Ezekiel ben Eli ha-Kohen

Ezekiel ben Eli ha-Kohen was a prolific poet, most likely active somewhere in Iraq. Little is known about his life, but surviving manuscripts indicate that his poetry was popular among later poets who copied and transmitted his works. An early Judeo-Arabic commentary on one of his poems reports that Ezekiel was blind and needed a copyist to transcribe his poetry, which he composed orally. Almost all of Ezekiel’s surviving poetry is liturgical in nature. His writings may have been influenced by Andalusi Jewish poetic practices, although they also have numerous features of more traditional piyyutim. Ezekiel did not adopt the use of meter that was growing in prominence in his day.