Lamentations (Istisrakh poetry-استصراخ) on cities gained momentum on a broader scale in tenth-century Andalusia following the collapse of the principalities. The many events and disasters provided fertile ground for inflaming emotions, and this genre was characterized as sad poetry expressing grief and sorrow.
The genre of lamenting cities and communities reached its peak in Andalusia, and its intensification was a direct result of the acts of massacre and destruction that were perpetrated against Muslims and Jews in Andalusia. The fall of Spanish cities under Muslim rule gave rise to acts of revenge by Christians, who recaptured the cities and operated a poison machine against the residents, destroyed buildings and houses of prayer, set fire to all glory and erased all traces of Muslim existence. The massacres did not skip over elderly and infants alike; women and girls were raped without mercy. The acts of persecution were intended for ethnic cleansing and erasure of all signs of Islam in order to prepare the ground for restoring Christian control in Spanish cities.
In Andalusia, political life became turbulent despite the upheavals and changes in power.
لولا ذنوب المسلمين وإنهم ركبوا الكبائر ما لهن خفاء
Translation: If not for the sins of Muslims who/committed great sins with no hiding.
The poet wove Quranic expressions into his poem in order to describe the main cause of the city’s destruction, attributing it to the sins of Muslims and their deviation from God’s path: “أن تجتنبوا كبائر ما تنهون عنه نكفر سيئاتكم وندخلكم مًدخلاً كريماَ”. (“If you avoid the major sins which you are forbidden, we will remove from you your lesser sins and admit you to a noble entrance.”)
نذور كان للأيام فيهم بملكهم فقد وفت النذور
Translation: Vows that the days (fate) decreed for them/The vows were fulfilled in their king (referring to King al-Mu’tamid).
After the fall of the two cities (Toledo and Barbastro), many poets described the disasters that struck their cities, and out of fear and existential threat, they were forced to wander and abandon their homes. Acts of persecution and declaration of reconquering cities were done under the banner of the Crusades. The cities were attacked brutally and they began rebuilding churches anew as they did in Cordoba, shed blood and burned residential homes as El Cid did with Valencia.
In al-Maqri’s work, it is told that they found in the pocket of the poet Ibn al-Fazazzi, a native of Cordoba (died in 1224), after his death, a piece of paper with the following verses describing the state of the nation:
الروم تضرب في البلاد وتنعم والجور يأخذ ما بقى والمغرم
والمال يورد كله قشتالة والجند تسقط والرعية تسلم
أسفي على تك البلد وأهلها الله يلطف بالجميع ويرحم
Translation: The Romans strike the cities with pleasure, and oppression takes what remains by force. All wealth makes its way to Castile (Christian territory), and the army falls and the people surrender. Alas, for that city and its inhabitants, may God ease their burden and have mercy on them.
The Christians fought with incomprehensible strength and cruelty, abusing the Muslims who were in the city of Barbastro without anyone coming to their aid. Ibn al-Assal leads us in his descriptions to scenes where the enemy is not satisfied with victory or killing and captivity, but commits moral transgressions that humanity cannot imagine. The poet urges the reader to wake up and stand against the humiliations, awakening in them the duty to defend Arabism and Islam, as the honor of women and the elderly was violated alongside the merciless abuse of infants.
كم موضع غنموه لم يرحم به طفل ولا شيخ ولا عذراء
ولكم رضيع فرقوا من امه فله اليها ضجة وبغاء
The Almoravids (المرابطين) were weakened, and control of cities passed from their hands, and the response came quickly through a religious awakening led by religious scholars called the Almohads (الموحدين) (1147-1238), who came from North Africa to save Muslim rule
Ibn Al’asal-ابن العسال (theologian, d. 1095) expresses guilt in his lament on the fall of Barbastro in 1063, attributing it to the evil acts of the Muslims, which he regards as acts of heresy.
لولا ذنوب المسلمين وأنهم ركبوا الكبائر مالهن خفاء
ما كان ينصر للنصارى فارس ابدأ عليهم فالذنوب الداء
Translation
If not for the sins of the Muslims/who committed acts of heresy and explicit evil, not [even one] Christian knight/would have ever prevailed, but the sins are the disease (the cause).
The poet justifies what happened to the Muslims due to their abandoning the right path, but he does not accept the situation.
Muslim and Jewish poets proposed different solutions to their distress. The Muslim poets advocated jihad—holy war. The Jewish poets saw the solution in strengthening spirituality.
Often poets allude to a general historical case or event, or a well-known personal story, and occasionally to a common literary saying, related to the matter they are discussing.
In “Poetry of Israel in the Twentieth Gate: On Poetry’s Ornaments,” Ibn Ezra says: “Arab poets loved to take verses from their Quran... and embed them in their poems. In their opinion, such poems are superior. They change the words slightly to fit the meter in both opening and closing... Hebrew poets can also do this with complete verses or half verses from Holy Scriptures... Sometimes they need to add or subtract something minor or make other slight changes.”
“Muslim poets make another wonderful use by taking a saying from the Quran and reshaping it in a renewed way adapted to the situation... Jewish poets also used such expressions, and embedded verses from Holy Scriptures within the poem and interpreted them in a way that suited their purpose.”
“The use of biblical verses, especially from its books of rhetoric and poetry, was very common in the works of rhetoricians and poets throughout the Middle Ages and afterward, almost until our days, as it adds grace and brilliance to their words, and awakens in the listener’s heart a pleasant feeling of suddenly finding familiar things that they knew from long ago in a completely different environment.”
Moses Ibn Ezra attributes this fact to the influence of Arabic poetry, and indeed we see that in all the accepted prayers from ancient times written in pure and magnificent rhetorical Hebrew, we hardly find any use of biblical verse fragments in their form or close to it except in very rare places. And the same applies to the poetic articles written in pure rhetorical Hebrew in the Talmud. They themselves composed entirely new expressions in the form of poetic verses, but did not take from what was available to them in Scripture. They considered biblical verses sacred. Despite this, the early poets in the century after the period of the Savoraim rarely used verse fragments, and the main use began in the sacred poems of Spanish poets.
We see here that there is an influence of the Bible on the language and poetry of Spanish poets. They use biblical allusions in describing their sad emotional state, which adds power and emphasis to the central ideas in their poems. Direct influence of Jewish religion and tradition on Hebrew poets’ poetry emphasizes that Hebrew poets were religious, meaning there were no secular poets in this period; Hebrew poets relied on sources from Judaism in writing their poems.
Samuel Hanagid in “Lamentation for the Destruction of Zion” describes the poet’s emotional state, the crying and intense longing for those cities “Hamat and Yif’at, Moriah” comparing them to the shining sun according to Job (Job 10:3).
יְמֵי נַעֲרֵי צִיּוֹן בְּצִיּוֹן כְּשֶׁמֶשׁ עַל / עֲרוּגוֹת בְּשָֹמֶיהָ מְהִלָּה וּמוֹפַעַת
Translation:
“The days of Zion’s youth in Zion were like the sun upon/the beds of its spices, glorious and shining.”
And in line 15 he uses the expression “lions,” a term for enemies ruling over Zion. He calls Zion by the biblical epithet “beautiful elevation” (in Psalms 48:3) and towards the end of the lamentation (lines 67-68) the poet turns to God to redeem Zion, this ending typical of both Muslim and Hebrew lamentations in general.
