Abstract

It is quite well-known that Hebrew poetry in Spain constitutes a perfect example of cultural cohabitation between Arabic and Hebrew. It was established in Al-Andalus at Córdoba in the tenth century under the reign of the Caliph ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (r. 929–961). It was the product of two extremely powerful cultural sources: classical Arabic poetry on the one hand and the language of the Bible on the other. Biblical Hebrew was the primary material used by Jewish poets in Al-Andalus who searched, quite consciously, the linguistic tools for their poems. At the same time, from its first appearance, Hebrew Andalusi poetry used the full variety of thematic frameworks and prosodic structures from Arabic poetry.