Courtier Todros (Ii) Ben Yehudah (I) Halevi ben Yahuda HaLevi Abulafia

Abulafia (Arabic: أبو العافية‎, Abou l-Afiyya or Abu l-Afia, Hebrew: אבולעפיה, Abulafia) is a surname whose etymological origin is Arabic.

The romanized version of the surname is most commonly Abulafia. Other variations also exist, mostly in English transliterations, including:

Aboulafia, Abolafia, Abouelafia, Aboulafiya, Abulafiya, Aboulafiyya.

Etymologically, the surname is derived from the Arabic words أبو (Abu or Abou; literally "Father" but also carrying the meaning "Owner")' plus the definite article الـ (al or el, or simply l if the preceding word ends with a vowel, to which it attaches itself; meaning "the") and عافية (Afiyya or Afia; literally "Health/Wellbeing" but also carrying the meaning "Power"). Together they form "Abou l-Afiyya" or "Abu l-Afia" (in Medieval Spanish rendered as a single word "Abulafia"), meaning "Father [of] the Health/Wellbeing" or "Owner [of] the Power".

Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia

The courtier and poet Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia (1247-1306) was a member of the distinguished Abulafia (Abū 'l-‘afiya) family, which came to Toledo from Burgos. Among its members were the poet and talmudist Me’ir Abulafia, the religious leader of the Toledo community; Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia, known as “the Rav”; and his son Joseph ben Ṭodros Abulafia.

Ṭodros ben Judah Abulafia was the best and most prolific Hebrew author in Iberia during the reigns of Alfonso the Wise and Sancho IV. The culture of Toledo was still strongly arabized during his lifetime, and he received a typical Andalusian education. In his youth he began to write panegyrics to the most distinguished Jewish courtiers of Alfonso X, among them Solomon and Isaac Ibn Ṣadoq, and Ṭodros ben Joseph and his son Joseph. For some while he assisted Solomon Ibn Ṣadoq (Don Çag de la Maleḥa), the king’s almoxarife, in collecting taxes, but then he entered directly into the king’s service, as a gift giving him a cup inscribed with Hebrew verses. Ṭodros enjoyed the pleasures of the court and wrote many poems in the classical Andalusian style with Arabic headings, praising the king and the royal family, or describing his own life and the freewheeling lifestyle of Toledo’s Jewish youth.

In 1279, in connection with the tense relations between King Alfonso and Prince Sancho, Çag de la Maleḥa was sentenced to death. Two years later Ṭodros and many other Jews were imprisoned. The experience of prison and the moral reform undertaken by Rav Ṭodros ben Joseph had a strong influence on the poet. His attitude toward life changed, and he renounced his frivolous and licentious ways.

After spending some time in Aragon and Andalusia, Ṭodros returned to Toledo during the reign of Sancho IV. In 1289 he was again in the court serving the royal family in various economic capacities. The last certain date mentioned in his poetry is 1298. He may have lived a few more years.

His dīwān (edited by Yellin in 1932–36) numbers more than eleven hundred poems personally collected by Ṭodros, who gave it the title Gan ha-Meshalim veha-Ḥidot (Heb. The Garden of Allegories and Riddles). His work was inspired by the Andalusian model of poetry, with its formalisms, genres, motifs, and conventions, but he adapted these to the new tendencies of the time. Living at court, where he was in contact with troubadours and Romance poets, his writing become more realistic and abandoned Hebrew-Arabic formalism. Some of his poems can be seen as historical and autobiographical. In addition to highly literary compositions that show his originality and technical mastery, he also wrote satirical verses of a lower literary order. His numerous muwashshaḥāt (strophic poems) in the best Andalusian tradition are very interesting, and some have kharajāt (final lines) in Romance, Hebrew, and Arabic of a type found only in Ṭodros’s poetry.

Angel Saénz-Badillos

Bibliography

Abulafia, Ṭọdros ben Yehuda ha-Levi. Gan ha- Meshalim ve-ha-Ḥidot. Diwan of Don Tadros Son of Yehuda Abu-l-ʿAfiah, ed. David Yellin (Jerusalem, 1932).

Brann, Ross. The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 119 ff.

Chapira, Bernard. “Contribution a l’etude du Divan de Todros Ben Iehouda Halevi Aboulafia,” Revue des Etudes juives 106 (1941–45): 1–33.

Doron, Aviva. Todros ha Levi Abulafia: A Hebrew Poet in Christian Spain (Tel Aviv: Devir, 1989) [Hebrew].

Marquez Villanueva, Francisco. El concepto cultural Alfonsi (Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1994).

Saenz-Badillos, Angel. “Hebrew Invective Poetry: The Debate between Todros Abulafia and Phinehas Halevi,” Prooftexts 16 (1996): 49–73.

——–. “Las moaxajas de Todros Abulʿafiah,” in Actas del IV Congreso Internacional “Encuentro de las tres culturas” (Toledo, 30 de septiembre– 2 octubre 1985), ed. C. Carrete (Toledo: Ayuntamiento de Toledo, 1988), pp. 135–146.

——–. “Tọ dros frente a Tọ dros. Dos escritores hebreos de Toledo en el siglo XIII,” in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the 20th Century: Proceedings of the 6th EAJS Congress, Toledo 1998, ed. J. Targarona and A. Saenz-Badillos, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), vol. 1, pp. 504–512.

Schirmann, Ḥayyim. The History of Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain and Southern France, ed., suppl., and annot. Ezra Fleischer (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997), pp. 366–424 [Hebrew].

Targarona, Judit. “Todros ben Yehudah ha-Levi Abulafia, un poeta hebreo en la corte de Alfonso X el Sabio,” Helmantica 36 (1985): 195–210.

Citation Angel Saénz-Badillos. " Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 14 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>