וְהִנֵּה אֲרָיוֹת יִשְׁאֲגוּ שָׁם, מְנָעוּהָ / אֲזַי מֵעֲבֹר אוֹתָהּ וּמִבּוֹא וּמִגַּעַת
הֲרוּסַת יְדֵי זָרִים אֲשֶׁר חִלְּצוּ מִקִּיר/ יְפֵי נוֹף פְּטוּרֵי צִיץ וְלוֹיוֹת וּמִקְלַעַת
אֱלֹהַי, בְּךָ רַצְתִּי בְּרֶגֶל מְהִירָה אֶל / פְּחָתִים וְיָד עַל חוּר פְּתָנִים מְשַׁעְשַׁעַת
Translation: “And behold lions roar there, preventing her/from passing through and coming and reaching.
Destroyed by strangers’ hands who stripped from the wall/the beautiful views of flower ornaments and wreaths and carvings.
My God, in You I ran with swift foot to/pits and a hand playing over vipers’ holes.”
The vast majority of lamentations, both about the destruction of Zion and Jerusalem and about bloody events and calamities against Israel in Spain, follow the renewed spirit in religious poetry of R. Joseph Abitur (died 1025) and R. Isaac ibn Giat (1038-1089) and the great poets who followed them. Bernstein brings in his book “On the Rivers of Spain” a heart-rending lamentation “Expelled from Their House of Pleasures” by Ibn Giat, in which he describes the acts of slaughter that spared no one from infant to elder without mercy and without distinction between woman and virgin, alongside the desecration of their honor. In the same sad tone, the poet Abu al-Baqa’ al-Rundi (1204-1285) describes the same acts of rape and abuse of Muslim girls.
“Expelled from their house of pleasures, my soul is weary before their killers.
My heart, my heart for their fallen, my innards, my innards for their slain.
The day maidens left their palaces and bereaved mothers from their infants.
Naked, plundered by the hand of their plunderers, a day of great outcry upon them.
The day they bore a yoke instead of their jewelry, captives of the sword in the hands of their drivers”.
Al-Rundi, in his lamentation over the fall of Seville, expresses his feelings and describes the peak of cruelty that Christians took against the Muslim population. They violated the honor of women and girls and raped them brutally. This lament contains moral, religious, and historical values. In it, he presents the ways of enslavement and desecration of holiness without mercy, expressing zealotry for Islam and attempting to awaken residents to rise against humiliating phenomena as described in the following verses:
وطفلة مثل حسن الشمس إذا طلعت كأنما هي ياقوت ومرجان
يقودها العلج للمكروه مكرهة والعين باكية والقلب حيران
لمثل هذا يذوب القلب من كمد إن كان في القلب إسلام وإيمان
And a girl as beautiful as the sun |
Who shone like coral and precious stones |
They lead her, the hateful savages, to an [act] of violation |
And the eye cries, and the heart is confused |
Such sights make the heart dissolve from loss |
If that heart has Islam and true faith |
Al-Rundi describes in these three verses an emotionally stirring image—the picture of a helpless young girl, compared to a rising sun, being dragged by enemies who brutally carry out their schemes against her, while crying and tears do not save her. Of course, this moving image was characteristic of the genre of city lamentations and the cry for redemption. The second verse is meant to stir emotions as the poet uses the metaphor of a heart melting from excessive grief, and the use of the two words “Islam” and “Iman” (faith) serves to remind and awaken Muslims not to accept the situation if there is true faith in their hearts.
The elegy “Tired of weeping over our ruin” by Moses Ibn Ezra laments the crisis experienced by the Jewish community and ends by asking God to restore joy and smiles to their faces:
נִלְאָה לְהֵילִיל / עַל שִׁבְרֵנוּ
וְאִלּוּ יְלָלָה / מָלֵא פִינוּ:
נֶחֱרַב דְּבִירִי / וְסָף מִקְדָּשִׁי
וְאָבְדוּ חֲכָמַי / וּבֵית מִדְרָשִׁי
הָשֵׁב עֲבוֹדַת / מִקְדָּשֵׁנוּ
וְקַבֵּץ נְפוּצוֹת / גָּלוּתֵנוּ
וְהָקֵם נְפִילַת / חָרְבוֹתֵינוּ
וַהֲשִׁיבֵנוּ לְקַדְמוּתֵנוּ
יָהּ, וְאָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק פִּינוּ: (תה’ קכו, ב)
Tired of weeping / over our ruin,
And if we filled / our mouths with wailing:
My sanctuary is destroyed/and the Temple’s threshold ruined
My sages are lost/and the house of study destroyed
Restore the service/of our temple
Gather the dispersed/of our exile
Raise up the fallen/ruins
And bring us back to our former state
God, then our mouth will be filled with laughter: (Psalms 126:2)
Most of the elegies written before the expulsion are characterized by the language and spirit of the “Golden Age-العصر الذهبي”. The elegies about the destruction of Jerusalem were added in the manuscript to elegies about the current troubles and misfortunes. It is important to remember that the poets and liturgists, who preceded the Golden Age and lamented the destruction of the nation, lived mostly at the beginning of the second millennium. They felt closer to the times and generations when Judah and Israel’s ancestors saw Jerusalem built. Therefore, these heartfelt elegies reflect the spirit and soul of Spanish Jewry in all its greatness. These poets still felt their feet standing on holy ground.
Among the important elegies of the Jewish poets of Andalusia are also the poems of Judah Halevi, the most famous of them being the poem “Zion, Do You Not Ask,” written in preparation for his journey to the Land of Israel. In this poem, the poet travels through the desolate land, between mountains and lowlands, and passes through its abandoned dwellings and ruined cities of Zion. His poem interweaves cycles of sorrow and joy, weeping and exultation. After all, “those who rejoice in your peace” are also “those who grieve over your desolation and weep over your ruin.” Halevi’s expression of his sadness “to cry out your suffering, I am jackals” is linked to joy “your return, I am a lyre for your songs” and visions of destruction and grave “desolate ruins,” “the best of your graves.” The poem still preserves the image of the sanctuary and its chambers.
Judah Halevi, and poets like him among Spanish Jewry, treated the “legendary past” as a tangible reality and a living present, with their souls deeply connected in supreme harmony.
