Joseph the Righteous

The language in this popular drama is quite different from Nadjar’s poetry: it is more formal and bears fewer of the characteristic features of the Tunisian dialect of Judeo-Arabic. The author was clearly acquainted with the classics of medieval Arabic literature and likely had in mind an audience that included Muslims in addition to Jews. Thus, certain phrasing nods to the language employed in the Quran, and in particularly its telling of this story, and the poetic portions of the dialogue quote the classical Arabic poet of the Abbasid era al-Mutanabbi and The Thousand and One Nights. Much of this selection is written in rhymed verse. Of what is not in verse, much is in the sajʿ, the rhymed prose often employed in medieval Arabic literature.