Alack and alas for the eighth month

Eli ben ‘Amram

Mid-11th Century

Alack and alas for the eighth month [i.e., Marḥeshvan],
for in it was my noble sage Abraham slain.
He was terrified by the swords in the hand of my enemy, my oppressor,
who decreed God’s decree and showed me no favor.
Togarmites [Turks] stabbed me with a sharp sword,
Hagrites [Muslims] slew me like a cadaver to be dragged.
They dragged me with ropes to burning pyres,
and burned in Jacob [i.e., among the Jewish people] like a flaming fire.
The wicked surrounded me, Cushites burned me.
They cut me with their sharp swords, and placed me on their javelins.
Like lions, they tore me up, they consumed me, they sold me—
I feared, with dread—and it befell me.
I was trapped in their hands, and I could not be rescued.
They cut my flesh like the flesh of a corpse.
They had no mercy on my gray hair, or on my praised appearance.
Let us fall into the Lord’s hand, for His mercy is great; let me not fall into the hand of man.
Who has heard such things? Who has seen my anguish, my plight?
I have been utterly confounded, and my hope is lost.
They pulled me with ropes, and they hurled my corpse aside.
O land, do not cover my blood; let there be no place to [bury] my cry.
Slaves have dominated us . . .
Put and Lud and Cub and their clans.1
They have trapped me like a bird in their snares.
Repay them their due, O Lord, in accordance with their deeds. [ . . . ]
Regarding this, the wise will tremble, and mourn with their wails
the colleagues who moan with their laments.
Destroy [the enemy’s] crops! Finish off their wealth!
Give them sorrow of heart, [give] Your curse to them!

Source: CUL T-S 12.799.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[All epithets for Egypt, taken from Ezekiel 30:5.—Trans.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

In these excerpts from the first of two kinot (laments) written in reaction to the assassination of the wealthy Karaite Abū Naṣr Faḍl al-Tustarī, who had risen to a high rank in the Fātimid administration of the caliph, al-Mustanṣir (1036–1094), Eli ben ‘Amram expresses his great sense of loss. Beginning in the 1020s, Abū Naṣr had played a role in internal Jewish political affairs, such as in the appointment of the Palestinian gaon, and eventually rose to be a confidant of the Fātimid caliph. Most of the sources for Abū Naṣr’s murder appear in Muslim texts and date to a later period, but the Cairo Geniza preserved Eli’s two Hebrew laments. That he composed these poems at all highlights the close connections between Rabbanites and Karaites in medieval Fustāt. The unbracketed ellipsis indicates a lacuna in the manuscript.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Poetry

9th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Eli ben ‘Amram

11th Century

Eli ben ‘Amram ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver (“the fellow,” an honorific often bestowed by the Palestinian academy in Jerusalem) was a communal leader and poet in Fustāt (Old Cairo) during the second half of the eleventh century. He served as the head of the Palestinian Rabbanite congregation in Fustāt after the death of Ephraim ben Shemariah in 1055. Eli’s tenure was marked by deep and enduring ties to Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean. Among the many surviving documents in the Cairo Geniza testifying to Eli’s activity, two kinot (dirges) written by him upon the assassination of Abū Naṣr Faḍl al-Tustarī bespeak his close relationship with the al-Tustarīs, a leading family of Karaites, some of whom had held important positions in the Fātimid state apparatus. As the result of a rivalry within the Fātimid military, Abū Naṣr was assassinated in 1047, an event that reverberated through the Jewish community.

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