In the elegy attributed to him “How the Flock of Slaughter,” he describes the suffering of the people in exile after the massacres of Fez, likening them to sheep, doves, chicks, and lambs, crying out for redemption. He uses materials from the biblical elegy Lamentations and the book of Job (Lamentations 4:8, 5:1, 21, Job 5:10). At the end of the elegy, he asks God to forgive and save them:
אֵיכָה צֹאן הַֽהֲרֵגָה, מֵרִבְצֵיהֶן נְפוּצוֹת. פְּנֵיהֶם קִבְּצוּ פָארוּר, וְהִתְגּוֹלְלוּ בַבִּצּוֹת. וּלְעֵין כָּל רוֹאֵיהֶם, מִתְנַכְּרוֹת בַּחוּצוֹת. חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם, לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם, לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
יְאוֹת לִי עֲשׂוֹת מִסְפֵּד, וְלִהְיוֹת אָח לַיְּעֵנִים. וְהָגּוֹת הֶֽגֶה וְקִנִים. בִּמְקוֹם עֻגָב וּמִנִּים. עַל יוֹנוֹת מְגוּרָשׁוֹת, וְעַל אֶפְרוֹחֵי קִנִּים. אֱמוּנִים עֲלֵי שֵׁשׁ, וְהַיּוֹם בָּֽרָעָב מִתְעַנִּים. הָאֹֽכְלִים לְמַֽעֲדַנִּים, נָשַֽׁמּוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם, לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
וִילָדִים מֽוּצָאִים, עֲרֻמִּים רְעֵבִים יְחֵפִים. שֽׁוֹאֲלִים לֶֽחֶם וְאַיֵּה, וּבַצָּמָא מִתְעַלְּפִים. מִתְחַנְּנִים לְשֽׁוֹבֵיהֶם, מוּל אַכְזָרִים חֲנֵפִים. וְעוֹדָם פַּת אֵין לָהֶם, וְרַֽחֲמֵי יוֹצְרָם שֽׁוֹאֲפִים. עוֹלָלִים הָֽעֲטוּפִים בָּרָעָב, בְּרֹאשׁ כָּל חוּצוֹת:
חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם, לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
דָּרַךְ אֱלֽוֹהַּ קַשְׁתּוֹ, וַיְבַצַּע כָּל אֵֽלֶּה. וְאֵין נֶעְתַּר לְקוֹל מַעְתִּיר, יוֹם הָחֵל וַיְכַלֶּה. וּבָנִים נָטוּ עָרְפָּם, בְּיַד עֽוֹרְפָם כְּמוֹ טָלֶה. וּרְחוֹבוֹת עִיר קֹֽדֶשׁ, בִּדְמֵי חֲסִידָיו מִלֵּא. וּפִגְרֵי נַֽעַר וְזָקֵן, יָשְׁבוּ לָאָֽרֶץ חוּצוֹת:
חָשַׁךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר תָּֽאֳרָם, לֹא נִכְּרוּ בַּֽחוּצוֹת:
Translation: How the flock of slaughter, from their resting places scattered.
Their faces gathered blackness, and they wallowed in the mud.
To the eyes of all who saw them, they were unrecognizable in the streets.
Their appearance became darker than black, they were not recognized in the streets.
It is fitting for me to lament, and to be a brother to the jackals.
To sound out cries and laments, instead of lyres and lutes.
For the expelled doves, and for the chicks of the nests.
Faithful on six, and today in the famine they suffer.
Those who ate delicacies, are desolate in the streets.
Their appearance became darker than black, they were not recognized in the streets.
And children are found, naked, hungry, barefoot.
Asking for bread and where is it, and fainting from thirst.
Begging their captors, against cruel deceivers.
And still, they have no bread, and yearning for their Creator’s mercy.
The infants wrapped in hunger, at every street corner:
Their appearance became darker than black, they were not recognized in the streets.
God drew His bow, and accomplished all these things.
And none were moved by the voice of prayer,
From the day He began until He finished.
And children turned their necks, in the hand of their executioner like a lamb.
And the streets of the holy city, He filled with the blood of His pious ones.
And the corpses of young and old lay on the ground in the streets.
Their appearance became darker than black, they were not recognized in the streets.
Many lamentations contain allusions to the destruction of the Temple and cry out in anguish over the troubles of the hour in the land of the lamenter’s exile. Abraham Ibn Ezra’s lamentation “Alas, evil has descended upon Spain from the heavens” describes the bloody events of 1147-1150 and what befell the Jewish community and the cities of Andalusia. Such lamentations became widespread during the 14th century in Spain. Words of lamentation and grief with hints and concealed language, both by anonymous poets and by renowned authors, were at those times a vital necessity due to fear of the authorities or the Christian Church, in order to prevent dangers to individuals and the community.
The lamentation for cities was characterized by expressions of grief, pain, desperate calls to kings, inflaming Muslims’ emotions, and appeals to God and to the Prophet Muhammad for redemption while describing their brokenness and miserable state following the city’s fall. Other poets included critical political calls against the indifference of princes or rulers
The religious conflict between Christianity and Islam intensified during the Almoravid period, and Christians began to attack Muslim cities and reconquer them. Muslims expressed regret over their hedonistic lives and glorified their golden past in the Arabian Peninsula. For them, the past symbolized youthful glory, in contrast to the new present in Andalusia, which symbolized old age and weakness.
تراءى لنا في مثل صورة يوسف تراءى لنا في مثل ملك سليمان
طوى بُردُهُ منها صحيفة فتنة قرأنا لها من وجهه سطر عنوان
محبته ديني ومثواه كعبتي ورؤيته حجي وذكراه قرأني
Translation:
“He appeared to us in the image of Joseph, he appeared to us in the kingship of Solomon.
He folded his cloak and prevented a certain quarrel, because we read the writing on the wall.
His love is my religion, and his burial place is my Ka’bah, and I saw him on my pilgrimage, and his memory is my Quran.”
Ibn Shuhayd (992-1035), laments the fall of Cordoba. The first verse refers to the role of fate in events, a common motif in ancient Arabic poetry. In this lamentation, he portrays the cruel fate that brought destruction to the city and dispersed its inhabitants, and as much as they eye cries, it is insufficient to convince Cordoba.
جار الزمان عليهم فتفرقوا في كل ناحية وباد الأكثر
فلمثل قرطبة يقل بكاء من يبكي بعين دمعها متفجر
دار أقال االله عثرة أهلها فتبربروا وتغربوا وتمصروا
“Time wronged them until they scattered in every direction, and most perished. For Cordoba, even the tears of one who weeps with gushing eyes are too few/A house whose people God struck down, so they became Berbers, strangers, and Egyptians.”
Ibn Hazm (994-1064) also laments Cordoba’s fall, described as the first city to receive such a lamentation. He expresses acceptance of fate while conveying intense longing for past days. The text notes his strong faith, reflected in Quranic connotations. فان مع العسر يسرا ان مع الشر يسرا" (“For, indeed with hardship will be relief and salvation”).
سنصبر بعد اليسر للعسر طاعة لعل جميل الصبر يعقبنا يسرا
“We shall be patient after ease comes hardship, perhaps beautiful patience will bring us ease.”
Ibn Al’asal-ابن العسال (1073-1146), a Sufi poet, also laments Cordoba’s fall, incorporating Quranic imagery. He incorporates expressions from two verses in the Quran:
“لمسجد أسس على التقوى من أول يوم أحق أن تقوم فيه, أفمن بنيانه على تقوى من الله ورضوان خير, أم من أسس بنيانه على شفا جرف هار فأنهار جهنم والله جهنم والله لا يهدي القوم الظالمين”.
“Then is one who laid the foundation of his building on righteousness [with fear] from Allah and [seeking] His approval better or one who laid the foundation of his building on the edge of a bank about to collapse, so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell? And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
In the next verse, Ibn Al’asal-ابن العسال draws on the Quranic verses above about building foundations on piety versus on the edge of a crumbling cliff, emphasizing the importance of faith in God and righteousness to protect oneself from divine punishment.
