Hebrew Praise Poems for Alfonso X and Jewish Loyalty at Court

A diplomat, court poet, and tax official, Todros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia lived in Toledo and served in the court of King Alfonso X of Castile (r. 1252–1284). In 1281, he was among a group of leading Jews arrested by royal order—as his patron, Don Çag de la Maleha, had been sentenced to death and hanged—but Abulafia seems to have been released and to have returned to serving the Castilian court. He was a prolific and witty poet in the troubadour tradition, openly writing about his sexual adventures. Around 1,200 of his own poems (and some by friends) appear in his dīwān (collection of poems), which he called Gan ha-meshalim ve-ha-ḥidot (The Garden of Parables and Riddles). The dīwān, which includes love poems, invective poems, panegyrics, and more, was preserved in a single manuscript copied in the seventeenth century.