Letter to the King of the Khazars (Poetic Prologue)

Menaḥem ben Jacob Ibn Sarūq, a native of Tortosa, was one of the first prominent Jewish figures known in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). A poet and philologist, Menaḥem became secretary to Isaac Ibn Shaprūṭ and his son Ḥasday Ibn Shaprūṭ. It was Ḥasday who asked Menaḥem to compose his Notebook (Maḥberet), prior to a falling-out between them sparked by Dunash ben Labraṭ’s accusations that Menaḥem had Karaite sympathies. Menaḥem is known for his opposition to the application of Arabic models to Hebrew poetry and his refusal to interpret biblical Hebrew by way of rabbinic Hebrew or through comparisons to other Semitic languages. Menaḥem’s students defended their teacher at some length, but his positions were largely discarded by later Andalusi Jews.