وجسرك للدنيا, وللدين ملتقى وبيتك مرفوع القواعد بالتقى
“Your bridge between the world and religion meet/and the foundations of your house (mosque) rest on faith.”
وان قد قست أكبادكم, وقلوبكم وما منكم داع الى الله راغب
Translation:
“If your hearts and minds have hardened and become cruel/And none among you seriously returns to God in repentance.”
Ibn al-Assal (d. 1095), a Sufi poet wrote heart-wrenching lamentations about the massacre and destruction brought by the Crusaders to the city of Barbastro. In this lamentation, he quotes words of God in the story of the midnight journey:
فاذا جاء وعد أولاهما, بعثنا عليكم عباداً لنا بأسٍ شديد فجاسوا خلال الديار جاسوا خلال ديارهم فلهم بها في كل يوم غارة شعراء
(“So when the [time of] promise came for the first of them, We sent against you servants of Ours—those of great military might, and they probed [even] into then homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.”)
جاسوا خلال ديارهم فلهم بها في كل يوم غارة شعراء
“If they committed evil acts in their city (homeland) they will encounter/every day a severe attack.”
In another lamentation about Toledo’s fall, Ibn al-Assal urges the residents of Toledo to stand strong against the Crusaders. He inserts in the first verse entire expressions from Surah ‘Ali ‘Imran (“The house of Amram”) in order to arouse a fighting spirit:
ولا تهنوا ولا تحزنوا
(“Do not weaken and do not grieve”).
He writes:
ولا تهنوا, وسلوا كل غضب تهاب مضاربا منه النحور
ولا تجنح الى سلم, وحارب عسى أن يجبر العظيم الكسير
Do not weaken, ignore all anger/Whose swords make the throats fear
And do not incline to peace and fight/Perhaps the broken bone will heal
Ibn Sahl al-Israili (1208-1251), a Jewish poet who converted to Islam, was also heavily influenced by the Quran. He laments the fall of Seville by quoting from Surah at-Tawbah—the Declaration
ان الله اشترى من المؤمنين أنفسهم, وأموالهم بأن لهم الجنة
(“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise.”)
He raises a cry to the princes of Morocco to hurry and sacrifice themselves for Seville, which is about to fall into the hands of the Crusaders, and God will reward them. Ibn Sahl, like other poets of that period, uses spiritual and religious enticements—the reward that God will grant them if they fulfill their religious duty, to awaken and perform acts of kindness toward the homeland.
ان الاله قد اشترى أرواحكم بيعوا ويهنىكم وفاء المشتري
Translation:
For the Almighty has already bought your souls |
Sell [them] to him and enjoy the good faith of the Buyer. |
Like any other people, Muslims experienced spiritual and national crises in Andalusia. These crises caused a shift in their thinking and behavior. The fear of assimilation and the hardships of exile led many of them—and at the same time, this phenomenon was also evident among Jews—to return and cling to their roots.
In this context, this can be noticed in Ibn Khafajah’s work, who embeds in his lamentation verses and expressions from Surah al-Baqarah
فول وجهك شطر المسجد الحرام
(“Turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque wherever you are...”)
He writes:
فواحسرتا كم من مسجد حولت وكانت الى البيت الحرام شطورها
(“Oh how many mosques underwent conversion/and their faces turned towards the holy mosque.”)
The lamentations over Andalusian cities parallel general elegies for deceased people in which the virtues of the dead are mentioned. The lamentations were written out of love and devotion toward the dead, not out of compulsion or particular fear. This is what makes this genre unique—the poet does not praise the king or vizier after their death to receive financial compensation or elevation of status, but rather describes and mourns a city that he loved and was connected to both physically and emotionally. The reasons are religious, national, and also humanitarian.
Ibn al-Mutarrif (1186-1258) compares the expulsion of Adam from Paradise due to his sins to the expulsion from the falling city, and Ibn Shuhayd (992-1034) compared the city of Cordoba to the holy place ‘the Kaaba’, the Muslim pilgrimage site.
وهل أذنب الأبناء ذنب أبيهم فصاروا الى الإخراج من جنة الخلد
(“Did the sons repeat the sins of their fathers/rushing to leave Paradise?”)
كانت عراصك للميم كعبة يأوي اليها الخائفون, فينصروا
(“Your courts are for the faithful like the Kaaba/those who fear reach it and have victory.”)
The horror of the destruction that struck the city is described in an anonymous poem attributed to the Ibn Adhari period from the 13th century. He was considered a religious scholar who denounced the city’s residents for their indifference, addressing them with mockery and rudeness. In this poem, he attributes religious significance to the internal disputes, the ‘fitna’ that caused their division, something that fits well with the historical reality. The poet alludes to verses from the Quran that clarify the state of the Muslim nation. The verse alluded to in the second line (Surah al-Hashr, verse 9), borrowed from the chapter of Exile, compares the city’s residents to a nation that forgot God and itself in slumber:
ولا تكونوا كالذين نسوا الله فأنساهم أنفسهم
(“And [also for] those who were settled in the Home and [adopted] the faith before them, they love those who emigrated to them and find not any want in their breasts of what they [the emigrants] were given but give [them] preference over themselves, even though they are in privation. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul—it is those who will be successful.”)
While the verse alluded to in the third line, borrowed from Surah al-Kahf, describes the state of the nation after its exile:
انهم ان يظهروا عليكم يرجموكم أو يعيدوكم في ملتهم ولن تفلحوا اذا أبداً
(“Indeed, if they come to know of you, they will stone you or return you to their religion. And never would succeed then—ever.”)
يا أمة هتكت مستور سوءتها ما كان من ذل أعطى بالصغار يدا
في سورة الحشر أيات مفصلة في شأنكم أنزلت لم تعدكم أحدا
نعم وفي الكهف العشرين خاتمة تقضي عليكم بألا تفلحوا أبدا
فاستشعروا سوء عقباكم فقد شملت جميعكم محنة لا تنقضي أبدا
“Woe to the nation that exposed its nakedness/Not everyone who was humiliated surrendered so to humiliation.
In the chapter of ‘The Day of Exile’ in the Quran you will find detailed verses/It is dedicated to your matter and promises nothing to any of you.
True, also in the chapter of ‘The Cave’ in the twentieth verse there is a seal/That decrees you shall never succeed.
To feel the evil that remained after you, indeed the trouble-disaster/Has surrounded you endlessly.”
Abu al-Baqa al-Rundi (1204-1285), one of the zealous poets of Islam, responded to the fall of Seville in 1248 to Ferdinand III of Castile. This event, together with the largely symbolic conquest of Córdoba twelve years earlier (1236), completed the redrawing of the political map and reshaping of the religious and cultural landscape in Spain, a process that began in 1085. In his elegy “لكل شان اذا ما تم نقصان” (“Whatever is incomplete is defective”), he describes the miserable condition of the Muslims, and the acts of destruction and ruin and desecration of mosques by the Christians. He became very sad at the images of destruction and ruin that affected the symbols of Islam. Al-Rundi’s elegy includes forty-three verses with a running rhyme.
