To the wheel that turns the river’s waters

Solomon Mazal Tov, a prolific poet, lived in Istanbul. His father may have been from Italy. Around seventy of his poems have reached us, the largest surviving corpus by a poet of his generation. Many Jews fleeing the Iberian Peninsula arrived in Constantinople during Mazal Tov’s lifetime, and his poetry demonstrates the influence of the Spanish tradition. Mazal Tov wrote secular poetry—including a poem dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Suleiman (possibly in honor of his ascent to the throne in 1520) and another about chess—as well as liturgical poetry. His poems employ biblical language. In addition, Mazal Tov was a printer. His printing house produced seven books, and Mazal Tov composed approbations and recommendations for other works. References in his poetry suggest that he also composed a prose work about the 613 commandments, although this has not survived.