Abstract
The kharadjāt (Arabic plural of khardja) are the final verses in Mozarabic, an early Ibero-Romance language, which are found at the end of Arabic and Hebrew strophic poems, the so-called “girdle poems” (muwaššaḥāt). These verses are the earliest known poems in Ibero-Romance. Historically they extend from the middle of the eleventh century up to the reign of Alfonso X of Castile in the second half of the thirteenth century. These poems shed a new light on the multicultural world of al-Andalus. They offer a precious testimony of this world where the three monotheistic religions mingled in a complex whole of mutual influences. The Jewish element played a crucial role in this process. The kharadjāt first came to light in Hebrew strophic poetry. Judah ha-Levi is especially noteworthy in this context. He was not only the great classic of post-biblical Hebrew poetry, he was also the most fertile author of Romance kharadjāt and can rightly be considered as the “first Spanish poet known by name”. His poems convey specifically Jewish meanings of messianic hopes, expressed in the form of apparently naive love poems. Their jewishness manifests itself in their constant reference to the intertext of the Hebrew Bible.
