3 Review(s)

The wondrous fables of Ibn Sahula in Meshal haqadmoni, presented here inEnglish for the first time, provide a most unusual introduction to theintellectual and social universe of the Sephardi Jewish world ofthirteenth-century Spain. Ibn Sahula wrote his fables in rhymed prose, hererendered into English as rhymed couplets. They comprise a series of satiricaldebates between a cynic and a moralist, put into the mouths of animals; themoralist always triumphs. The debates, which touch on such subjects as time,the soul, the physical sciences and medicine, astronomy, and astrology, amplyreflect human foibles, political compromise, and court intrigue. They aresuffused throughout with traditional Jewish law and lore, a flavour reinforcedby the profusion of biblical quotations reapplied. With parallel Hebrew and English texts,explanatory notes, indication of textual variants, and references for all thebiblical and other allusions, this edition has much to offer to scholars inmany areas: medieval Hebrew literature, medieval intellectual history, Sephardistudies, and the literature and folklore of Spain. Both the translation and the scholarlyannotations reflect Raphael Loewe's deep understanding of Ibn Sahula's world,including the interrelationship of Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic speculativethought and the interplay between those languages. Scholars will profitenormously from the textual annotations, and specialist and non-specialistalike will benefit from the masterly introduction. Two full series of illustrations are reproducedalongside the text: the woodcuts from the second edition (Venice, c.1547), and the splendid vignettes inthe Rothschild Miscellany, a fifteenth-century Italian mansucript in the IsraelMuseum.