Ibn Al-Taqana, Moses
IBN AL-TAQANA, MOSES
IBN AL-TAQANA, MOSES (also Abu al-Hasan ; in Arabic, al-Tayyah ("the perplexed"); 11th century), Spanish Hebrew poet. Ibn al-Taqana was a member of a noble Jewish family that probably lived in Saragossa; he received a broad education. He enjoyed the reputation of an outstanding satirical poet. *Al-Ḥarizi praised his poetic wisdom. Sometime after the age of thirty, he met with a fatal accident while on a voyage to Tudela. Except for one verse quoted in Moses Ibn Ezra's poetics, there is no poem extant which is specifically attributed to him. The verse is an imitation of Ibn Gabirol, substantiating the suggestion that Ibn al-Taqana may possibly be the author of a long satirical poem, published by Bialik in 1929, on the basis of a St. Petersburg manuscript, and similar in many ways to Ibn Gabirol's poetry. The author of the poem introduces himself as Moses b. Isaac, which may be Ibn al-Taqana's Hebrew name, and defends Jonah *Ibn Janaḥ against a prolific writer who could be *Samuel ha-Nagid. Zunz published a bakkashah written by him.
bibliography:
Zunz, Poesie, 215; Moses ibn Ezra, Kitābal-Muḥāḍara wal-Mudhākara, ed. Halkin (1975), 36b, 92a; Steinschneider, in: jqr, 11 (1898/99), 624, no. 772; Simḥoni, in: Ha-Tekufah, 10 (1921), 174; Bialik, in: Ẓiyyunim (1929), 37–44; Brody, in: Keneset, 1 (1946), 410–5; Schirmann, Sefarad, 286–91; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 439. add. bibliography: D. Yarden, in: Sinai, 85 (1979), 28–33; Schirmann-Fleischer, The History of Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (1995), 349–51 (Heb.).
[Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann]