ARIE SCHIPPERS
“Some Remarks on the Muwashshahaat of
Abraham ibn Ezra”
by Arie Schippers [University of Amsterdam]
SUMMARY: In this paper some elements of form and contents in Abraham ibn Ezra's
strophic poetry will be discussed. Abraham ibn Ezra differs in many respects
from his predecessors such as Moses ibn Ezra and Yehudah ha-Levi. As far as the
thematic content is concerned, most common wine and love themes are
non-existent in Abraham ibn Ezra's poetry. Independent strophic love poems as
we saw currently in Moses ibn Ezra's work, are almost lacking in Abraham ibn
Ezra's poetry: love in his poetry is almost exclusively connected with the
panegyrics on his addressees. Also the formal characteristics of Abraham ibn
Ezra's poetry are different from those of his predecessors, for instance with
respect to the way in which Arabic is inserted in his Hebrew poems. Some of his
forms are innovations, other types of his strophic poetry go immediately back
to the schemes of the Hebrew poet Yehudah ha-Levi and Arabic poets such as Ibn
Baqi and Ibn Quzman.