Ibn Janāḥ’s anecdote calls attention to what I consider one of the most crucial aspects of Andalusian Jewish intellectual society. Only rarely do we find intellectuals gathered together; for the most part, they appear separated by distances and had meetings only occasionally.106 This is the picture that emerges when reading the history of Hebrew poetry in al-Andalus as described by Mosheh Ibn Ezra. For the most part, Ibn Ezra describes an ever-shrinking constellation of intellectuals, often moving from place to place and spread out across al-Andalus. He does not describe a series of discrete Jewish courts, each with competing poets orbiting around a patron, but rather a coterie of scattered authors who exchange poems over distances. He mentions authors according to their generations, and then according to their cities, but hardly describes any organized court. The closest he comes pertains to the poets surrounding Ḥasdai Ibn Shaprut (further below), but any Jewish court culture must have been extremely short-lived; it seems to have been unique to the period of the Umayyad caliphate and was perhaps repeated, to some extent, in various Taifa states; but certainly by Ibn Ezra’s generation, there barely seems to have been a trace of stable circles organized around patrons. This is how Ibn Ezra describes the generation of poets preceding his own:
Among the poets of Toledo were Abū Harūn Ibn Abī al-‘Aish, and after a period Abū Isḥāq Ibn al-Ḥarīzī. Among the poets of Seville were Abū Yūsuf Ibn Migash, originally of Granada and later of Seville, and Abū Zakariyya Ibn Mar Abun. And among the last of the generation in Granada was Abū Yūsuf b. al-Marah. Among the people of firm speech and clear poetry was my older brother Abū Ibrāhīm; he, may God have mercy on him, possessed gentle expression and sweet poetry due to his fluency in knowledge of Arabic expression (‘arabiyya). He died in Lucena in 1120/21. And in the east of al-Andalus there was at this time Abū ‘Umar Ibn al-Dayyan…. How deserted the earth is after them! How dark it is for their loss! Thus it is said, “The death of the pious is salvation for them but loss for the world. Our ancestors preceded in this with this saying, “the death of the righteous is good for them but bad for the world” (b. Sanhedrin 103b).107
Regarding his own generation, Ibn Ezra continues:
Those of their generation who are at the end of their days, and those who come after them and follow in their paths, are an exalted small group108 and a beautiful coterie that understands the goal of poetry. Although they were adherents of different schools (madhāhib) and [attained] distinct levels of speech, they came to [poetry’s] gate and path, administered its purity and eloquence; they reached the extreme of beauty and splendor, nay they were mighty in likening and similitude. It has been said that men are like rungs of a ladder; there are the high rungs and the low and those in between. But all of them, in whatever cities they dwelled, were in the circle of beautifying, precision, and mastery.
He goes on to mention numerous figures by name, several of whom had migrated from one city to another, and concludes: “These skilled people (naḥarīr), I met all of them (except for a few) and selected their most famous and obscure [verses]. The poet [Abū Tammām] said concerning this, ‘The coterie (isāba) whose values (adābuhum) are my values, though they are apart in the land, they are my neighbors.’”109
These intellectuals constituted a group largely by virtue of the literary and other intellectual ties maintained among them. If I might be permitted some anachronism, Andalusian Jewish courts were largely “virtual” and owed their existence to a web of connections and occasional moments of encounter. In Chapter 2, we will consider the role of panegyrics exchanged throughout such networks as “gifts.” For now, we will continue to review the evidence for the oral and written elements of panegyric practice in al-Andalus.
A small subset of Andalusian panegyrics seems to be associated with installation to office or some other public acclamation of power. The most suggestive examples I have identified emanate from the dīwāns of Mosheh Ibn Ezra and Yehudah Halevi.110 One of the poems by Ibn Ezra bears the superscription, “To a friend who was appointed to the position of judge (tawallā al-qaḍā’)” and includes verses that suggest a political ritual:111
All the masters of knowledge testify that your community adorned and elevated itself through you.
[Your community] became your subject today, it inclined to be ruled by your decree.
[Your community] raised up the wonder of dominion [before you] for it is your possession and an inheritance from your fathers.
They said to you, “You are next in succession, come and redeem your inheritance!
Arise and be our judge112 for we have not found a leader113 like you.”
Make a pledge with the sons of Wisdom for they, among all men, share a pact with you …
Take delight in the might of the world but also beware lest it seduce you….
This is advice from a friend whose soul takes pride on the day of your pride’s exaltation.114
The immediacy of an occasion is suggested by such words as “today” and the second-person address to “arise and be our judge.” The references to a “pledge” and “pact” likely allude to standard practices of Islamic installation rites, which center on the loyalty oath (bai‘a) and making a bilateral compact (‘ahd).115 The poem was certainly written for the occasion of the friend’s installation, though we do not know that it was recited as part of the ceremony; as is often the case, we are forced to rely upon the internal evidence of the poem, a method that can be only partly successful because poems that were not performed can contain performative elements.
A second example from Ibn Ezra’s dīwān is a panegyric in strophic form, written, it seems, for the induction of another judge,116
How comely on the mountain are the footsteps of the herald announcing (Is 52:7)
that a shepherd has come to bring comfort to the flock wandering in the forest.
Behold, the sound of the people in its boisterousness (Ex 32:17) is heard calling him in song.
Our rejoicing before you is like the joy of a multitude on their holiday.
May you reign over us! You and your son and your son’s son!
Gates of the House of God, lift up your heads and say, “Come, O blessed one of God!
The one who stands to serve by the name of God, to teach the law of God,
to teach the teachings of God that [they] may know the ways of God.”
For these are a sign upon your right hand and a reminder between your eyes (cf. Ex 13:9).
Although the unprotected settlements117 are no more, you restored their habitations!
Although prophecy and vision had grown rare, you spoke their wonders!
Although deprivation had wasted their souls, your wisdom revived them!
Your table satisfies them, your refreshing stream gives them drink.
From now on you will be minister over one thousand. May you be exalted and rule over Israel!
May your enemy pass away, may he be lost and not be redeemed;
God has unsheathed His sword against him, but you he has chosen like Ittiel [i.e., Solomon].
May a thousand fall at your left, ten thousand at your right! (Ps 91:7)
May your name be exalted and magnified in all the corners