Yehuda Alharizi

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Yehuda Alharizi

Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi (Yehudah ben Shelomo al-Harizi, , Yahya bin Sulaiman bin Sha'ul abu Zakaria al-Harizi al-Yahudi min ahl Tulaitila) was a rabbi, translator, poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
and traveller active in Spain

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
(in Toledo

Toledo, Spain

Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital city of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous communities of Spain of Castile-La Mancha....
? - 1165, in Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km? and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population....
- 1225). He was supported by wealthy patrons, to whom he wrote poems and dedicated compositions.

He was a rationalist, conveying the works of Maimonides

Maimonides

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Encyclopedia

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
and traveller active in Spain

Spain

Middle Ages

Toledo, Spain

Aleppo

Maimonides

Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon , the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maymun , was born in C?rdoba, Spain, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204.....
and his approach to rationalistic Judaism. He translated Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed
Guide for the Perplexed

The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam". It was written in the 12th Century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam's philosophical views, as opposed t...
and some of his Commentary on the Mishnah, as well as the Mahbarot Iti'el of the Arab poet al-Hariri, from the Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
to Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
.

Alharizi's poetic translation of the Guide for the Perplexed is considered by many to be more readable than that of Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon

Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon

Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, more commonly known as Samuel ibn Tibbon , was a Jewish philosopher and doctor. He was born about 1150 in Lunel , and died about 1230 in Marseilles....
. However, it has not been very widely used in Jewish scholarship, perhaps because it is less precise. It had some influence in the Christian world due to its translation into Latin.

"It was, however, through Al-Harizi's translation that Maimonides' ideas were propagated in the Christian world. An anonymous Latin translation of the Guide, published in Paris by Agostino Giustiniani in 1520, is based on Al-Harizi's translation and was used by the English schoolmen. Al-Harizi's version also served as the basis for Pedro de Toledo's Spanish translation (published by M. Lazar according to the Ms. 10289, B.N. Madrid, in 1989, Culver City, Calif: Labyrinthos)."
Aharon Mirsky and Avrum Stroll / Angel Saenz-Badillos (2nd ed.):
AL-HARIZI, JUDAH BEN SOLOMON, pp. 655-7, here: p. 657,
Encyclopaedia Judaica (Fred Skolnik, Editor in Chief),
Detroit [u.a.]: Thomson Gale [u.a.], 22 volumes, 2nd. ed., 2007.
ISBN 0-02-865928-7, ISBN 978-0-02-865928-2 (set),
ISBN 0-02-865929-5, ISBN 978-0-02-865929-9 (vol. 1: Aa-Alp, 2007, pp. 730).
To the above mentioned Agostino Giustiniani:
"Die lateinische Übersetzung des Dux neutrorum edierte Augustinus Justinianus, Paris 1520, von mir nachgedruckt: Frankfurt/M. 1964."
("The Latin translation of the Dux neutrorum edited Augustinus Justinianus, Paris 1520, reprinted by me: Frankfurt/M. 1964.")
: Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart Dominican order , is the most common formula used to refer to Eckhart von Hochheim, a Germany theology, philosopher and German mysticism, born near Erfurt, in Thuringia....
.
Die Geburt der `Deutschen Mystik
German mysticism

German mysticism, sometimes called Dominican mysticism or Rhineland mysticism, was a Late Middle Ages Christian mysticism movement, that was especially prominent within the Dominican order and in Germany....
´ aus dem Geist der arabischen Philosophie,
München: , 2006, pp.192,
p. 183, fn. 275.
ISBN 978-3-406-54182-7.
See also:
Agostino Giustiniani /Augustinus Justinianus (Ed.):
Rabbi Mossei Aegyptii Dux seu Director dubitantum aut perplexorum,
Paris 1520; ND Frankfurt/M: , 1964, pp. 520.
ISBN 978-3-86598-129-5.

Alharizi's own works include the "Tahkemoni", composed between 1218 and 1220, in the Arabic form known as maqama
Maqama

Maqama are an Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century....
. This is written in Hebrew in unmetrical rhymes, in what is commonly termed rhymed prose
Rhymed prose

Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in Meter rhymes. This form has been known in many different cultures. In some cases the rhymed prose is a distinctive, well-defined style of writing....
. It is a series of humorous episodes, witty verses, and quaint applications of Scriptural texts. The episodes are bound together by the presence of the hero and of the narrator, who is also the author. Another collection of his poetry was devoted to preaching ethical self-discipline and fear of heaven.

