Abraham Ibd Daud: On Samuel Ha-Nagid, Vizier of Granada[Marcus Introduction] One of the most famous of the Jewish
notables of Moslem Spain was Samuel HaLevi, who is also known as Samuel
HaNagid. Beginning life as a shopkeeper, Samuel HaLevi ultimately
became the chief minister at the court of Granada. By virtue of this office he
became the political head of the Jews in Granada and probably thus received
the title Nagid ("Prince"), his name becoming Samuel HaNagid. He
served his community as rabbi and did a great deal to further Jewish learning
throughout the world. Samuel was a fine linguist, a scholar, a diplomat, and a distinguished
soldier. His reputation in the Middle Ages was based mainly on his excellent
poetry, some of which was written even on the battlefield. The following account of his life is taken from Sefer Seder
ha-Kabbalah ("The Line of Tradition"), a Hebrew historical work written by
Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo in 1161. One of the great disciples of Rabbi Enoch [d. 1014], was Rabbi Samuel
HaLevi, the Prince, the son of Joseph, who was known as Ibn Nagrela, of
the community of Cordova. He was an unusually fine Talmudic scholar and was
also well versed in Arabic literature and language. He was of the type that
could occupy a high position in the royal palace. Samuel was a merchant, supporting himself with great difficulty until the
devastating days in Spain which followed the fall of the Amirid kingdom when
the Berbers secured the power. [The civil war, which began in Spain in 1009,
reached its climax in 1012 in the sack of Cordova by the Berbers.] It was then that the land of Cordova began to decline and its inhabitants
fled. Some of them ran away to Saragossa, where their descendants are even
now; some fled to Toledo and their descendants are known there even to this
day. This Rabbi Samuel HaLevi fled to Malaga. There he had a shop and was a
petty merchant. His shop happened to be near the palace of Ibn alArif,
the vizier of King Habbus [10191038], the son of Maksan, the King of the
Berbers, in Granada. At the request of a maid servant of the vizier, Samuel
used to write letters for her to her master the vizier, Abu alKasim ibn
alArif. This latter saw his letters and was amazed at his wisdom. Some time later this vizier, Ibn alArif, got permission of his king,
Habbus, to return to his home in Malaga. There he asked the people of his
house: "Who used to write those letters that came to me from you?" "A certain
Jew," they answered, "who comes from the community of Cordova and lives near
your palace-he used to write them for us." Immediately the secretary issued a
command and they rushed Rabbi Samuel HaLevi to him. "It is unbecoming for
you to sit in a shop," he said to him. "Stay here with me." He did so and
became his secretary and adviser. The vizier used to advise the King according to the advice given by Rabbi
Samuel HaLevi, of blessed memory. All his advice was as though it came
from God, and the King Habbus prospered through it very much. After some time
the vizier, Ibn alArif, became mortally ill, and King Habbus, who came to
visit him, said to him: "What shall I do? Who will advise me in the wars which
encompass me?" "I have never advised you," he answered him, "out of my own
mind, but at the suggestion of this Jew, my secretary. Take care of him, and
he will be as a father and a minister to you. Do whatever he advises you, and
God will help you." So after the death of the vizier, King Habbus took Rabbi
Samuel HaLevi and brought him to his palace and he became his vizier and
councillor. In the year 4780 [l020] he was in the palace of the King Habbus. [Samuel
was already an important official before 1020.] The king had two sons: the
name of the elder was Badis, and the younger, Bulukkin. All the Berber princes
favored Bulukkin, the younger son, as the successor, but all the rest of the
people favored Badis. The Jews, too, and among them Rabbi Joseph ibn Migas,
Rabbi Isaac ben Leon, and Rabbi Nehemiah, who was called Escafa, three Granada
notables, favored Bulukkin, but Rabbi Samuel HaLevi favored Badis. On the day that King Habbus died, the Berber princes and their
distinguished men rose in the morning to crown his son Bulukkin. Bulukkin,
however, immediately went and kissed the hand of his elder brother Badis. Thus
Badis was crowned in the year 4787 [1027] and the face of his enemies turned
black like the bottom of a pot; and against their will they had to crown
Badis. [Badis was really crowned in 1038 and died in 1073.] After this Bulukkin regretted that he had made his brother king and kept on
getting the upper hand over his brother Badis, with the result that King Badis
was unable to do a thing, big or small, without his brother's interference.
