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Letter IV.

Attachment of the Spaniards to the Arabic numbers. Literature of the Spanish Jews.

Valencia, 28th May, 1778

As I postpone making you acquainted with the Castilian muse till my arrival at Madrid, I cannot refrain from troubling you with some further reflections on the Saracens, tending to elucidate the influence which their government had over poetic numbers. The very faces of the present inhabitants carry such a striking resemblance of their ancestors, and the African cast of feature is so perceptible, that I am insensibly led into this subject.

It being common for the vanquished to receive laws from the conqueror, it was natural that Spain should share the fate of arms, and receive with the Saracen yoke their manners and customs. These people having held a long possession of this country, introduced their language, religion, and literature. The oriental style of poetry pervaded every mind, and the exuberant genius of its composition not only became universal, but in a manner worked the downfall of the roman numbers. Álvaro de Córdoba, complains that the Spaniards had so totally forgotten the latin tongue, and given the preference to Arabic, that it was difficult even amongst as thousand people, to find one who could write a latin letter. So great was the attachment of the people to the Chaldaic books, and the literature of the Orientals, that they could write Arabic with remarkable purity, and compose verses with as much fluency and elegance as the Arabians themselves. Not only charmed with their poetry, they even embraced their religion; for Isen, king of Cordova, who died in 795, had three thousand apostates from Christianity, in his train.

Thus after a long period of near eight hundred years that the dominion of the Arabs continued; the provinces of Spain split into numerous dynasties, flourished in oriental literature; whilst the Castilians distinguished themselves in feats of arms, and were spilling their blood in defence of their territories; honour and love were sung by the bards, and the Arabic muse furnished a numerous list of poets, whose names are recorded in the Bibliotheca Hispana of Don Nicolás Antonio; the oriental dictionary of Herbelot, and the Arabic Hispanic collection of manuscripts in the escurial, lately published at Madrid, by Casiri, a Maronite, in two volumes in folio, at his catholic majesty's expence; where a numerous collection of poets may be found, hitherto unnoticed, all which are carefully preserved in the valuable library of the escurial. In this class the province of Andalusia particularly distinguished itself; its inhabitants seemed animated with a peculiar brilliancy of composition. The two academies of Cordova and Seville shone beyond others. Their writers introduced harmony and numbers into the most serious subjects, leaving nothing either in religion or politics, nor in any branch of polite arts which did not partake of their verse and poetical enthusiasm. Ebn Tarhun of Seville who flourished in the year 691 of the hegira, raised his muse to the most sublime theme; he sung of the creation of man; of the soul; and described the temple of Mecca. Dhihaldin Alkazary who flourished in the sixth age of the hegira, writ a poem called “the treasure of poets”; while others employed themselves in comments on their most classical writers. Ebn Forgia, who lived in the fifth age of the hegira, writ a commentary on the famous poet Almotuabi, and Ebn Macrana commented upon the poem on animals by the Persian, Abiotman. Nor were the powers of versification confined to the men, but extended equally to the fair sex; several ladies gave proofs of their talents, those of Andalusia in particular, did honour to the muses, and their works are preserved in the escurial; but none were more famous than Maria Alphaisuli of Seville, who was the Sappho of her time.

Besides these celebrated geniuses, the fame of many others has been preserved in the dictionaries of Arabic Spaniards, compiled by Mahometan writers: such as the dictionary Arabic and Hispanic, in the escurial, of all the caliphs, captains, philosophers, poets, and learned ladies of Spain, in four large volumes, by Ebn Alkhali Mahomed Ben Abdalla in the year 710 of the hegira. Likewise the history of all the Spaniards and Africans, famous in arts and sciences, particularly in poetry, written by Ben Mahomed Abu Nasser Alphath of Seville, who lived in the sixth age of the hegira; which book is in the king of France's library. Thus the Arabic muse flourished while supported by the cimeter, and totally perished with its empire, when the victorious arms of Fernando and Isabel drove the moors out of Granada.

It is to those days we must also look up, to form an idea of the literature of the Spanish Jews, which was cherished by Masters from Babylon, where they had academies supported by themselves; at a time when books were so scarce in Spain amongst Christians, that in the beginning of the tenth century, one and the same bible, with St Jerom's epistles and other ecclesiastical works served different monasteries. In the year 967, Rabbi Moses and his son Rabbi Enoch, having been taken by pirates, were sold as slaves at Cordova, and redeemed by their brethren, who established a school at Cordova, of which Rabbi Moses was appointed the head, who being desirous of returning back to his own country, the Moorish king of Cordova would not give his consent, rejoicing that his Hebrew subjects had masters of their own religion at home, without the necessity of receiving them from a foreign university; and every indulgence was granted them with respect to their worship, exhibiting a true spirit of toleration, worthy to be followed by their Christian successors.

In the year 1039, Rabbi Ezechias was put to death at Babylon, who had succeeded Hai Gazon, whose sons fled to Spain, by which the eldership of the Gaons became extinct, and their college was transferred to Cordova, from whence a swarm of her brew poets issued forth, that have been noticed by various learned writers. Our countryman Thomas Hyde in his treatise De ludis orientalibus, mentions a Hebrew poem on the game of chefs by Aben Ezra. In Portugal, Rabbi David Ben Solomon Ben David Iachisa of Lisbon who lived in 1440, writ a treatise on Hebrew poetry, which was translated into latin by Genebrard, and printed in 1587, at the end of his Isagoge, to read Hebrew without points; it abounds with quotations of the different metres of the Hebrew poetry in Spain. They may be very sublime, but for my part I cannot read the language, either with points or without, and you will pardon this digression: however it gives us an idea of the flourishing state of their school in Cordova, Seville, Granada and Toledo, and we need not be surprised at the numerous Hebrew proverbs, and modes of speech, that have crept into the Castilian language, and form a conspicuous part of its phraseology; for though king John II banished the Jews out of his kingdom, and the rigid and cruel inquisition was afterwards established to purge the nation of that sect, yet all the horrors of that bloody tribunal, have not been able completely to effect this sanguinary purpose.

The Spanish language owes these people a particular obligation, for that curious version of the Hebrew books of the old testament, which long after their expulsion they first printed at Ferrara, in 1553, in a gothic Spanish letter; a curious and scarce book, comprehending many energetic words, and peculiar expressions, not to be found in the dictionary of the Spanish academy, and which they seem to have cautiously avoided. This version is thought to have been made by that learned grammarian, David Kimchi, in the tenth century. Padre Sarmiento has given many critical and judicious reasons for attributing this version to the age of Kimchi, and censures father Simon greatly, for saying it was made at the time it was printed, when scarcely understood by the Jews, quam vix Judœi intelligunt. But you will say I am now going on at an extravagant rate. Should this find you safe returned, as I hope it will, remember me to my reverend friend, your brother; tell him what he loses in not studying Spanish, and if he smiles at the conceit, remind him of Gaspar Lindenberg, who has written "de non contemnendis ex lingua hispanica utilitatibus theologicis" 1 .

Having now furnished you sufficiently with Hebrew, Arabic, and gothic Spanish information, and poured in upon you a legion of hard words, added to a variety of uncouth and harsh founding names, I shall in my next touch upon the proceedings of the Trobadours, and then set out for Madrid. Meanwhile I take my last farewell of Jews and Mahometans.

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