Ibn Gabirol

Solomón ibn Gabirol (Málaga, ca. 1021-Valencia, ca. 1058; in Hebrew: שלמה בן יהודה אבן גבירול‎ Shelomo ben Yehudah ibn Gabirol; in Arabic: سليمان بن يحيى بن جبي رول‎ Sulaymán ibn Yaḥya ibn Ŷabirul), also known as Avicebrol or Avicebrón (especially in Latin), was an Andalusian Spanish-Jewish philosopher and poet..

He was probably the greatest Neoplatonist of the medieval Arab philosophical tradition, and possibly also the greatest medieval Hebrew poet. There is an interpretation center dedicated to him in Malaga.

Biography

Statue of Ibn Gabirol in Malaga

He was the son of a Cordovan family that fled to Málaga in the year 1013, due to the revolts that ended the Cordovan caliphate —for which reason Ibn 'Ezra and Ibn Zakkuto call him al-qurtubi , that is, "el Córdoba", although he himself proclaims himself in several of his acrostic poems ha-malaquí, "el malagueño" -. Born in 1020 -or 1021 according to the sources- his stay in the Malacitana Jewish quarter was limited to childhood, and soon, probably due to new revolts produced after the death of Almanzor, he moved with his father to Zaragoza, where he would receive his education. There, his precocious poetic genius earned him the protection of the Yekuti patron, Ben Isaac, Jewish vizier of King Mundir II of the Taifa of Zaragoza. Ibn Gabirol refers to Yekutiel ben Isaac as "prince", "I was born of princes and sovereigns" and & # 34; lord of lords & # 34;, and he dedicates a good part of his most sublime poems to him. Here is an elegiac fragment to the death of his teacher Yekutiel ben Isaac

Look at the sunset, red,

as covered with a purple veil:
the sides of the north and the south,
while covering the west from scarlet;
abandons the naked earth
seeking in the shadow of the night;
then the sky darkens, as if

He would mourn for the death of Yequtiel.

In 1039, after the riots that occurred during the coup d'état of Abd Allah ibn Hakam against Mundir II, which overthrew the Tujibid dynasty, Yekutiel was assassinated and, after dedicating the most beautiful of his elegies. Avicebrón left Zaragoza and went to Granada, in search of another protector in the person of one of the most notable and powerful figures of his time, Šemuel Ibn Nagrela, vizier of Badis ibn Habus, Zirid king of Granada. He was tutor to his son Yosef and, despite the common origin of their families —both were from Cordoba and emigrated to Malaga—, their relationships were conflictive, even leading to personal confrontation, due both to poetic rivalry and to the particular character of our personage, of which Ibn `Ezra said: "His indomitable genius led him to insult the great ones and fill them with offenses, without excusing their defects." After residing in Granada for a few years, he once again opted to return to Zaragoza.

The positive opinion that later chroniclers, Ibn `Ezra, al-Tulaituli, al-Harizi, ibn Da`ud, ibn Parhon or Yosef Qimhi, have of Ibn Gabirol are not a reflection of the esteem that he enjoyed among his contemporaries, since once Yequtie`el died, and without the protection of Šemuel ibn Nagrela, the confrontation with his co-religionists ended with the promulgation of a herem, or anathema, and his expulsion from the Jewish community of Zaragoza (1045) from where he left for exile again.

It does not seem that his wishes to go to Zion were fulfilled, and we lack reliable testimony about the last period of his life. Ibn Zakkuto transmits to us a romantic legend of his death in Valencia, at the hands of a Muslim bard jealous of his poems, and how after being buried under a fig tree, it gave the sweetest fruits of him.

Work

He was the author of numerous panegyrics and elegies, but he also cultivated satire and self-praise, which were common genres then among Arab poets, but not among Hebrew ones. His proverbs and maxims are quoted from time to time under his Latinized name of Avicebron:

"Patience reaps peace and haste loses it"

Like other great poets of his time (including great rabbis and scholars of the time, community leaders such as Semuel ibn Nagrella, Moses ibn Ezra or Yehudah Halevi), Ibn Gabirol cultivated homoerotic poetry, genre which was common both among the Hispano-Hebrew poets of the "Golden Age" of Hispano-Hebrew literature and among their Muslim contemporaries.

He also wrote abundant religious poetry, among which stands out the Keter Malkut (Crown of the Kingdom), a long poem with mystical tendencies that represents a synthesis between traditional beliefs Jewish and Neoplatonic philosophy, all embellished by a great knowledge of Arabic astronomy.

