The Speech of Asher ben Judah

Solomon Ibn Saqbel

Mid-12th Century

On the fourth day, sodden with drink and without a care in the world, we went out to stroll along the quiet waters and to sniff some fresh air. By the canals were lovely gazelles and cooing doves.1 While I was gazing at them and listening to their song, a star peered through a lattice, twinkling from within: an eye winked, a hand beckoned. I kept…

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“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.

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Early Medieval Tales and Legends

6th to 12th Century

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