Yehuda Alharizi

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Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi (Hebrew: יהודה בן שלמה אלחריזי‎, Yehudah ben Shelomo al-Harizi, Arabic: يحيا بن سليمان بن شاؤل أبو زكريا الحريزي اليهودي من أهل طوليطلة‎, Yahya bin Sulaiman bin Sha'ul abu Zakaria al-Harizi al-Yahudi min ahl Tulaitula) was a Jewish rabbi, translator, poet and traveller active in Spain in the Middle Ages (in Toledo? - 1165, in Aleppo - 1225). He was supported by wealthy patrons, to whom he wrote poems and dedicated compositions.

He was a rationalist, conveying the works of Maimonides and his approach to rationalistic Judaism. He translated Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed and some of his Commentary on the Mishnah, as well as the Mahbarot Iti'el of the Arab poet al-Hariri, from the Arabic to Hebrew.

Alharizi's poetic translation of the Guide for the Perplexed is more readable than that of Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon. However, it has not been very widely used in Jewish scholarship due to its lesser precision. It had some influence in the Christian world due to its translation into Latin.

"It was, however, through Al-Harizi's translation that Maimonides' ideas were propagated in the Christian world. An anonymous Latin translation of the Guide, published in Paris by Agostino Giustiniani in 1520, is based on Al-Harizi's translation and was used by the English schoolmen. Al-Harizi's version also served as the basis for Pedro de Toledo's Spanish translation (published by M. Lazar according to the Ms. 10289, B.N. Madrid, in 1989, Culver City, Calif: Labyrinthos)."

Aharon Mirsky and Avrum Stroll / Angel Saenz-Badillos (2nd ed.):
AL-HARIZI, JUDAH BEN SOLOMON, pp. 655-7, here: p. 657,
Encyclopaedia Judaica (Fred Skolnik, Editor in Chief),
Detroit [u.a.]: Thomson Gale [u.a.], 22 volumes, 2nd. ed., 2007.
ISBN 0-02-865928-7, ISBN 978-0-02-865928-2 (set),
ISBN 0-02-865929-5, ISBN 978-0-02-865929-9 (vol. 1: Aa-Alp, 2007, pp. 730).

To the above mentioned Agostino Giustiniani:

"Die lateinische Übersetzung des Dux neutrorum edierte Augustinus Justinianus, Paris 1520, von mir nachgedruckt: Frankfurt/M. 1964."
("The latin translation of the Dux neutrorum edited Augustinus Justinianus, Paris 1520, reprinted by me: Frankfurt/M. 1964.")
Kurt Flasch: Meister Eckhart.
Die Geburt der `Deutschen Mystik´ aus dem Geist der arabischen Philosophie,
München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2006, pp.192,
p. 183, fn. 275.
ISBN 978-3-406-54182-7.
See also:
Agostino Giustiniani /Augustinus Justinianus (Ed.):
Rabbi Mossei Aegyptii Dux seu Director dubitantum aut perplexorum,
Paris 1520; ND Frankfurt/M: Minerva Journals, 1964, pp. 520.
ISBN 978-3-86598-129-5.

Alharizi's own works include the "Tahkemoni", composed between 1218 and 1220, in the Arabic form known as maqama. This is written in Hebrew in unmetrical rhymes, in what is commonly termed rhymed prose. It is a series of humorous episodes, witty verses, and quaint applications of Scriptural texts. The episodes are bound together by the presence of the hero and of the narrator, who is also the author. Another collection of his poetry was devoted to preaching ethical self-discipline and fear of heaven.

Harizi undertook long journeys in the lands of the Middle East. His works are suffused with his impressions from these journeys.

He not only brought to perfection the art of applying Hebrew to secular satire, but he was also a brilliant literary critic and his makame on the Andalusian Hebrew poets is a fruitful source of information.

"Apart from its literary merit and brilliant, incisive style, the Tahkemoni also throws valuable light on the state of Hebrew culture of the period, and describes the scholars and leaders of the communities visited by the author. Al-Harizi gives vivid descriptions of the worthies of Toledo, the poets of Thebes, a debate between a Rabbanite and a Karaite, and conditions in Jerusalem. The Tahkemoni also contains critical evaluations of earlier and contemporary poets, although Al-Harizi's appraisal of his contemporaries is not always reliable and occasionally misses their most essential features."

Aharon Mirsky and Avrum Stroll ... [as above], p. 656.

To Alharizi's maqame on the Andalusian Hebrew poets
cf. Heinrich Heine (as an Alharizi redivivus, so to speak):

"Alcharisi - der, ich wette,
Dir nicht minder unbekannt ist,
Ob er gleich, französ'scher Witzbold,
Den Hariri überwitzelt

Im Gebiete der Makame,
Und ein Voltairianer war
Schon sechs hundert Jahr vor Voltair' -
Jener Alcharisi sagte:

»Durch Gedanken glänzt Gabirol
Und gefällt zumeist dem Denker,
Iben Esra glänzt durch Kunst
Und behagt weit mehr dem Künstler -

Aber beider Eigenschaften
Hat Jehuda ben Halevy,
Und er ist ein großer Dichter
Und ein Liebling aller Menschen.«"

Romanzero, Drittes Buch - Hebräische Melodien, Jehuda ben Halevy (Fragment), IV,
pp. 7-182, pp. 123-172, pp. 130-158, pp. 149-158, here: pp. 151-2,
Sämtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke.
Düsseldorfer Ausgabe (Ed. Manfred Windfuhr),
Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 16 volumes, 1973-97.
ISBN 3-455-03000-9, ISBN 978-3-455-03000-6 (set),
ISBN 3-455-03023-8, ISBN 978-3-455-03023-5 (vol 3/1: Romanzero. Gedichte 1853-1854. Lyrischer Nachlaß, 1992, pp. 411).

[edit] Literature to Alharizi's influence in the Christian world

• Wolfgang Kluxen, Untersuchung und Texte zur Geschichte des lateinischen Maimonides, Diss. Köln 1951.
• Idem, Literargeschichtliches zum lateinischen Moses Maimonides, RThAM 21 (1954) 23-50.
• Idem, Rabbi Moyses (Maimonides): Liber de uno Deo benedicto, Misc. Med. 4 (1966) 167-182.
• Idem, Die Geschichte des Maimonides im lateinischen Abendland, ebd. 146-166.
• George Vajda, Un abregé chrétien du `Guide des égarés´, JAS 248 (1960) 115-136.
• Görge K. Hasselhoff: Dicit Rabbi Moyses. Studien zum Bild von Moses Maimonides im lateinischen Westen vom 13. bis 15. Jahrhundert, kirchengeschichtl. Diss. Heidelberg 2003, ZA Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 02.02.2006 (EA ebd., 2004), pp. 400. ISBN 3-8260-2692-6, ISBN 978-3-8260-2692-8.

[edit] References

• Much of this article was translated from יהודה אלחריזי (Yehuda Alharizi) in the Hebrew-language Wikipedia. Retrieved March 14, 2005. Both articles are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which allows translation with acknowledgement.
• See, on the Tahkemoni,
  
  • Saul Isaak Kaempf: Die ersten Makamen aus dem Tachkemoni des Charisi, Berlin 1845
    
  • Idem: Nicht-andalusische Poesie andalusischer Dichter, Prague 1858.
    (In that work a considerable section of the Tahkemoni is translated into German.)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] External links

• Al-Ḥarizi, Judah B. Solomon B. Hophni in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906