Moses Ibn Ezra
Moses ibn Ezra ( Hebrew Arabic is a rabbi , poet , philosopher and linguist Andalusian eleventh and twelfth centuries ( Grenada , circa 1058 - circa 1138 ).
Author of the Kitab al-al-Muarawa Mudhkara, the first system of Hebrew poetry, based on the achievements of grammar, it is also known for the many penitential poems ( seli'hot ) he composed, hence its nickname HaSalla'h.
Summary |
Biographical Elements
Born in the family Ibn Ezra , one of the most prominent Jewish families of al-Andalus , he would have been, according to Isaac Israeli ). In Christian Spain, Moses ibn Ezra led a wandering life, full of misfortunes.
Works
Moses ibn Ezra is a complete and versatile author, distinguished philosopher, a good linguist and, above all, an excellent poet, Judah al-Harizi said: "Moses ibn Ezra pulls the beads from the well of thought . "
Arougat HaBossem
The grand philosophical work is the Al-Ma'ani adiah fi al-wal-Mujaz aiah, anonymously translated into Hebrew under the title of Arougat HaBossem (Parterre du Parfum). The original Arabic and a fragment of the translation are preserved in manuscript at the Russian National Library and libraries in Hamburg and Oxford respectively .
The book is divided into seven chapters:
- General remarks about God, man and philosophy
- A character of God
- Of the inadmissibility of applying attributes to God
- Unsuitability of the names given to God
- Movement
- Nature
- Intellect.
His theses are footprints Neoplatonism : the man is a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm, God is One beyond all units and unknowable in itself, but self-knowledge leads to knowledge of the Creator.
He cites numerous authors, including Hermes (he identifies Enoch ), Pythagoras , Socrates , Plato , Aristotle , Empedocles (or rather pseudo-Empedocles), al-Farabi , Saadia Gaon and Solomon ibn Gabirol.
Although the book demonstrates a profound knowledge of Greek philosophy and Muslim, he seems to have been neglected in favor of other works of Ibn Ezra, and is cited by virtually no authority Later, with the exception of Yedaya Bedersi in a letter to Solomon ben Adret.
Kitab al-wal-Muaarah Mudhakarah
Moses ibn Ezra is the author of Kitab al-wal-Muaarah Mudhakarah, a treatise on rhetoric and poetry, written in the style of writings of Adab. This is the only book of its kind in Jewish literature.
Written at the request of a friend who had sent eight questions on Hebrew poetry, it is divided into a corresponding number of chapters.
In the first four, the author discusses in general prose and prosaic authors, poetry and poets, the natural poetic gift of the Arabs, which he attributed to the climate of Arabia. It tells the poet forms it is advisable to use or avoid entering the fourth chapter by writing that on very rare exceptions, the poetic parts of the Bible contain no meter or rhyme.
The fifth chapter, which is the most important attempts to establish a genealogy of poetry, both Jewish than Arab. It begins with the history of Jewish settlement in Spain, which begins in the author, during the Babylonian Exile , the Sepharad mentioned by the prophet Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20) were Spain (it 's acts in fact a place in Asia Minor). It then describes in a comprehensive way the literary activity of the Spanish Jews, the most important authors and their works.
In the sixth chapter, the author cites various maxims and describes the general intellectual condition of his time, which seems not to have been quite brilliant. He deplores the public indifference to the learned, indicating that this indifference has not affected, and it has been so good that bad fortune. In addition, it has virtues that allow it to waive any claim to public recognition, these virtues are contentment and moderation.
In the seventh chapter, he discusses the possibility of composing poems in dreams, and many authors have credible reporting. The eighth chapter is divided into two parts, one dealing with poetry and poems, the second (in 20 paragraphs) dealing with tropes , figures, and other poetic forms.
The Kitab al-Muaarah exists in manuscript in the libraries of Berlin, Oxford, and St. Petersburg. Pavel Kokowzow published the first four chapters in St. Petersburg in 1895, Hartwig Hirschfeld published the second chapter in his chrestomathy Judeo-Arabic.
A fragment of a Hebrew translation (titled Eshkol ha-kofer, not to be confused with the homonymous work of Judah Hadassi the Karaite ) is quoted by Abraham Zacuto . In this book, Ibn Ezra mentions another similar work, Fi Faa'il Ahl al-Adab, which nothing else is known.
