This book is primarily intended to present the reader with a fascinating collection of piyyutim composed by an Arab-Jewish poet and hymnist who was mainly active in Baghdad during the first half of the thirteenth century. His name was Elʿazar ben Yaʿaqov ha-Bavli (Eleazar son of Jacob the Babylonian), whose poetic oeuvre presently consists of hundreds of secular compositions and dozens of piyyutim. Most of his work came down to us from the treasures of the Cairo Genizah, in particular the Firkovicz Collection in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg. However, remarkably, a number of his piyyutim are known only through maḥzorim according to various Jewish liturgical rites in countries such as Greece, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, India, and China. The wide distribution of Elʿazar’s poetry indicates that his hymns may have enjoyed a high degree of popularity. On the other hand, it is clear that a significant part of his oeuvre remains unknown. The collection of poems presented here provides a cross-section of liturgical destinations: muwaššaḥah-like piyyutim for each Jewish holiday and for some special and fewer regular sabbaths, a small number of rešuyot for Nišmat or Barkhu, one seliḥah for the New Year, and one for the Day of Atonement, and a few compositions without any definite liturgical purpose. It is uncertain if Elʿazar composed hymns for all important days of the Jewish liturgical calendar within the piyyutic genres current in his time.
Elʿazar’s liturgical or devotional hymnology is characterised by a strong spiritual tendency which, in the broader context of recent scholarship, can be linked to contemporary Sufism in Jewish circles. Sufi mystics and ways of life were held in high esteem as part of Islamic religious culture, which as far as we can determine, proved attractive to Jews, especially in elite circles in an urban environment. The key figure of Judeo-Sufism was Abraham Maimonides (1186–1237), son of Moses Maimonides (1135–1204). The numerous indications in his poems show that Elʿazar was also a follower of this Sufi-inspired movement within Judaism, even travelling from Baghdad to Cairo to meet Abraham Maimonides. Furthermore, the Cairo Genizah and Firkovicz Collections provide many important insights into the religious perception of Jews in an Islamic context of which Elʿazar is a clear exponent. In the local setting of Baghdad, his religious verse may have acquired sufficient status to be recited in the synagogues of the city or to become part of local liturgical customs.
The Introduction to this edition offers the reader a comprehensive overview of the particularities in Elʿazar’s religious verse regarding his personal preferences of content and style. As far as possible, his piyyutim will be linked to preceding and contemporary traditions of Jewish worship. Elʿazar has put a personal spin on his Hebrew vocabulary, demonstrating a degree of influence from his Arabic surroundings. In one instance, we are fortunate to re-edit one of his fine bilingual macaronic compositions. However, historical circumstances were not favourable for Elʿazar’s literary survival. Although he himself may have lived in a period of relative political stability and cultural prosperity under caliph Al-Nāṣir (1180–1225) and caliph Al-Mustanṣir (1226–1242), Abbasid rule was about to end with the Mongol invasion of 1258. It is uncertain whether Elʿazar personally witnessed the arrival of Hulagu and his impressive army, but the unprecedented destruction of Bagdad certainly had a major impact on Jewish life in the city. This leaves room for the question of how and in what condition his poetic legacy was passed on. In addition, Elʿazar’s oeuvre suffered badly from censorship, the consequences of which should not be underestimated for its recognition in modern research.
Problems with the transmission of Elʿazar’s poetry had already been observed by Ḥayyim Brody in 1935, when he edited the Dīwān based on a manuscript from Aleppo and catalogued as MS ENA No. 881 in the Adler Collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Brody was aware of the existence of another major manuscript in the Second Firkovicz Collection with the siglum Heb.IIA.210.1, kept in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library of Leningrad, now the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. He was frustrated that he was unable to consult the Firkovicz manuscript from which Jacob Mann had selected a small number of poems in 1931, published in his renowned Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature. I edited the Russian manuscript in 2007, but Brody did not know that despite valuable additions to Elʿazar’s Dīwān, many folios and quires are missing. The publication of a Judeo-Arabic treatise on poetics in 2001 by Joseph Yahalom confirms the absence of many poems. At least sixty-one incipits appear in Elʿazar’s discussion of metre, rhyme, poetic imperfections and rhetoric, which do not appear in the Dīwān or in this edition. While this is admittedly not direct evidence of censorship, it is surprising that certain genres are underrepresented, such as conventional muwaššaḥāt, gnomic aphorisms, and macaronic lyrics.
In this edition the reader is introduced to a number of previously published and unpublished compositions that will help clarify the personal religiosity of Elʿazar ha-Bavli and his remarkable contribution to Jewish worship. I am very grateful to Dr. Peter S. Lehnardt, who stood at the beginning of this research, because he selflessly made his unique data of Elʿazar available with numerous bibliographical references. Many thanks are also extended to Prof Dr. Shulamit Elizur and Dr. Sarah Cohen for granting me access to the invaluable catalogue of the Ezra Fleischer Genizah Research Project for Hebrew Poetry at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. The poems presented here are revised or reconstructed, vocalised, and explained. I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Uri Melammed for his proofreading and for his important additions, but even more so, for his discovery of new compositions from the Second Firkovicz Collection that are undoubtedly attributable to Elʿazar ha-Bavli. My sincere thanks also go to Prof Dr. Naoya Katsumata for his continued support and advice. Finally, I am most thankful to Prof Dr. Geert Jan van Gelder for sharing his vast knowledge of Arabic poetry and poetics and offering valuable suggestions that have enriched my insights into Elʿazar, ‘the insightful’.