He also composed two famous treatises in Arabic. The first is of a philosophical nature, which we will deal with later, and was translated into Latin as Fons vitae.

The second deals with ethics and morality and is ascetic in orientation, the Kitab islah al-ahlaq, in Hebrew, Tiqqun middot ha-nefes, is that is, The correction of the characters, of 1045.

Fondos vitae

Adherent to Neoplatonic philosophy, his most famous work is The Source of Life (in Latin Fons vitae --in Arabic ينبوع الحياة (Yanbu` al-hayat), translated into Hebrew as מקור חיים, (Meqôr hayyîm)-- and is based on «Psalms» XXXVI, 10. This work takes the form of a dialogue, between a master and his disciple, and is divided into five parts:

• The first part is a preliminary explanation of the notions in universal form and matter.
• The second describes the underlying spiritual matter under bodily forms.
• The third demonstrates the existence of simple substances.
• The fourth deals with the forms and materials of simple substances.
• The fifth of the forms and subjects of the universe.

Because this work does not contain references to the fundamental texts of Judaism, that is, the Pentateuch and the Talmud, and because it was originally written in Arabic, its author "Avicebron" it was taken at first by a Muslim philosopher. Later, translated into Latin under the name Fons vitae by Juan Hispalense and Domingo Gundisalvo, it became an important reference for the Franciscans and for the Christian world in general, although its theses were rejected by the Dominicans., especially by Albertus the Great and Thomas Aquinas, who opposed his Neoplatonic interpretation of Aristotle.

Works by Ibn Gabirol

• Diwan
• `Anaq
• Sefer tiqqum middot ha-nefes
• Sefer Meqor Hayyim
• Sefer Mibhar ha-peninim
• Keter Malkut

Bibliographic sources

• BRODY, H. fake SCHIRMANN, J., Šelomoh ibn Gabirol, šire ha-hol, Jerusalem, The Schocken Institute, 1974, (in Hebrew).
• CANO, María José, Selomoh ibn Gabirol. Poems I. Seculares, Granada, University of Granada; Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, 1987. ISBN 84-338-0531-2
• - Ibn Gabirol. Religious poetry, Granada, University of Granada, 1992. ISBN 84-338-1597-0
• CERVERA FRAS, M a José, The Kingdom of Saraqusta, Zaragoza, CAI, 1999. ISBN 84-88305-93-1
• CORRAL, José Luis, History of Zaragoza. Muslim Zaragoza (714-1118)Zaragoza, Ayto. de Zaragoza and CAI, 1998. ISBN 84-8069-155-7
• EISENBERG, Daniel, “Introduction”, in David William Foster, Spanish writers on gay and lesbian themes: a bio-critical sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999, p. 17. (in English). ISBN 9780313303326
• «Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah, ibn», Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. VII, col. 235-246, Jerusalem, Keter Publishing House Jerusalem Ltd. Israel, 1971. LCCCN 72-90254
• GREENBERG, Steven, Wrestling with God and men: homosexuality in the Jewish tradition, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2005. ISBN 9780299190941
• IBN GABIROL, Shelomó, The source of life, translated from Latin to Spanish by Federico de Castro y Fernández; revised and corrected by Carlos del Valle; introduction of Carlos del Valle, Barcelona, Riopiedras, 1987.
• IBN GABIROL, Shelomó, The Source of Life: Philosophy Treaty; Royal Crown: Religious Poem; Castilian and prologue version of León Dujovne, Buenos Aires, S. Sigal, 1961.
• «Ibn Gabirol, Sulaymān», Al-Andalus Library, vol. 3, Almería, Ibn Tufayl Foundation for Arab Studies, 2004, pp. 189-196. ISBN 84-934026-1-3
• JARDEN, Dov, Šire ha-hol le Rabbi Selomoh aben GabirolJerusalem, 1975, (in Hebrew).
• MILLÁS VALLICROSA, José María, Šělomó ibn Gabirol as a poet and philosopher. Preliminary study María José CanoGrenada, University of Granada, 1993. ISBN 84-338-1819-8
• MONTANER FRUTOS, Alberto, «Historical introduction» to the chapter «The Muslim Palace» The Aljaferia (vol. I), Bernabé Cabañero Subiza et al.under the direction of Alberto Martínez (eds.), Zaragoza, Cortes de Aragón, 1998, pp. 35-65. ISBN 84-86794-97-8.