JEWISH MOMENTS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL
R. Shlomo Pereira

1218
The Poet’s Pilgrimage:
Yehudah al-Harizi’s Journey to the Land of Israel

In 1218, when the renowned Hebrew poet and translator Yehudah al-Harizi arrived in Jerusalem, he witnessed a remarkable transformation taking place in the Holy Land. Following Saladin’s conquest of the city in 1187 and his subsequent invitation for Jews to return, a vibrant Jewish community was once again flourishing in Jerusalem after nearly a century of Crusader exclusion. Al-Harizi’s visit is documented in his masterwork, Sefer Tahkemoni, which provides one of the most valuable Hebrew testimonies of Jewish life in the Land of Israel during the early Ayyubid period.

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Yehudah ben Shlomo al-Harizi was born around 1165 in Toledo, Spain, to a family originally from Jerez that had achieved considerable scholarly distinction. His birth occurred during the twilight of al-Andalus’s golden age, as Christian forces gradually conquered Muslim territories. Toledo itself, though under Christian rule since 1085, remained a remarkably cosmopolitan city where Arabic culture and learning continued to flourish among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities.

Al-Harizi gained early fame as a translator, undertaking ambitious projects that brought major Arabic works into Hebrew for non-Arabic-speaking Jewish communities.........

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