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Duran on ahitophel: The practice of Jewish history in late medieval Spain

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Notes

  1. A. A. Neuman, “The Shebet Yehudah and Sixteenth-Century Historiography,” inL. Ginzburg Memorial Volume (New York, 1945), 253–74.

  2. There are other examples of such a critical approach in this period. In my “Fourteenth-Century Supercommentaries on Ibn Ezra,” inProceedings of the International Ibn Ezra Congress, ed. F. Diaz Esteban and A. Saenz Badillos (Madrid, in press), I deal with Joseph Tovlem Ha-Sefardi's approach to textual transmission and his critical remarks on various types of copyists' errors. See also my article inJournal of Semitic Studies 28 (1989): 173ff.

  3. The phrase may be found in C. Roth's celebrated article “Historiography” in theEncyclopedia Judaica, though similar opinions have been voiced by many writers before and after him. L. Ferrand, A. C. Zeller, M. Steinschneider, S. W. Baron, A. A. Neuman, L. Kochan, Y. H. Yerushalmi, and R. Bonfil are some of the authors who have touched on the topic in one way or another. See the bibliography in my “The Explusion of the Jews from Spain and Jewish Historiography,” inJewish History Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky, ed. A. Rapoport-Albert (London, 1988), 141–61, nn. 1, 2, 3, and 5.

  4. Cf. D. Kaufman, “Joseph Sark et Joab de Modene,”Revue des Etudes Juives 37 (1898): 306ff.; idem. “Joseph Sark der Grammatiker und Lexicograph,”Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 43 (1899): 136–44; S. Pozansky, “Josef Zark's hebraisches Worterbuch,”Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums (1906): 624. See my “History and Apologetics in Fifteenth-Century Hispano-Jewish Thought,”Helmantica 35 (1984): 231–42, and the bibliography in the notes; A. Lopez de Meneses “Crescas de Viviers, Astrólogo de Juan I El Cazado,”Sefarad 14 (1954): 99–115; R. W. Emery, “New Light on Profayt Duran ‘The Efodi,’”Jewish Quarterly Review 58 (1967/68): 317–37; Y. Baer,A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1971), 106, 113, 150ff., 173, 217ff., 467, 470ff., 474ff.

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  5. J. Vicens Vives,Historia de España y América, vol. 2 (Barcelona, 1974), 89; N. J. Hillgarth,Los Reinos Hispanos, vol. 1 (Barcelona, 1979), 416.

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  6. Undated, it has had a modest diffusion in print. To Friedlander and Cohn's edition of the epistle in one of the appendices toMa'aseh'Efod(Wien, 1865), 106ff., no more than one or two facsimile reprints may be added. All references are to this edition.

  7. Paris BN Heb. MS #1048 f119, v. The superscription reads (in my translation): Epistle of the Great Scholar My Lord and Master Profayt Ha-Levi to the Old Honorable Maestre Shaltiel Gracian. Profayt bemoans the fact that he could not see Gracian personally, mentions the messenger (malakh melis), and remarks that Gracian has the qualities of the Lord who sent an angel bearing his name to his chosen one. He then answers Gracian's questions about a technical point of astronomy. He says that when the ancients (ha-rishonim) observed the movement of the sun and moon, they did so with special instruments. From the letter, it seems that Gracian had asked Profayt for a commentary on the quadrant (ha-qadran). Profayt sent it through en Meir Cresques, whom documents show as living in Peralda and who received the titlemagister in 1373. It would seem, then, that this letter was written before 1380, which is the date of the document that refers to Desigada as his widow. See Emery, “New Light on Profayt Duran,” 331, and my “History and Apologetics,” 231–42.

  8. For our purposes it may suffice to recall the now classical remarks of J. Burckhardt in hisThe Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, trans. S.G.C. Middlemore (London, 1928), 232ff., though the literature on the letters of humanists has, of course, increased. See F. J. Worstbrock, ed.,Der Brief im Zeitalter der Renaissance (Bonn, 1983). On fifteenth-century Spanish letters see, e.g., the work of C. A. Copenhaguen inLa Coronica 13 (1984/85): 196–205, and ibid., 14 (1985/86): 6–14 and 213–19.

