Judah ben Samuel ibn ‘Abbās

Judah ben Samuel ibn ‘Abbās was born in Fez, probably in the early twelfth century. Although he was not of Iberian origin and spent most of his life in Aleppo, he was counted as one of the great Andalusian poets by Judah al-Ḥarīzī, who wrote in the Taḥkemoni: “And R. Judah ben ‘Abbās, too, turned his steps toward the East, and brought to Song’s feast lines succulent and fat, if others less than that; and still others dry and flat.” Further on, in describing the people of Aleppo, al-Ḥarīzī says: “And some of them feel proud of Ibn ‘Abbās’s poems, and they say that there was no other after him who could compose poetry.” About twenty liturgical poems (Heb. piyyuṭim) by Ibn ‘Abbās have survived, including “Father of Mercy” (Heb. Av ha-Raḥamim), “I Shall Sing” (Heb. Ani Ashir), and “I Am Thy Servant (Heb. ‘Avdekha Ani). His best-known piyyuṭ is “ When the Gates of Favor Are to Open” (Heb. ‘Et Sha‘are Raṣon le-Hippate’aḥ), which is chanted on Rosh ha-Shana prior to the sounding of the shofar in the Sephardi rite.

The Taḥkemoni also mentions Ibn ‘Abbās’s son Samuel: “He bore as well a son who had no peer, to speak with charity, in venality and vulgarity.” Samuel was the notorious apostate and polemicist al-Samaw’āl al-Maghribī, who wrote Ifḥām al-Yahūd (Silencing the Jews). In addition to its polemic against Judaism, the book includes important biographical data about Samuel and his father. Samuel writes: “My father was called the Rav Judah ben Abun from the city of Fez located at the end of the Maghreb”; he adds that his father was a man learned in Torah and a skillful writer of prose and verse. The book also provides the name by which his father was known among the Arabs: Abū ’l-Baqā’ Yaḥyā ibn ‘Abbās al-Maghribī. Al- Samaw’āl at first hid his conversion from his father, but finally wrote a letter to Aleppo announcing his change of faith. Ibn ‘Abbās tried to visit his son, who was in Mosul, but fell ill and died without seeing him.

Arturo Prats

Bibliography

Al-Maghribī, Samau’al ibn Yaḥyā. If ḥ ām al-Yahūd. Silencing the Jews, ed. and trans. Moshe Perlmann (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1964).

Al-Ḥarizi, Judah. The Book of Ta ḥ kemoni: Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain, trans. and expl. David S. Segal (London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001).

Davidson, Israel. Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry, vol. 4 (New York: Ktav, 1970; repr. of New York, 1933), p. 396 [Hebrew].

Schirmann, Ḥayyim. “Ha-Meshorerim Bene Doram shel Moshe ibn ‘Ezra vi-Yehuda ha-Levi,” Yedi‘ot ha-Makhon le- Ḥ eqer ha-Shira ha-‘Ivrit 3 (1945): 297–313.

Cite this page

Arturo Prats. "Ibn ‘Abbās, Judah ben Samuel." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2013. <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>