Throughout the poem, one cannot find even a faint echo of a personal voice; the poet speaks as a mouthpiece for the shared values of the Andalusian nation, Spain’s Muslim community. The poem’s sorrowful tone and gloomy subject matter demand direct expression. The poem lacks any ornamentation, a sign of its distance from the stylized and florid Spanish-Arabic court poetry of the 13th century. The poem is divided into four parts: lines 1-13 introduction; line 14 serves as a transition verse; lines 15-24 description of the disaster; lines 42-45 the solution to the distress: a call for external military intervention. The elegy opens with a traditional universal philosophical tone, such as the brevity of life, its temporary nature, and the deception of worldly pleasures.
لِكُلِّ شَيءٍ إِذا ما تَمّ نُقصانُ فَلا يُغَرَّ بِطيبِ العَيشِ إِنسانُ
Translation:
Everything that has not ended has its lack
So be not tempted by the sweetness of life.
The first part of the poem laments the achievements of the great kings from the distant past, who were removed by fate’s decree. Line 14 marks the transition to the poet’s subjective complaint. At this point, the poem moves from the general to the specific, and examines the contrast between the historical calamities listed and a more recent disaster, greater in scope and without consolation (lines 14-16).
وَلِلحَوادِثِ سلوانٌ يُهوّنُها وَما لِما حَلَّ بِالإِسلامِ سلوانُ
دهى الجَزيرَة أَمرٌ لا عَزاءَ لَهُ هَوَى لَهُ أُحُدٌ وَاِنهَدَّ ثَهلانُ
أصابَها العينُ في الإِسلامِ فاِرتزَأت حَتّى خَلَت مِنهُ أَقطارٌ وَبُلدانُ
Translation:
Oblivion eases time’s calamities |
But there is no consolation for what has harmed Islam |
A calamity struck the peninsula [Andalusia] for which there is no solace |
It toppled mount Auḥud and scattered the tribe of Ṯahalān |
The evil eye struck Islam and it was divided |
And whole districts and provinces were emptied [of the faithful].
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Al-Rundi creates a list of several Andalusian cities that fell, raising the question in the second part of the poem “where have they gone?” those cities in lines 15 - 24. The disintegration of society is presented in all aspects, both the deterioration of culture and education and the loss of pleasures and delights. The loss of pleasures contains an allusion to the Garden of Eden described in the Quran “where the purest rivers flow.”
فاسأل بلنسية: ما شأن مرسية وأين شاطبة أم أين جيان
وأين قرطبة دار العلوم فكم من عالم قد سما فيها له شان
وَأَينَ حمص وَما تَحويِهِ مِن نُزَهٍ وَنَهرُها العَذبُ فَيّاضٌ وَمَلآنُ
Translation:
He asks: What is the state of Murcia, and where is Xàtiva or where is Jaén?
And where is Córdoba, center of sciences, and how many scientists’ stars rose?
And where is Hums (Seville) and its pleasures, its sweet river, swelled and overflowing?
The Muslims in Al-Andalus, like the Jews, experienced their cruel fate as an exclusive and unique trauma. As in the elegy “Alas, it fell upon Spain,” here too the images of destroyed and looted religious buildings and symbols intensify the impression and sense of shame in the loss of Muslim rule and weakness (lines 21-24)
تَبكِي الحَنيفِيَّةُ البَيضَاءُ مِن أَسَفٍ كَما بَكى لِفِراقِ الإِلفِ هَيمَانُ
عَلى دِيارٍ منَ الإِسلامِ خالِيَةٍ قَد أَقفَرَت وَلَها بالكُفرِ عُمرانُ
حَيثُ المَساجِدُ قَد صارَت كَنائِس ما فيهِنَّ إِلّا نَواقِيسٌ وصلبانُ
حَتّى المَحاريبُ تَبكي وَهيَ جامِدَةٌ حَتّى المَنابِرُ تَبكي وَهيَ عيدَانُ
Translation:
The faucet for ritual purification cries tears of sorrow |
Like a lover crying over separation from his beloved |
[It cries] for houses emptied of Islam |
Laid waste, and settled by heretics |
Where the mosques were turned into churches |
Filled only with bells and crosses |
Even the prayer niches cry although they are frozen stone |
And the pulpits cry, although they are aught but twigs.
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Al-Rundi’s poem does not end with a tone of supplication and yearning, like Ibn Ezra’s lament, but with an impassioned call for military aid from North Africa to stop the Christian invasion of Muslim territories.
يا أَيُّها المَلكُ البَيضاءُ رايَتُهُ أَدرِك بِسَيفِكَ أَهلَ الكُفرِ لا كانوا
وَراتِعينَ وَراءَ البَحرِ في دعةٍ لَهُم بِأَوطانِهِم عِزٌّ وَسلطانُ
Translation:
O king of the white banner |
Take revenge on the heathen with your sword |
And those who feast beyond the sea with equanimity |
Enjoying might and power in their own lands. |
The poet ironically alludes to the Berbers and the excessive material splendor in which they live. During the 11th-12th centuries, the ostentation of the court people and their negligence of Islamic commandments became a source of friction between them and the Almoravids and Almohads who adhered to religious strictures and sought to strengthen the foundations of faith.
The Muslims viewed their defeat similarly to how Jews understood the meaning of their continuing exile—as divine punishment for their negligence in fulfilling God’s commandments. The Reconquista worsened the conditions of Muslims and demanded an even more extreme response. Although Muslims tended to see human historical events as reflecting God’s will, the patterns of exile in al-Rundi’s poem have political significance no less than pure religious meaning. In the Hebrew lament by Abraham Ibn Ezra, which I will address later, the anticipation of redemption is prominent.
The religious text (the Quran and Hadith
Scholars have given this great importance, though the treatment of the use of Hadith is not extensive. Hadith adds value and beauty to poetry, and it also strengthens the content of Arabic poetry, as Arabic is the language of the Quran and constitutes a primary and important element in Arab poets’ culture.
The Andalusians are known for their full appreciation and consideration of religious law, and they used it in their literary creation, in addition to the artistic elements in religious texts. It is natural that Andalusian poets quote from Hadith in their poetry, as it constitutes an important element in their creation and forms the basis for human culture, along with the emotional value of Hadith in the hearts of Arab poets. The influence of Hadith is found in many genres of Andalusian Arabic poetry, such as elegies.
Here is an example of a poem in which the poet Ibn al-Abbar (d. 1239) uses Hadith as inspiration for his lament over the fall of Valencia in 1237, in light of the disaster that struck Islamic symbols. The lament was sent to the Sultan of Tunisia in order to encourage him to declare a holy war against the Christian enemy:
“أَدْرِكْ بِخَيْلِكَ خَيْلِ اللَّهِ أندلُسَاً إنَّ السَّبِيلَ إلَى مَنْجاتِها دَرَسَا
“Mount your horses, the steeds of God, and ride to Andalusia/The road to its redemption is desolate.”
The poet describes here and expresses his feelings of grief, sorrow, and disappointment as the end of his city approaches. He quoted from a Hadith of Prophet Muhammad in which the Prophet addresses God’s horses, “O horses of God, يا خيل الله اركبي)) ride,” and the background of this Hadith is the Battle of Al-Ahzab (the parties), to encourage Muslims to struggle and continue supporting Islam and persevere until victory. The poet shows through this usage the intensity of his feelings toward his homeland—Andalusia, which strengthens Ibn al-Abbar’s poetry and adds a unique and important element to it.
