The Book of Tahkemoni: Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) - Softcover

Alharizi, Judah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1874774986 ISBN 13: 9781874774983

Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003

Synopsis

National Jewish Book Awards Winner of Sephardic Studies Award, 2001.

The Book of Tahkemoni(The Book of Wisdom or the Heroic) is widely regarded as the crowning jewel of Hebrew maqama literature ―rhymed prose interspersed with verse. In its fifty unlinked episodes we repeatedly encounter the somewhat roguish protagonist, Hever the Kenite, often disguised and assuming many and varied roles―teacher, beggar, adventurer, debater, magician, and so on. Whether preaching, spinning history or fantasy, or working a crowd, Hever the Kenite is ever a consummate story-teller and wordsmith enlightening or astounding his listeners. The author, generally considered to be the last major Hebrew poet of Spain, displays great scope, moving from prayers to tales of battlefield carnage, from philosophic reflection to droll satire targeting the pompous, the ignorant, and the mean. The whole is conveyed in a sensuous interweave of rhyme and rhythm, of literal and figurative speech, and copious biblical citations manipulated to serve unusual ends. David Simha Segal's translation captures the drama, wit, and satire of the original in a contemporary English that displays vigour and a sense of fun. Detailed annotations, printed on the same page as the text, identify the numerous allusions. Analyses of each chapter bring the reader more deeply into the text, illuminating plays on words, adroit uses of the frame tale, adaptations of Arabic and Hebrew literary conventions, and other subtleties of the original. A substantial Afterword sums up major features discussed in the analyses, especially the authorial game of hide-and-seek in the characters of the protagonist and the narrator.

About this title

About the Author

David Simha Segal is Emeritus Senior Lecturer in Medieval Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba. Author of many studies of the Hebrew belles-lettres of Spain and a published poet, he has also translated modern Hebrew novelists, essayists, poets, and short-story writers.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1874774986
• ISBN 13: 9781874774983
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 732
• Editor: Segal David Simha