Abū ʿAmr Yosef Ibn Qamni’el, haRoffe & Emissary to Afonso Henriques

Ibn Qamniʾel, Joseph (Abū ʿAmr)

Almost nothing is known about Joseph ibn Qamniʾel (Abū ʿAmr), who lived in the latter part of the eleventh century and the earlier part of the twelfth. He was a member of a distinguished family from Seville and very likely related to one of its most distinguished members, Me’ir ibn Qamniʾel . He seems to have practiced medicine. He was one of the wealthiest members of the community who was entrusted with an important diplomatic mission to the king of Portugal...which opened the way for Financial backing of the Cmapaigns of Afonso Henriques, paving a path for Jews to stand in the Court of a fair and even-handed Monarch.

Three poems dedicated to Ibn Qamniʾel by Moses ibn Ezra are the only source of information about him. One of these is a qaṣῑda (Shire ha-Ḥol, vol. 1, no. 72) in which, after a prelude on wine and a fragment of complaint about the separation of friends, Ibn Qamni’el is briefly praised by way of a dedication. In another poem (ibid., no. 39), Ibn Ezra consoles Ibn Qamni’el on the death of his brother Samuel. The poet’s praise of the deceased, whose life was cut short by illness during his youth, is combined with verses aimed at comforting the bereft, now alone after losing his closest family members. In addition to Samuel, the elegy seems to allude to a second brother, Jacob, who died earlier (v. 10).

Moses ibn Ezra also wrote a poem on the occasion of Ibn Qamni’el’s wedding, which took place when Ibn Qamni’el returned from a trip to Portugal (Shire ha-Ḥol, vol. 1, no. 41), according to the information in the heading. The praise of the groom begins after a prelude expressing a complaint against destiny and singing about the reunion of the lovers. The praises of Ibn Qamni’el utilize conventional motifs (such as wisdom and generosity) and extol his medical knowledge and power to cure “with his hand or his mouth” with different images. Several verses evoke the beauty of his letters and poems, of which no sample has been preserved. The poem alludes to the difference in age between the young Joseph and the now mature Ibn Ezra.

Aurora Salvatierra Ossorio

Bibliography

Ibn Ezra, Moses. Shire ha- Ḥ ol, ed. Ḥayyim Brody (Berlin: Schocken, 1934/35–1977).

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

———. Studies in the History of Hebrew Poetry and Drama, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1979) [Hebrew].

Citation Aurora Salvatierra Ossorio. " Ibn Qamniʾel, Joseph (Abū ʿAmr)." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 31 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>