Harizi undertook long journeys in the lands of the Middle East. His works are suffused with his impressions from these journeys.

He not only brought to perfection the art of applying Hebrew to secular satire, but he was also a brilliant literary critic and his makame on the Andalusia
Andalusia

Andalusia is a country in the Spanish State. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Spain....
n Hebrew poets is a fruitful source of information.

"Apart from its literary merit and brilliant, incisive style, the Tahkemoni also throws valuable light on the state of Hebrew culture of the period, and describes the scholars and leaders of the communities visited by the author. Al-Harizi gives vivid descriptions of the worthies of Toledo, the poets of Thebes, a debate between a Rabbanite and a Karaite, and conditions in Jerusalem. The Tahkemoni also contains critical evaluations of earlier and contemporary poets, although Al-Harizi's appraisal of his contemporaries is not always reliable and occasionally misses their most essential features."
Aharon Mirsky and Avrum Stroll ... [as above], p. 656.
To Alharizi's maqame on the Andalusia
Andalusia

Andalusia is a country in the Spanish State. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Spain....
n Hebrew poets
cf. Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, and one of the most significant German literature German Romanticism poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers....
(as an Alharizi redivivus, so to speak):
"Alcharisi - der, ich wette,
Dir nicht minder unbekannt ist,
Ob er gleich, französ'scher Witzbold,
Den überwitzelt

Im Gebiete der ,
Und ein Voltairianer
Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
war
Schon sechs hundert Jahr vor Voltair'
Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
-
Jener Alcharisi sagte:

»Durch Gedanken glänzt Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol

Solomon ibn Gabirol, also Solomon ben Judah was an al-Andalus Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher. He was born in M?laga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia ....

Und gefällt zumeist dem Denker,
Iben Esra
Moses ibn Ezra

Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as ha-Sallah was a Jewish, Spanish philosopher, linguist, and poet. He was born at Granada about 1055 – 1060, and died after 1138....
glänzt durch Kunst
Und behagt weit mehr dem Künstler -

Aber beider Eigenschaften
Hat Jehuda ben Halevy
Yehuda Halevi

Judah Halevi, in full Judah ben Shemuel Ha-Levi, also Yehuda Halevi, or Yehuda ben Samuel Halevi was a Sephardic philosopher and poet....
,
Und er ist ein großer Dichter
Und ein Liebling aller Menschen.«"

Romanzero, Drittes Buch - Hebräische Melodien, Jehuda ben Halevy (Fragment), IV,
pp. 7-182, pp. 123-172, pp. 130-158, pp. 149-158, here: pp. 151-2,
Sämtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke.
Düsseldorfer Ausgabe (Ed. Manfred Windfuhr),
Hamburg: , 16 volumes, 1973-97.
ISBN 3-455-03000-9, ISBN 978-3-455-03000-6 (set),
ISBN 3-455-03023-8, ISBN 978-3-455-03023-5 (vol 3/1: Romanzero. Gedichte 1853-1854. Lyrischer Nachlaß, 1992, pp. 411).

Literature to Alharizi's influence in the Christian world

, Untersuchung und Texte zur Geschichte des lateinischen Maimonides, Diss. Köln 1951.
Idem, Literargeschichtliches zum lateinischen Moses Maimonides, RThAM 21 (1954) 23-50.
Idem, Rabbi Moyses (Maimonides): Liber de uno Deo benedicto, Misc. Med. 4 (1966) 167-182.
Idem, Die Geschichte des Maimonides im lateinischen Abendland, ebd. 146-166.
George Vajda, Un abregé chrétien du `Guide des égarés´, JAS 248 (1960) 115-136.
: Dicit Rabbi Moyses. Studien zum Bild von Moses Maimonides im lateinischen Westen vom 13. bis 15. Jahrhundert, kirchengeschichtl. Diss. Heidelberg 2003, ZA Würzburg: 02.02.2006 (EA ebd., 2004), pp. 400 (2nd ed. 2005, pp. 404). ISBN 3-8260-2692-6, ISBN 978-3-8260-2692-8.

External links

in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906