The Pillars: Jerusalem, Athens, and the Western Mind The Golden Age of Spain: Jewish Culture under Islamic Rule
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Apr 10, 2025 Ronnie Perelis, Associate Professor of Sephardic Studies who researches Iberian-Jewish cultural ties, guides listeners through Al-Andalus's vibrant Jewish life. He traces how Arabic court poetry sparked a new secular Hebrew verse, profiles major poets like Yehuda Halevi, and explains shifting fortunes from convivencia to persecution. Short, vivid snapshots of cultural mixing, literary innovation, and political change.
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Hebrew Poetry Recrafted From Arabic Court Culture
- Jewish poets in Spain adopted Arabic courtly genres and made them Hebrew, blending Biblical allusion with secular themes like wine, love, and gardens.
- Perelis cites Shmuel HaNagid's apple riddle poems as an example of Arabic forms translated and innovated in Hebrew.
Secular Themes Made Liturgical Language Soulful
- Spanish Hebrew poetry shifted from dense liturgical complexity toward accessible, musical, rhymed secular themes that entered synagogue practice.
- Perelis explains poems about lovers, moonlight, war and loss were written in Hebrew for friends and later influenced liturgy and Selichot.
Peshat And Music Made Poems Stick
- Spanish poets emphasized clarity, biblical peshat and musical rhyme, making poems more memorable and communal.
- Perelis links this to Arabic rhetoric, Hebrew grammatical revival (Dunash, Menachem ben Saruq), and musical oral transmission across Sephardic communities.
