IBN PAQUDA (Pakuda, Bakoda), DAVID BEN ELEAZAR

IBN PAQUDA (Pakuda, Bakoda), DAVID BEN ELEAZAR (first half of the 12^th century), Spanish Hebrew poet. Moses *Ibn Ezra mentions among his contemporaries who worked in the East of Andalusia a poet, Abu Isḥaq ibn Paquda, and his relative Abu Suleiman, who may be identical with David (Kitāb al-Muḥāḍara wal-Mudhākara, ed. A. Halkin (1975), 41a). Many scholars believe that this Abu Isḥaq can be identified as the well-known philosopher *Baḥya b. Joseph ibn Paquda. David, who also lived in Saragossa, could be his cousin. *Al-Ḥarizi praises David's verses twice in the third maqāma of his Taḥkemoni: "none as bright and hot as the songs ben Bakoda begot"; "and Rabbi David ben Bakoda – skill is his prelude, praise his coda." Numerous liturgical poems by him have been preserved. According to Zunz, David's authorship is firmly established in the case of 14 poems by the appearance of his full name in acrostics or in superscriptions; more than 20 other poems in various Spanish rites, which are signed simply "David" are for the most part also to be regarded as his compositions. One of David's peculiarities, which he shares with Yemenite Hebrew poets, is the scriptio plena spelling of his name (דויד). His poems are printed in the Sephardi maḥzor, the Tripoli maḥzor, the Seder Rabbi Amram (1865), and in J. Ettlinger's Shomer Ẓiyyon ha-Ne'eman (1846, new ed. 1963, p.261). His seliḥah of eight stanzas is particularly widespread, as is also his introduction to Gabirol's Azharot, which appeared in an annotated Spanish translation by A.S. Yahuda (1915). A large collection of David's unedited poems was published by J.H. Schirmann (1938). Specimens of his poems are also to be found in: S.D. Luzzatto, Iggerot Shadal (1882, 1967²), 513, 515; H. Brody and K. Albrecht, Sha'ar ha-Shir (1906), 133–5; H. Brody and M. Wiener, Mivḥar ha-Shirah ha-Ivrit (1934), 193; H. Schirmann, Ha-Shirah ha-Ivrit bi-Sefarad u-vi-Provence (1954), 355–7. Y. Yellin collected the poems included in Schirmann's list in an M.A. dissertation (1974); they are more than 40, but only the 14 already known by Zunz can be said with certainty to have been written by him. Most of them are seliḥot. David has been rightly characterized as a conservative liturgical poet. This is shown in his technique: he uses the syllabic meter more than the quantitative one (used only in two bakkashot), and sometimes he does not use any meter; he prefers monorhymed compositions to the strophic ones. He does not employ the novelties of Andalusian-Hebrew liturgical poetry; he prefers old paytanic structures and very simple forms.

bibliography:

M. Sachs, Die religioese Poesie der Juden in Spanien (1901), 274; Dukes, Poesie, 141; idem, in: Literaturblatt des Orients, 9 (1848), 403; 10 (1849), 760; S.I. Kaempt, Nichtandalusische Poesie andalusischer Dichter, 2 (1858), 197; Landshuth, Ammudei, 55, 60f.; Zunz, Poesie, 218; Zunz, Lit Poesie, 217; A.S. Yahuda, Un capítulo sobre la poesía hebraica religiosa de España (1915); Malter, in: jqr, 7 (1916/17), 606f.; Schirmann, in: ymḤsi, 4 (1938), 282–96; 6 (1945), 335–9; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 374. add. bibliography: Y. Yellin, "Piyyutei David ibn Bakudah," M.A. diss. (Tel Aviv Univ. 1974); Schirmann-Fleischer, The History of Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (1995), 503–6 (Heb.).

[Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann /

Angel Sáenz-Badillos (2^nd ed.)]