ḤISDAI IBN ḤISDAI, ABU AL-FAḌL

ḤISDAI IBN ḤISDAI, ABU AL-FAḌL (b. ca. 1050), Hebrew poet; son of Joseph ibn Ḥisdai, the author of the Shirah Yetumah in honor of Samuel ha-Nagid; born apparently in Saragossa. Ḥisdai was Abu al-Faḍl's family name. In his youth, in the cultural atmosphere created by the Banu Hud, he studied the exact sciences, especially mathematics and astronomy, and later also medicine, music, and philosophy. But above all, he was well versed in Arabic literature and was a distinguished author of Arabic and Hebrew poetry and prose. Aḥmad I al-Muqtadir (1046–1081), the king of Saragossa, who was fond of intellectuals and scientists and drew them into his service, appointed Ḥisdai as his vizier; from that time the latter served as counselor and minister of the king, writing his letters. Aḥmad's heirs, Yusuf al-Mutamim and Aḥmad ibn Yusuf al-Mustain, retained him in this post. The Arabic writers, who collected the best poems of their poets in Spain, also quote some of the poems sent by Ḥisdai to princes and fellow authors. They, however, also repeat the report, which was apparently already current during his life, that he had become a Muslim. In the opinion of some scholars, this seems to be a fabrication, since his younger contemporary, Moses ibn ezra , numbers him in his book Kitab al-Muhadara wal-Mudhakara (36b) as being among the Jewish writers in Spain, without mentioning his apostasy, which Saadiah ibn danan explicitly denies (Ḥemdah Genuzah, 15, p. 1). Other specialists, like Schirmann, accept the opinion of Arab historians who think that Ḥisdai became a Muslim and that this was the origin of his political success. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Munk, Notice sur Abou ʾl-Walid Merwan ibn Djanah (1851), 206ff. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Finkel, in JQR, NS 18 (1927–8), 53 ff.; E. Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain, 3 (1984), 217–23; Schirmann-Fleischer, The History of Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (1995), 361–63 (Heb.). (Eliyahu Ashtor / Angel Sáenz-Badillos (2nd ed.)