SAMUEL HA-NAGID, DIWAN (COMPLETE COLLECTION OF AUTHOR’S POEMS), MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER 1584 SCRIBE: TAM BEN GEDALIAH IBN YAHYA

Tam ben Gedalia Ibn Yahia — Joseph Karakani (signature, p. 301) — Aaron ben Samuel (stamp, p. 398) — Isaac ben Hakham Isaiah Dayyan (signature on rear flyleaf) — David Solomon Sassoon (sale, Sotheby's New York, 4 December 1984, lot 82)

David Yellin, Ha'Zofe Me'ertz Hagar, VII (Budapest), p. 290 (illustrating the differences from the Arabic text in the Bodleian); David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library (London, 1932), vol. I, pp. 451–460, no. 589; David S. Sassoon, Diwan of Samuel Ha'Nagid (Oxford, 1934) (published from this manuscript without the vocalization); Dov Jarden, ed., Divan Shmuel Ha'Nagid (Jerusalem, 1966) (an annotated edition based on this manuscript and several Genizah fragments and collated with previously published collections of Samuel ha-Nagid’s poetry); Hillel Halkin, Grand Things to Write a Poem On: A Verse Autobiography of Shmuel Hanagid (Jerusalem, 2000)

Contents

Pp. 1–146:  First part- Introduction by the poet’s son, Jehosef, followed by occasional poems.

Pp. 147–300:  Second part- Ben Mishlei. This section ends with a description of the death in the year 1015 of Rabbi Hanokh ben Moses, Samuel's teacher and son of one of the four captives brought to Cordoba as related in Abraham ibn Daud's Sefer ha-Kabbalah.

Pp. 303–374:  Third part- Ben Kohelet, on  p. 374 an epitaph by Aaron, physician of Toledo (on the tomb of Isaac Alnakaweh) and a poem sent by Abraham, the son of Maimonides, to the scholars of Lunel are included.

Pp. 381–398:  Poems by other authors, including Abraham ibn Ezra’s Iggeret ha-Shabbat (letter on the Sabbath assumed to have been written in London) and another poem attributed to ibn Ezra.

Pp. 403–413:  Mathematical exercises copied by another hand, including a short treatise on arithmetic by Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils, author of the astronomical treatise Shesh Kenafayim.

This unique manuscript contains the complete collection of poems by Samuel ben Joseph ha-Nagid (993–1055), who along with his protégé, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, were the most important Spanish Hebrew poets of the eleventh century.  Born Samuel ha-Levi ben Yosef ibn Nagrela into a prominent family that settled in Cordoba, he received a classical education, studying Arabic and the Koran in addition to Torah and halakha. When the Berbers attacked Cordoba in 1013, Samuel fled for Malaga where according to the twelfth-century historian Abraham ibn Daud, he opened a spice shop in the port city and resumed his career. Before long he was approached by a maid servant to the vizier of Granada and asked if he would write letters on behalf of her master. He was soon promoted to the staff of the King of Granada, where he advanced from tax collector, to secretary, to assistant vizier, to vizier. The Jewish community responded to his success by giving him the title, Nagid, and establishing him as the head of the Jewish community.  He served as Vizier of the Kingdom of Granada and leader of its armies until his death in 1055.  As commander of the army he participated in numerous military expeditions and was unique among medieval Hebrew poets in glorifying the art of war in his poetry. In addition to his political and military successes, Samuel ha-Nagid compiled a halakhic work entitled Hilkhot ha-Nagid.

The text, which is divided into three parts, begins with an introduction by Samuel’s son, Jehoseph ha-Nagid, who in 1044, at the age of eight-and-a-half, began copying his father’s poems.  Similarly, the second part was originally copied by Samuel’s second son, Elyasaf, when he was six-and-a-half-years old.  Part three consists of additional poems arranged in alphabetical order, along with a colophon and several other poetic works.  This manuscript, up to page 398, was copied by Tam, son of the noted historiographer Gedaliah ibn Yahya and a noted scholar in his own right.  It was completed on Thursday, 2 Elul 5344 (30 July 1584), most likely in Salonica where Tam ibn Yahya resided.