Scriptural Intertextuality in the Poetry of a Late Andalusi Convert

Abstract:This article provides a translation and analysis of the only extant Hebrew poem attributed to the Andalusi poet Ibrāhīm ibn Sahl al-Isrāʾīlī. This poem, a baqqashah (Jewish liturgical appeal), oscillates between despair and hope for the redemption of the Jewish people. A careful reading of the poem reveals it to be a rich expression of optative return from exile, especially in light of intertextuality with a passage on redemption drawn from Isaiah 62 as well as significant patterns of soundplay. Ibn Sahl was also a well-known Arabic-language poet whose collection of verse in that language is dominated by lachrymose poems of longing for a distant beloved, many of which yearn for an object of desire called Mūsā, the Arabic name for Moses. Reading the baqqashah together with Ibn Sahl's Arabic poetry invites a wider discussion of the poet's bilingual oeuvre.