But after this his brother Bulukkin became sick, and the King gave orders to
the physician not to cure him. The physician obeyed, and Bulukkin died. Thus
was the kingdom established in the hands of Badis. These three distinguished
Jews of the city, whom we have mentioned, fled to the land of Seville [then
hostile to Granada]. Rabbi Samuel HaLevi was appointed Prince in the year 4787 [1027], and
he conferred great benefits on Israel in Spain, in north-eastern and
northcentral Africa, in the land of Egypt, in Sicily, well as far as the
Babylonian academy, and the Holy City, Jerusalem. All the students who lived
in those lands benefited by his generosity, for he bought numerous copies of
the Holy Scriptures, the Mishnah, and the Talmud-these, too, being holy
writings. [Ibn Daud here refutes the Karaites who denied the authority of the
Mishnah and the Talmud.] To every one-in all the land of Spain and in all the lands that we have
mentioned-who wanted to make the study of the Torah his profession, he would
give of his money. He had scribes who used to copy Mishnahs and Talmuds, and
he would give them as a gift to students, in the academies of Spain or in the
lands we have mentioned, who were not able to buy them with their own means.
[Printing was not yet invented. Manuscripts were very expensive.] Besides
this, he furnished olive oil every year for the lamps of the synagogues in
Jerusalem. He spread the knowledge of the Torah [Jewish learning] very widely
and died an old man, at a ripe age, after having acquired the four crowns: the
crown of the Torah, the crown of high station, the crown of Levitical descent,
and what is more than all these, the crown of a good name merited by good
deeds. He died in the year 4815 [1055] and his son, Rabbi Joseph HaLevi,
the Prince, succeeded him. [It is more probable that Samuel died in 1056 or
later when Joseph (b. 1035), succeeded him as vizier.] Of all the good traits of his father, Joseph lacked but one. He was not
humble like his father because he grew up in riches, and he never had to bear
the yoke [of poverty and discipline] in his youth. He was proud to his own
hurt, and the Berber princes were jealous of him, with the result that on the
Sabbath, on the 9th of Tebet in the year 4827 [Saturday, December 30, 1066],
he and the Community of Granada were murdered. [About 150 families were
killed. This is the first known massacre of Jews in Spain by Moslems.]
All those who had come from distant lands to see his learning and his
greatness mourned for him, and the lament for him spread to all lands and to
all cities. Since the days of the ancient rabbis - of blessed memory-who wrote
the Scroll of Fasts and decreed that the 9th of Tebet should be a fast,
the reason for the decree was never known. But from this incident we know that
they were directed by the Holy Spirit to fix this day. After his death his
books and treasures were scattered and dispersed throughout the world So also
were the disciples whom he had raised up. After his death they became the
rabbis of Spain and the leaders of the generation. BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCES TO TEXTBOOKS Elbogen, pp. 56-57; Roth, pp. 160-161; Sachar, pp. 171172.
READINGS FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS Graetz, 111, pp. 254264, 273280; GraetzRhine, 111, pp.
131139,147ff Margolis and Marx, pp. 313317, 321. Dozy, R., Spanish Islam. See Index under "Samuel HaLevi" and
"Joseph, son of Samuel HaLevi." Sassoon, D. S., "Diwan of the Vizier Samuel Hannaghid," The Jewish
Chronicle, (London), March 28, 1924, literary supplement no. 39. JE, "Samuel haNagid." SOURCE: Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A
Sourcebook, 315-1791, (New York: JPS, 1938), 297-300 Later printings of this text (e.g. by Atheneum, 1969, 1972, 1978) do not
indicate that the copyright was renewed) This text is part of the Internet
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