Dunash ben Labrat

Dunash ha-Levi ben Labrat (920/925 – after 985) (; ) was a medieval Jewish commentator, poet, and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. He is known for his philological commentary, ''Teshuvot Dunash'', and for his liturgical poems D'ror Yiqra and D'vai Haser.

Life

Dunash was, according to Moses ibn Ezra, born in Fes, the name ''Dunash'' being of Berber origin. In his youth he travelled to Baghdad to study with Saadia Gaon. On returning to Morocco he wrote many poems and became famous, and there were even poems written about him. He taught grammar and poetry.

Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who lived in Córdoba, invited Dunash to Spain. Córdoba was then the center of culture and poetry in the Islamic world, and Hasdai endeavored to bring the best minds there. In Córdoba, Dunash met Menahem ben Saruq, also an important grammarian, though the two did not get along because of their many grammatical disputes as well as Menahem's tough criticism of Saadia Gaon, Dunash's mentor. Their dispute turned into personal rivalry, which included many polemic compositions and exchanges of accusations to Hasdai ibn Shaprut.

Dunash died in Córdoba in 990.

Work

Dunash is called the founder of Andalusian Hebrew poetry. He first introduced Arabic meter into Hebrew poetry. Traditional Arabic poetry was built on patterns of long and short syllables. Dunash's innovation came in drawing a parallel between the '' šəwâ'' (ə) and '' ḥāṭēp̄'' (ĕ/ă/ŏ) and the Arabic short vowels (i/a/u), so as to create a new Hebrew meter. This meter formed the basis for all subsequent medieval Hebrew poetry. At the time, however, it opened him up to severe criticism, particularly among the students of Menahem ben Saruq, that he was corrupting the Hebrew language by introducing Arabic forms, and changing traditional Biblical styles to conform to Arabic meter and rhyming schemes.Talmide Menaḥem, ''Tĕšubotde los discípulos de Mĕnahem contra Dunaš ben Labrat'', ed. and trans. by S. Benavente Robles (Granada: Univ. de Granada, 1986). For instance, in his classic poem '' D'ror Yikra'', he begins the second line: ''Ne'im shim'chem'' ("pleasant syour name"), with a modified form of the adjective "pleasant," which properly should be ''na'im''.

This body of poetry includes the riddles of Dunash ben Labrat, among the first known Hebrew riddles.

In the field of grammar, Dunash's major work was a book attacking Menahem ben Saruq and his ''Mahberet'' ("Notebook") for violating religious standards and opposing the teachings of the sages. He dedicated his work to the leader of the Jews of Spain at the time, Hasdai ibn Shaprut. In his book, he was the first Hebrew grammarian to distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs, the first to list verbs by their three-letter roots in the ''Paal'' construction, and the first to distinguish between "light" and "heavy" roots. He also condemned Menahem ben Saruq for failing to see the relationship between Hebrew and Arabic. Dunash also wrote a book containing two hundred reservations about the teachings of his old mentor, Saadia Gaon.

The students of Menahem ben Saruq responded with a scathing attack on Dunash, condemning him for using Arabic meter and grammar in studying the Hebrew language, as well as on issues of Jewish philosophy about which they were at odds. Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra also wrote a response to Dunash's work, in defense of Saadia Gaon. These challenges were met by Yehudi ben Sheshet, one of Dunash's students, who wrote a work in defense of his master that strongly opposed all of his detractors.

The debates between Dunash and others were finally decided in the centuries after his death by Rabbeinu Tam, a grandson of Rashi, who attempted to judge between the two schools of thought, and by Rabbi Joseph Kimhi, father of the noted grammarian Rabbi David Kimhi (''RaDaK''), who supported Dunash's positions. Nevertheless, many of the issues raised by Dunash have yet to be resolved today. Dunash is remembered as a poet and a grammarian who uncovered many of the major problems of Hebrew grammar.

Poetry of Dunash's wife

Though her name is unknown, Dunash's wife is held to be the author of a poem on the subject of Dunash's exile. This makes it the only known medieval Hebrew verse by a woman (and the only known medieval verse by a Jewish woman apart from those of Qasmuna and, if she was Jewish, Sarah of Yemen).''The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492'', ed. and trans. by Peter Cole (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 27. Giving both verse and prose translations, it reads:

An incomplete text of the poem was discovered and published in the 1940s in two fragments from one eleventh-century manuscript, Mosseri IV.387 and Mosseri VIII.202.2. At that time, the poem was assumed to be by Dunash.Poetry (Mosseri IV.387.2)
But a manuscript declaring the poem to be by Dunash's wife came to light in the 1980s, in the form of a probably eleventh-century fragment from the Cairo Geniza (where it is now catalogued as Cambridge, Cambridge University Library
T-S NS 143.46
, and first edited by Ezra Fleischer. This manuscript includes an incomplete reply from Dunash to his wife:

The circumstances of this separation are unclear; it is thought that Dunash's wife composed her poem shortly after Dunash's departure, around 950.Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry, and Cheryl Tallan, 'Wife of Dunash Ben Labrat of Spain, Hebrew Poet (10th century)', in ''The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E. to 1900 C.E.'' (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2003), pp. 58-59 (p. 59). A further poem, found in 1985 written on the corner of a letter composed by Hasdai ibn Shaprut (T-S J2.71, f. 2v), identified as being a complaint from Dunash about his service under Hasdai, seems further to describe his feelings on leaving his wife. Following two illegible lines, the text reads:Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, ''Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza'' (New York: Schocken, 2011), p. 181, .

Editions and translations

Poetry

*Aluny, Nehemya (ed.),
Ten Dunash Ben Labrat's Riddles
, ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'', New Series, 36 (1945), 141-46.
*Cole, Peter (trans.), ''The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 23-27 ("Dunash Ben Labrat" and "The wife of Dunash").
*Del Valle Rodríguez, Carlos (trans.), ''El diván poético de Dunash ben Labraṭ: la introducción de la métrica árabe'' (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigciones Cinetí cas, 1988).

Shirim

*Allony, Nehemiah (ed.), ''Dunash ben Labraṭ: Shirim'' (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1947).

Teshuvot

*Filipowski, H. (ed.), ''Teshuvot Dunash ben Labraṭ'' (London and Edinburgh: Meorere Yeshenim, 1855).
*Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (ed. and trans.), ''Tešuḇot de Dunaš BenLabraṭ'' (Granada: Univ. de Granada, 1980).
*Schröter, Robert (ed.), ''Tešuḇot Dunaš ha-Levi ben Labraṭ ʻal R.Seʻadyah Gaʾon'' (Breslau, 1866).

Manuscript facsimiles

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, T-S NS 143.46
(the poem of Dunash's wife, and his reply)
Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Mosseri IV.387.2Mosseri VIII.202.2
(another manuscript of Dunash's wife's poem)

(lines 21 to the end are a set of ten verse riddles attributed to Dunash ben Labrat)

Notes

References

Further reading

*
*
*Maman, Aaron. ''Comparative Semitic philology in the Middle Ages'', Brill, 2004, p. 289-295 (Chapter 11, "Dunash ben Labrat").

{{DEFAULTSORT:Labrat, Dunash ben
920s births
980s deaths
Hebrew-language poets
Medieval Hebraists
Jewish poets
10th-century Moroccan people
10th-century rabbis
Medieval Moroccan rabbis
Linguists from Morocco
People from Fez, Morocco
Linguists of Hebrew
Grammarians of Hebrew
Berber Jews
Poets from al-Andalus
10th-century Jews from al-Andalus
10th-century writers from al-Andalus
Immigrants to Al-Andalus
Jewish liturgical poets