Yakob ibn Jaw

Nothing is known of the life and work of Barukh ibn Jaw, whose name is preserved in the heading of a poem of friendship dedicated to him by Abraham ibn Ezra (Diwân 1886, pp. 85 f.). This circumstance makes it possible to position him chronologically in the latter part of the eleventh century and the first decades of the twelfth. It has been suggested ( Schirmann 1997, p. 17), but cannot be corroborated, that he was a descendant of an Ibn Jaw family known to have lived in Cordova since the tenth century. A member of this family, Jacob ibn Jaw, succeeded Ḥasday ibn Shapruṭ as nasi of the Jews of al-Andalus, according to Abraham Ibn Da'ud ( Sefer ha-Qabbala, p. 50).

The poem in honor of Barukh ibn Jaw, Baʿale Rivi Sheʾu, is a strophic composition with a kharja (envoi) in Arabic taken from the poet Ibn Baqῑand used in another anonymous Hebrew poem (Levin 1969). The beginning laments the recipient’s separation from his patron-friend, expressing the pain engendered by his absence and the desire to be together again, using conventional motifs from the poetry of al-Andalus, especially elements of the love poetry genre. The poem goes on to say that Ibn Ezra is heart-broken by memories of the “sweetness of his verses,” which confirms that Ibn Jaw also wrote poetry, although no sample of it has been preserved. After alluding to the name of his friend (Barukʿh), Ibn Ezra moves on to praise him and sing again of the friendship that unites them. Some of the poem’s imagery suggests that it was written by Ibn Ezra while a young man still living in al-Andalus, before 1141. No specific details are provided about the recipient, and we have no further information. The tone and contents of the poem leave open the possibility that the two friends were separated and it was sent to Ibn Jaw from a distance.

Aurora Salvatierra Ossorio

Bibliography

Ibn Daʾud, Abraham. Sefer ha-Qabbalah: The Book of Tradition, ed. and trans. Gerson D. Cohen (Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2005).

Ibn Ezra, Abraham. Diwân des Abraham ibn Esra, ed. Aqiva ben Josef Eger (Berlin: T. H. Ittskovski, 1886).

Levin, Israel. Abraham Ibn ʿEzra: Ḥ ayyav ve-Shirato (Israel: Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuḥad, 1969).

Schirmann, Ḥayyim. “Ha-Meshorerim Benei Doram shel Moshe ibn Ezraʿ,” Yediʿot ha-Makhon le- Ḥ eqer ha-Shira ha-ʿIvrit 6 (1945): 263.

———. The History of Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain and Southern France, ed., suppl., and annot. Ezra Fleischer (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997) [Hebrew].

Weinberger, Leon. Twilight of a Golden Age: Selected Poems of Abraham Ibn Ezra (Tuscalosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997), pp. 81–85.

Cite this page

Aurora Salvatierra Ossorio. "Ibn Jaw, Barukh." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2013. <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>