The Speech of Asher ben Judah

“The Speech of Asher ben Judah” (Ne’um Asher ben Yehudah) is one of the earliest examples of a Hebrew maqāma, a fictional story written in rhymed prose interspersed with poetry and following a specific narrative format, based on an Arabic model. At the same time, it bears some similarities to the courtly love stories circulating widely in medieval Europe. This text, then, represents the fusion of an Arabic literary model with themes from the Christian world. In the Hebrew love poetry of the period, and in this work, the “gazelle” symbolized the object of desire, whether male or female.