In laments written by Muslim poets, especially during the Almohad period, they addressed the topic in relation to religious law, particularly the elimination and disappearance of religious symbols and law from Andalusian society. This agitated the poets and caused them to lament the state of the nation under existing conditions. They described horses preparing for war against the infidels who had corrupted and damaged Prophet Muhammad’s law, prohibited any connection to Islam, and slaughtered Muslims. The poet addresses Muslims to influence and encourage them to defend the Muslim religion and preserve it from being erased.
Some laments end with an appeal to princes to save the cities from the enemy. This ending was not well-received as it conveyed weakness, and there are laments that end with an appeal to Prophet Muhammad, as an anonymous poet did in his lament for the city of Ronda, as shown in the following verse:
وصل على خير البرية أحمد وأكرم من قد أنجبته ظهورها
“Pray for the best of creation, Ahmad (epithet for Muhammad)/And be generous with those who gave birth to these creatures.”
The poet Malik ibn al-Marhil (1207-1300) from Malaga incorporates in his poetry the following Hadith—Prophet Muhammad’s saying ارحموا من في الأرض يرحمكم من في السّماء “Show mercy to those on earth, and He who is in heaven will show mercy to you.” The meaning of the Hadith is that one must show mercy to creatures so that God will show mercy to humans. The poet also used another Hadith in the same context: من لا يرحَم لا يُرحَم “Whoever does not show mercy will not receive mercy.” He uses these two Hadiths in his poem where he invites Muslims to jihad for the Muslim religion:
“لاَذَتْ بِكُــــمْ أندَلـسٌ نــــــاشِدَةً بِرَحِــــــمِ الدِّينِ ونِعْــــــمَ الرَّحِمِ
واسْتَرْحَمَتْكُـــمْ فَارْحَمُـــوهَـا إِنَّهُ لا يَرْحَمُ الرَّحْمَنُ مَــــنْ لا يَرْحَمُ
مـــا هِيَ إِلاَّ قِطْعَــةٌ مِنْ أَرْضِكُــمْ وأَهْلُهـــــا مِنْكُـــمْ وأَنْتُــمْ مِنْهُـمُ”
“Andalusia has taken refuge with you, seeking/By the womb of religion, and what a blessed womb
She begs for your mercy, so have mercy on her/For the Merciful does not show mercy to those who do not show mercy
Andalusia is but a piece of your land/And its people are from you, and you are from them.”
Despite claims that this Hadith is weak in terms of its source, all religious scholars and scientists agree that the Prophet always begins his words in the name of God, and this is what the poet Malik ibn al-Marhil did in this poem. The poet emphasizes the importance of the Islamic religion in his eyes and that he behaves according to religious law.
In Spain, lamentations were written mainly for the deceased and as national lamentations.
Jewish poets in Spain did not compose “lamentations for cities” as we know in Muslim poetry, especially not in secular poetry. This stems from the fact that Jews did not engage in building their own cities in exile, and when the city they were born in was destroyed, they lamented the destruction of the community rather than the place itself.
Hundreds of lamentations were written about the destruction of the Temple, but it is difficult to find a unique elegy like the Muslim lamentation. I have not found a Jewish poet who composed a lamentation for cities in the format of Arabic lamentation.
אֵל נְקָמוֹת הוֹפִיעַ וְעֶזְרָה מִצַּר הָבָה
אֵל תִּרְחַק מְמֶּנִּי כִּי צָרָה קְרוֹבָה
יוֹחִיל מֵרְפֵּא בְּכָל יוֹם-וְנִגְעוֹ עוֹמֵד בְּעֵינָיו
O God of vengeance, appear and bring help from the enemy
God, do not be far from me for trouble is near
He hopes for healing each day—yet his affliction remains before his eyes.
In another liturgical poem, Yehuda Halevi describes Israel as ostracized and pushed outside the human camp, with time passing without its ancient leprosy disappearing. At the end of the verse appears the image of sheep for slaughter, isolated from the flock and destined for slaughter. The speaker’s plea “tend the flock of slaughter which you have set alone” is drawn from the Bible (Zechariah 11:4-8. “Whose buyers slay them and are not held guilty, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them”).
אֲקַוֶּה יוֹם אַחַר יוֹם וְשָׁנָה אַחֲרֵי שָׁנָה-
וּמַכָּתִי נֶאֱמָנָה צָרַעַת נוֹשָׁנָה
רְעֵֵה אֶת צֹאן הַהֲרֵגָה אֲשֶׁר הִצַּבְתָּ לְבַדָּנָה
I hope day after day and year after year—
And my wound is faithful, an ancient leprosy
Tend the flock of slaughter, which you have set alone.
The lamentations written about events and acts of persecution and calamities against Jews were included within the national lamentations.
During the Almohad period, acts of persecution against Jews broke out, and three liturgical poems—lamentations by Abraham Ibn Ezra (Tudela 1093—Rome 1167) about the riots in Morocco have survived. These are: “Alas descended/upon Spain”—a lamentation for Spain, “How the Maghreb was destroyed”—a lamentation for the cities of the Maghreb-Morocco; and “They cried out/about the breach and screaming”—a joint lamentation for the riots in all places under Almohad rule. In the lamentation “Alas descended upon Spain,” the places where riots occurred in Spain are mentioned: Lucena, Almería, Jaén, Málaga, Seville, Córdoba; and these are the places in North Africa: Djerba, Der’a, Al-Hamma, Meknes, Marrakesh, Ceuta, Sijilmasa, Fez, Gafsa, Tlemcen.
בְּכוֹת עֵינֵי / במעיני / עַל עִיר אליונסה
וְרֹאשׁ אֶקְרָא / וּמַר אֶצְרַח / עַל גּוֹלַת אשבילייה
וְאֵיךְ עֲזוּבָה / מְאוֹד קורטובה / וּתְהִי כְּיָם שֶׁאִיָּה
וְשָׁם חֲכָמִים / וְגַם עֲצוּמִים / מֵתוּ בְּרָעָב וְצִיָּה וְאֵין יְהוּדִי / וְגַם יְחִידִי / בגאין גַּם אלמריה
וּמָיוֹרְקָה / וְעִיר מַלְקָה / לֹא נִשְׁאֲרָה שָׁם מִחְיָה
וְהַיְּהוּדִים / וְהַשְּׁדוּדִים / הֻכּוּ מַכָּה טְרִיָּה.
וְהוֹי אֶקְרָא / כִּמְצֵרָה / עַל קְהִלַּת סגלמאסה
וְעִיר מְלוּכָה / וְהַנְּבוֹכָה / מראכס המיֻחַסָה
אֲהָהּ אֶפֶס / קְהַל פאס / יוֹם נָתְנוּ למשסה
ואי חוֹסָן / קָהָל תְלמְסֶן / וְהַדְרָתָהּ נָמַסָּה
וְקוֹל אָרִים / בְּתַמְרוּרִים / עֲלֵי סַבְתָּה וּמַכְנְאסָה,
וִסּוּת אֶקְרְעֶהָ / עֲלֵי דרעה / אֲשֶׁר לִפְנִים נִתְפְּשָׂה
Translation:
I moan like an owl for the town of Lucena,
I shave my head and bitterly keen
for Seville’s martyrs and sons who were taken,
Córdoba’s ruined, like the desolate sea:
its nobles and sages have perished in hunger.