  9. Leonhard Rost, “Die Überlieferung von der Thronnachfolge Davids,” inDas kleine Credo und andere Studien zum Alten Testament (Heidelberg, 1965). Cf. C. Conroy,Absalom Absalom (Rome, 1978), chap. 1; R. A. Carlson,David, The Chosen King (Uppsala, 1964); W. Caspari, “Literarische Art und historische wert von Samuel 15–20,”Theologische Studien und Kritiken 82 (1909): 317–48; Jurgen Kegler,Politisches Geschehen und Theologisches Verstehen (Stuttgart, 1977).

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  10. The meaning of the text is far from simple, even according to contemporary biblical criticism. See, n. 10 and, e.g., E. Wurthwein,Die Erzählung Von der Thronfolge Davids: Theologische oder politische Geschichtsschreibung? (Zurich, 1975). See also R. N. Whybray,The Succession Narrative (London, 1968).

  11. In the sixteenth century Machiavelli wrote that King David possessedvirtu and was an example of military excellence. See S. Bertelli, ed.,Opere I (Milan, 1968). In the seventeenth century ethical and political uses of the story abounded. In England, in 1627, Nathaniel Carpenter published three sermons he had preached at Oxford entitledAchitophel; or, the Picture of a Wicked Politician. Throughout the civil war, the name Ahitophel became a term used by parliamentarians and royalists to describe crafty politicians. Similarly emblematic of such “modern” views of the “nature” of the Samuel text is Dryden's famous use of the Absalom-Ahitophel story as a metaphor for the ills of contemporary political life: “Of these the false Achitophel was first a Name to all succeeding Ages curst/ For Close Designs, and crooked Counsels fit/ Sagacious, Bold and Turbulent of wit/ Restless unfixt in Principles and Place/ in Pow'r unpleased, impatient of Disgrace.” See H. T. Swedenberg and V. A. Dearing,The Works of John Dryden, vol. 2 (Berkeley, 1972), 10, 230, and 246–47. In the eighteenth century, Luzatto described Ahitophel as a clever politician and Absalom's deliberations in terms of raison d'etat using Machiavellian terms. Cf. A. Melamed, “Simone Luzatto on Tacitus: Apologetica and Ragione di Stato,” inStudies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, ed., I. Twersky (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 143–70, esp. 159–64.

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  12. Edited by I. Last (London, 1911). Similarly, there is virtually no comment by Nahmanides on these events. Cf. H. D. Chavel,Nahmanides' Commentary on the Prophets and Hagiographa (Jerusalem, 1964).

  13. In vol. 1 (Bnei Brak, 1941), apparently in answer to a query by Elijah of Acre. Isaac bar Sheshet Barfat's Responsum 126 apparently was a letter to Hasdai b. Solomon of Tudela, who himself had been asked a question on the subject by don Benveniste b. Lavi. Barfat writes: “I am surprised at your difficulties about Ahitophel's advice to Absalom to consort with his father's concubines if the concubines had been betrothed. Why do you wonder at someone who advises the son to rebel against his father and kill him, who advises that Jews should fight each other unlawfully, and who advises to rebel against the anointed king?”

  14. R. Albert and J. Gassiot,Parlaments a les corts catalanes (Barcelona, 1928), 33–42. M. de Riquer,História de la Literatura Catalana, 2d. ed. (Barcelona, 1980), 340 and 405.

  15. J. P. Fokkelman,Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel (Assen, 1981), vol. 1,King David, 165ff. and 203ff.

  16. Ha-maqom gorem is Gersonides' explanation ad loc. Kimhi writes: “He wished to rebel and reign as king, therefore he chose the place in which his father was made king.” Duran ascribes Gersonides' commentary to Kimhi and alludes to a commentary by Nahmanides on this verse.

  17. The question of the legality of concubines was, of course, of prime importance for medieval and later authorities. A selection of these may be found in David b. Solomon ibn Zimra's Responsum 1295 (244).

  18. It is significant that when Abrabanel cites Efod in hisCommentary (on the Absalom narrative, 2 Sam. 16–18; ed. A. Z. Rabinowicz [Tel-Aviv, 1936]), he does not cite the whole Epistle but chooses Efodi's comments on counsel and objectives (esah andtakhlit) in order to explain the verse “as one who asks God.”

