Medieval Hebrew Medical Poetry: Uses and Contexts

Abstract

The literary, pedagogical, and historical contexts of Hebrew didactic medical poems from Christian Iberia, dating from the late-twelfth through the fourteenth century, are examined. Classical didactic medical poetry (in Greek and Latin) is surveyed, followed by the Arabic, medieval Latin, and vernacular traditions. The Hebrew practice of incorporating medical material into liturgical poetry, from classical piyyuṭ to the learned verse of Golden Age Andalusia, is examined. Didactic medical poems by Abraham Ibn Ezra, Joseph Ibn Zabara, Judah al-Ḥarizi, and Shem Ṭov Ibn Falaquera are studied. The last is shown to be indebted to Ibn Sina's Arabic medical poem. Finally, four Hebrew versions (one prose and three verse) of Ibn Sīnā's poem are analyzed. All poems are considered as to their literary form, didactic purpose, and cultural context. In light of the use of didactic verse in the medieval madrasa and university, it is suggested that Jewish physicians and their students in medieval Iberia employed some Hebrew medical poems in a similar pedagogical and mnemonic fashion.