There are no Jews left in Jaén,
Majorca, Malaga, and Almería;
all traces of life are gone—
and those who survived were beaten down.
For this I wail in my grief and mourn—
for they have melted away like water.
For Sijilmása I groan in distress—
city of sages whose light barred darkness—
its pillar of Talmud was toppled and broken;
its Mishnah was trampled, cursed, and crushed.
Fez was razed and its brethren butchered.
Telmcen’s splendor shines no more.
For Meknes and Ceuta my cry is bitter.
For Der’a I put on sackcloth and mourn:
In the same lamentation Ibn Ezra describes the darkness that covered the city of Jewish scholars and geniuses, the damage to the pillars of religion (the Talmud and Mishnah), and the destruction alongside the enemy’s joy in contrast to Jewish sorrow. The most distressing aspect was the desecration of the honor of Jewish women:
וְעַל בָּנוֹת / וּמְעַדְּנוֹת / נִמְסְרוּ לְדָת נָכְרִיָּה
וְעִיר גְּאוֹנִים / וּנְבוֹנִים / מֵאוֹרָם חָשַׁךְ כִּסָּה
וְשָׂח עַמּוּד / וְהַתַּלְמוּד / וְהַבְּנִיָּה נֶהֶרְסָה
וְהַמִּשְׁנָה / לִשְׁנִינָה / בָּרַגְלַיִם נִרְמְסָה
“And the daughters/and the delicate ones/were handed over to foreign religion
And the city of geniuses/and wise ones/their light was covered in darkness
And the pillar fell/and the Talmud/and the structure was destroyed
And the Mishnah/became a mockery/trampled under feet”
And in another lamentation, “How the Maghreb was destroyed” only places in Morocco are mentioned, and it seems that these attacks occurred shortly after the rise of the Almohads, between 1130-1135. Thus this lamentation preceded “Alas descended upon Spain,” mentioning A’amat, Der’a, Meknes, Sijilmassa, Ceuta, Sous, Fez, and Tlemcen.
Various lamentations were composed to commemorate the expulsion from Spain (1492) and forced conversions in Portugal (1497) by exiles and their descendants. The expulsion, forced conversion, flight, wandering in search of a refuge—were described in various works. Regarding the persecution of the Jews and the events of 1492 and 1497 only seven lamentations have been published to date, five on the expulsion from Spain and two on the forced conversion in Portugal, These are the elegies according to Pagis:
1) Solomon bar Samuel Hasfaradi, על שבר בת עמי אדברה (On the distress of the daughter of my people I shall speak).
2) R. Abraham Ibn Baqarat, אקבץ בנדודי / דמעות בנאדי / וקנא רב נאדי / יבקוע כהרה (I shall collect in my wanderings / my tears in my bag / they will rupture it like pregnancy).
3) Anonymous, ארץ ספרד תני חשבון יהודים אשר היו בתוכך ולא נראו במרעיתם (Land of Spain, give an account of the Jews who were in you and were not seen in their pasture).
4) Anonymous, written about the conquest of Turan, Algeria, by the Spanish in 1509, אקונן במר ואתבונן/ עד כלות בדמעות עיני (I shall lament bitterly and until my tears are finished in my eyes). The elegy includes a number of lines on the expulsion from Spain and mentions the events in Portugal: ובזכרי קהלות אראגון / וקשטיליא ואנשי ספרד/ בעת גברה יד צר וגרש/ אותם וגאונם הורד... (And when I recall the communities of Aragon and Castile and the men of Spain when the enemy rose up and expelled them and their pride was lowered).
5) Elegy, אבינו הגמול הזה קווינו (Our father, we hoped for this reward). A kind of disputation between Israel and God, evidently composed by Meir de Vidas. In some versions it mentions the expulsion:
יצאו אחיכם גרושים / משיריץ ומשביליא / ראיתי כי ערפם קשים / הבאתי גירוש קשתיליה...
(Your brothers went out in exile from Shiritz and from Seville. I saw that they were stiff-necked, I brought about exile from Castile…)
6) A complaint by the sage Don Judah Abravanel, recounting all of the tribulations he suffered in his life when he was in turmoil, his older son’s expulsion, and his testimony to him, opening: זמן הכה בחץ שנון לבבי (Time struck my heart with a sharp arrow).
7) An elegy by the great sage Don David, Joseph ben Yihye on the expulsion and forced conversion in the kingdom of Portugal 1497, opening:אעורר יגונים / ואפליג בקינים / ואבחר יענים / ותנים לחברה (I shall awaken grief, and sail away with laments, and choose ostriches and jackals for company).
Two elegies on the expulsion were found in the Cairo Geniza.
Ibn Ezra’s lamentation “Alas, it fell upon Spain” demonstrates the severe hatred for the Jews in the 11th and 12th centuries, and how that hatred incited the riots and murders described above. Some have characterized Muslim rule in Spain as a time of law and order that was remarkable for religious tolerance even for non-Muslims.
Ibn Ezra’s lament deals with objective events and not a metaphysical exile. It is evidently one of the earliest Hebrew elegies concerning mass persecution, and it is historical in character.
Most national lamentations end with words of comfort and hope for redemption from exile, and sometimes include a request for vengeance.
The authors of the lamentations alluded to the harsh decrees that King John of Portugal imposed on the Jews in 1493 after the arrival of those expelled from Spain. In the poet’s words:
וַיַּרְחִיבוּ פִּיהֶם עָלֵינוּ
וְלָקְחוּ מַחְמָד עֵינֵינוּ
וּבָתֵּי כְּנִסִּיּוֹת וּסְפָרֵינוּ
וּבָנִים אֲשֶׁר טִפַּחְנוּ
And they opened their mouths wide against us
And took the delight of our eyes
And our synagogues and our books
And children whom we had nurtured
This refers to the confiscation of synagogues and books, and the kidnapping of children and their exile to the land of decree, to the island of São Tomé. The kidnapping of children is documented in Portuguese sources by Fero Tavares.
מַה זֹּאת עָשָׂה אֱלֹהִים לָנוּ
הֵן גָּוַעְנוּ כֻּלָּנוּ אָבַדְנוּ
יָצְאוּ אַחֵינוּ גְּרוּשִׁים
בַּחוּרִים זְקֵנִים וִישִׁישִׁים
What has God done to us
Indeed, we have all perished, we are lost
Our brothers went out expelled
Young men, elderly, and aged
Many anonymous lamentations that were written about the persecutions of 1391were added in manuscript to the earlier cycle of lamentations. Simon Bernfeld edited them in Sefer HaDema’ot (Book of Tears) and Simon Bernstein collected them in ‘Al Naharot Sefarad’ (By the Rivers of Spain). The lamentations from 1391, ‘Sons of my people, weep with me’ and ‘Gather to me all who know lamentation’ by Solomon bar Samuel, detail these events extensively and shed light on the development of this genre. Sefer HaDema’ot documents the enemy’s attack on the greater Seville community, which had about six or seven thousand householders. They set fire to its gates and killed many people, but most converted, and some women and children were sold to Arabs. The Córdoba community was also destroyed, and also that of Toledo. Below is a lamentation-letter by Rabbi Don Hasdai ibn Crescas quoted by Bernfeld in ‘Sefer HaDema’ot’, describing great sorrow over the destruction of the communities of Seville, Castile, Andalusia, and the degrading treatment they received in Catalonia and Aragon.
