Birth of Secular Hebrew Poetry

• Prior to the 10th century – all Hebrew poetry was religious

• The Andalusian School of Poetry provided a new way to write

• Dunash ben Labrat of Cordoba was the first to write secular Hebrew poetry

• He adapted Arabic poetic forms to Hebrew

What did this mean?

• Arabic poetry had form and meter that was different from Biblical or religious Hebrew poetry

• It focused on topics other than God and faith• Despite early resistance and claims Hebrew

would not work in these new forms – Hebrew Secular poetry flourishes in Muslim Spain

Muslim period – 950-1150

• Samuel HaNagid – lyrical accounts of military campaigns

• Solomon ibn Gabirol• Moses ibn Ezra• Judah Halevi – the finest and most famous of

this school

Topics

• Written in the courts of the Jews who served the Muslim leaders these poems would focus on:– Their benefactors’ lives and deaths– Self praise– Insulting rivals– Wine and love– Personal complaints and reflections

Despite it being secular

• Images for Torah and Tanach were common• Was seen as a way to revive Hebrew• Use of vocabulary and images from the

Hebrew Bible• Whole passages would be quoted or inserted

into a poem

Piyyutim (liturgical poems)

• Poems of a religious nature were also written• These were “devotional” and not necessarily

used in formal prayer• These became more popular late in the Muslim

period and when Christians re-conquered Spain and made life harder for Jews

• This type of poetry was already well known in Ashkenaz where life had long been difficult