, that indefatigable scholar of Hebrew poetry to whom all later students are indebted, had some difficulty in defining this type of literature. Neither mere satire nor only a collection of folk tales, it also includes moral and philosophical instruction, as well as tales calculated to “delight.” The maqama originated, apparently in Muslim Persia, under the influence of the developing schools of Arabic grammar and poetry. According to some scholars, ‘Amr b. Bahr (d.869 C.E.), known as “al-Jiihis” (the “goggle-eyed”), was the first to use this style in his “Book of Animals.” Others deny that this work and its imitators really deserve the appellation of maqamat, however. All agree that the first author of a “real” maqama was Abu -l Fath Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Hamagani (967-1007 C.E.), known as “Badi’ al-Zaman” (“Wonder of the Age”).

Click here to read this article from Ohio State University

Advertisement