A new translation was completed in 1924 by Ben-Zion Halper, under the title of Shirat Israel and revised in 1978 by Shlomo Abraham Halkin, as the more correct Sefer Ha'iyounim vhadiounim.
Poetry
Moshe ibn Ezra is considered a master without rival in the mastery of Hebrew. His poetry, liturgical and secular, are distinguished by the beauty of their form and style, and were, according to Al Hariz, preferred by poets with those of Abraham ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi.
Poetry profane
The poems of Ibn Ezra are laymen gathered in Tarshish (so called because it contains 220 lines), the Anak (or Zahr al-Riyadh in Arabic) and the first part of his Diwan.
The Tarshish is divided into ten chapters, each containing twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. It is written using the rules Tajna, a type of poetry playing with homonyms, which are repeated in each stanza with a different meaning with each repetition.
The first chapter is dedicated to a certain Abraham (perhaps Abraham ibn Kamnial ), which touts a typically hyperbolic style oriental.
In the nine chapters, he speaks:
- wine, love and song (chapter ii.)
- the beauty of life in the countryside (chapter iii.)
- the disease of love and separation of lovers (chapters iv. & c.)
- Friends of the infidels (chapter vi.)
- of old age (chapter vii.)
- the vagaries of fate and death (chapter viii.)
- of faith in God (chapter ix.)
- the glory of poetry (chapter x.)
Ibn Ezra is serious when he talks about old age ("Oh, if the night could still gird my head instead of the day," the "night" meaning black hair, day, white hair), but when it treats of the most frivolous.
The Tarshish was published by David Gnzburg (Berlin, 1886). In the best manuscripts scattered through various libraries in Europe (Munich, Oxford, Paris, etc.). The Tarshish is accompanied by a commentary explaining the meaning of homonyms used. This comment could come, in part or in whole, the author himself.
The Diwan is still in manuscript and contains 300 pieces profane, consisting in part of praise written to friends and composed elegies for the deaths of scientists.
Sacred Poetry
The majority of the 220 liturgical poems of Ibn Ezra that are found in all Mahzorim (with the exception of Ashkenazi rite ) and the Diwan are selihot (penitential poems), recited during the Days of Awe , between the day of the year Jew and the Day of Atonement. Their goal is to invite worshipers to introspection, describing the emptiness of life, the vanity of earthly glory, the bitter disillusionment that the sensualist get to know, and Divine Judgement inevitable. He often uses biblical scenes, but unlike his predecessors, he began his visits to review the biblical story from the giving of the Law, not with Adam.
Outside selihot, one of the most famous pieces of the repertoire of Moshe ibn Ezra El Nora Alila , sung in the Sephardic congregations in the introduction to Nela , which concludes the Day of Atonement. Ibn Ezra has signed its piyyout like many of his colleagues, with his name in acrostic (Moshe E Haza "Q).
References
- Isaac Israeli the Younger Yesod 'Olam, part IV, ch. xviii. end
- Moses ben Jacob ha-Sallah ibn Ezra, a section of the Encyclopedia Britannica
- Al-Harizi, Tahkemoni, ch. iii.
- Steinschneider, Hamburg Catalog No. 256; Neubauer , Cat. Bodle. Hebr. MSS. No. 1180, 20
- Zacuto, Youassin, P. 220, ed. London
- Richard Gottheil & Armand Kaminka , KAMNIAL (KAMBIL), ABRAHAM B. MEIR IBN , an article in the Jewish Encyclopedia
- Neubauer, Cat. Bodle. Hebr. MSS. No. 1792
This article incorporates text from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, article "IBN EZRA, MOSES BEN JACOB HA-Sallah (ABU HARUN MUSA)" , a publication now in the public domain.
Notes
Related articles
External Links
- (He) The writings of Moses ibn Ezra , in the Ben-Yehuda Project
- (He) / (en) Moshe ibn Ezra on the site Invitation Piyyout
- (He) / (en) Book of poems by Moshe ibn Ezra , annotated and critiqued by Hayim Brody , with English translation of Solomon da Silva Solis-Cohen, Philadelphia, 1945, on the site daat
Bibliography
- Fenton, Paul, Philosophy and Exegesis in the Garden of Metaphor of Moses ibn Ezra, poet and philosopher of the twelfth century Andalusian (Leiden, Brill, 1996).
Loading ...