  19. Sepher Ha-Midot le-Aristoteles, ed. Isaac Satanow (Berlin, 1790), bk. 6, ch. 7, p. 83b:od yhie shem eşa tova ⋯ asher hi meyasheret el ha-takhlit ha-klali. This text of a contemporary, a man who formed part of the circle of Northern Spanish intellectuals of the time, seems to me particularly relevant, although theNicomachean Ethics and ideas about “counsel” of course were known through other channels.

  20. Isaac Pulgar,'Ezer Ha-Dat, ed. J. Loewinger (Tel Aviv, 1989), 55–56; S. Pines, “Some Views Put Forward by the 14th-Century Jewish Philosopher Isaac Pulgar and Some Parallel Views Expressed By Spinoza” [in Hebrew], inStudies in Jewish Mysticism and Philosophy and Ethical Literature Presented to Isaiah Tishby on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. J. Dan and J. Hacker (Jerusalem, 1986), 395–458, esp. 437, and the bibliography in the footnotes.

  21. Eleazar Gutwirth, inVolumen en Homenaje al Profesor Pérez Castro (= Sefarad 46), ed. F. Diaz Esteban and A. Saenz Badillos (Madrid, 1986), 229–34.

  22. For the idealized qualifications of the ruler in Maimonides, Ibn Latif, and Alemano, as well as in Aquinas, Buridan, al-Farabi, and al-Ghazali, see my “El gobernador judío ideal: Acerca de un sermón inédito de Joseph ibn Shem Tov,” in Actas III Encuentro Internacional Tres Culturas, ed. C. Carrete Parrondo (Toledo, 1988), 67–75, and the bibliography in the notes.

  23. For the remarks on this by the chancellor Ayala see my “History and Apologetics,” 231–42.

  24. Y. Baer,Historia de los judíos en la España Cristiana (Madrid, 1981), 752, n. 41; in English asA History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 475, n. 41.

  25. Martin Grabman, “Das Defensorium ecclesiae des Magister Adam, eine streitschrift gegen Marsilius von Padua und Wilhelm von Ockham,” inFestschrift Albert Brackmann, ed. Leo Santifaller (Weimar, 1931), 569–81.

  26. Louis Green,Chronicle into History (Cambridge, 1972), 71.

  27. Ibid., 110.

  28. M. Menéndez y Pelayo,Historia de la Poesía Castellana en la Edad Media (Madrid, 1911–13), 353ff.

  29. B. R. Tate,Ensayos sobre la historiografía peninsular del siglo XV (Madrid, 1970).

  30. Cf. Cl. Sánchez Albornoz, “El canciller Ayala Historiador,” in hisEspañoles ante la historia (Buenos Aires, 1969), 99–136, esp. 124.

  31. M. de Riquer, “Versions castellanes del Valeri Maxim d'Antoni Canals,”BSCC 17 (1936): 293–96; M. de Riquer and A. Comas,História de la Literatura Catalana, 2d. ed. (Barcelona, 1980), 445; L. López Molina,Tucídides romanceado en el siglo XIV, “Anejos del Boletin de la Real Academia Española” (Madrid 1960); B. Pottier, “Un manuscrito aragonés: Las vidas de hombres ilustres de Plutarco,”Archivo de Filologíce Aragonesa 3 (1950), 243–50.

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  32. See Albert G. Hauf, “Mes sobre la intencionalitat dels textos historiografics Catalans medievals,” inMedieval and Renaissance Studies in Honour of Robert Brian Tate, ed. I. Michael and R. A. Cardwell (Oxford, 1986); Brigitte Schlieben-Lange, “Zu den Intentionserklärung der vier grossen Katalanischen Chroniken”, inEUC, vol. 23 (1979), 533–41; A. Pages,Chronique Catalane de Pierre IV d'Aragon III de Catalogne dit le Cérémonieux ou del Punyalet (Toulouse and Paris, 1942).

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    Eleazar Gutwirth

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Gutwirth, E. Duran on ahitophel: The practice of Jewish history in late medieval Spain. Jew History 4, 59–74 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01669756

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