שִׁמְעוּ נְהָרוֹת וְיַמִּים;
וּגְבָעוֹת וְהָרִים רָמִּים,
אֶבְכֶּה בֵּין אֵפֶר וּפֶחָמִים
אַתְאַבֵּל לֵילוֹת וְיָמִים.
שִׁמְעוּ אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמַיִם,
וְאֶבְכֶּה בְּכִִי אֶגְְלַיִם
עַל שִִׁמֲמוֹת רִבּוַתִים-
מִּיוֹם צֵאֲתִִי מִירוּשָׁלָיִם.
עַל שִִׁמֲמוֹת רִבּוַתִים-
מִּיוֹם צֵאֲתִִי מִירוּשָׁלָיִם.
בִּפְרָט יְלָלָה רַבָּה נִהְיָה
בִּשְׁנַת הַקַנָּ״א בַשְׁאִיָּה;
כִּי נֶחֱרַב קְהַל אִישְׁבִילְיָה
וּקְהִלוֹת רַבּוֹת בְּקַשְׁטִילְיָה.
וּקְהִלוֹת כָּל אַנְדַּלוּס,
וּּבִפְּרוֹבִינְצִיָה רַע נָחוּץ,
וּבְקַטַּלוֹנְיָה הָיָה לָבוּז,
.וְאַרַגוֹן עִמָּם אָחוּּז
Listen, rivers and seas;
And hills and high mountains,
I shall weep among ashes and coals
I shall mourn night and day.
Listen, earth and heaven,
And I shall weep doubly
For the many desolations—
Since the day I left Jerusalem.
For the many desolations—
Since the day I left Jerusalem.
Particularly, a great wailing occurred
In the year 151
For the community of Seville was destroyed
And many communities in Castile.
And the communities of all Andalusia,
And in Provence evil was urgent,
And in Catalonia they were plundered,
And Aragon was seized with them.
In another lamentation brought by Bernfeld, about the forced conversion events and decrees of 1391 (referring to the Spanish kingdom’s decisions against Jews aimed at causing mass conversions), it describes the fall of Seville and Córdoba, and the upheaval of Toledo that was plundered by the enemy, and the acts of killing against them:
כָּל נְשִֹיאֵי שֵֹבִילְיָה, הַנִּשְׁבָּעִים בְּשֵׁם יָהּ- בֵּאִלֹהֵי יִשְֹרָאֵל.
פְּאֵר גּוֹלָה גַּם טוּבָה, אַנְשֵֹי קְהַל קוֹרְטוֹבָה
כִּי לע...וּבָה , בְּשִׁמְךָ יִשְֹרָאֵל.
טִלְטֵל זָר טַלְטֵֵלָה, לִקְהִלַּת טוּלִיטוּלָה;
לָקְחוּּ אֵת כָּל שְׁלָלָהּ- מִכָּל אִִישׁ יִשְֹרָאֵל.
All the princes of Seville, who swear in God’s name—by the God of Israel.
Glory of exile and its goodness too, the people of the Cordoba community
For... in your name Israel.
The stranger shook violently, the Toledo community;
They took all its spoils—from every person of Israel.
The lamentations about the destruction of the Temple and the Andalusian communities were written by anonymous poets in manuscripts collected by S. Bernfeld in “The Book of Tears” and were published later in S. Bernstein’s book “By the Rivers of Spain.” These lamentations include appeals and calls to God to redeem them from the gentiles. Here are some examples from anonymous poets describing the cry of the children of Israel and the sounds of weeping and wailing that burst forth over what happened to the house of prayer. The characteristic line that fuels the fire of exile and destruction enveloped spiritually. This covering characterizes the Muslim lamentations describing the destruction of mosques and their conversion to churches.
עד מתי אדוני ביום זה לעמתך / במר תיליל עדתך על בית תפלתך
“How long, O Lord, on this day against You/Your congregation bitterly wails over Your house of prayer.”
In the lamentation “Weep My People Bitterly,” the anonymous poet calls to his people to weep bitterly over the fate of their city:
בכו עמי במרה וגם קדשו עצרה מדי שנה בשנה
על שֹד שָֹרָתִי העיר רבתי עַם היתה כאלמנה
“Weep my people bitterly and also declare a solemn assembly/Year after year
Over the destruction of my city, the great city/The people have become like a widow”
This lamentation relies on verses from the Book of Joel. The poet describes the people weeping bitterly:
קַדְּשׁוּ צוֹם קִרְאוּ עֲצָרָה אִסְפוּ זְקֵנִים כֹּל יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ בֵּית יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְזַעֲקוּ אֶל יְהוָה, אֲהָהּ לַיּוֹם כִּי קָרוֹב יוֹם יְהוָה וּכְשֹׁד מִשַׁדַּי יָבוֹא.
“Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.” (Joel 1:14-15)
These lamentations and others about the decrees of 1391 and 1412 up until the expulsion in 1492 mostly describe historical events. They do not come to lament the riots but rather to describe their course and to memorialize the destroyed communities. Even in the later lamentations, there are passages that stand out in their literary composition, but their main importance is historical. They follow a set structure: the opening and ending deal with mourning and grief, the middle section refers to the event that prompted the writing with mention of the community’s name, and towards the end usually come words of consolation. However, the cities of Spain do not receive substantial attention in Hebrew poetry, not even in poems where places and cities are mentioned by name, such as in the poems of Samuel HaNagid and Moses Ibn Ezra.
Hebrew poetry in Spain was influenced by Jewish sources, which is reflected in its use of biblical connotations and allusions. Similarly, Muslim poets in Andalusia referenced the Quran and tradition to the same degree and incorporated passages from the Quran or Hadith.
We found a difference in the use of religious motifs in the two poetic traditions: Muslim poets took verses and quotations and incorporated them in their original form as they appear in the Quran or tradition. The Jewish poets also tried to preserve the original religious text.
We notice great similarity in the use of the enemy figure in both Eastern and Andalusian lamentations. The enemy is the Crusader who attacks Islam with the intention to bring destruction, kill, and erase the evidence of Islam within Spain. This does not indicate imitation between the two sides in the composition of lamentations, but rather reflects similar backgrounds, as the circumstances and conditions that arose were similar for both Jews and Muslims. The poets composed lamentations mourning the loss and destruction of cities and the persecution of Jewish communities. One could argue that the Andalusian lamentation stood out more than the Eastern lamentation, due to the tragedy that occurred in Andalusia—the injury was severe and painful, intended to frighten and drive Muslims and Jews from Spain. The solution proposed in the two types of lamentations differed: the Jewish poet believed that the solution to his distress lay in the spiritual side of the nation, while the Muslim poet saw holy war—jihad and military intervention—as the only solution available to save the nation and the religion.