Papers by David Torollo
Journal of Jewish Languages, 2024
Many of the Jews who were expelled from Iberia in the fifteenth century settled in North Africa. ... more Many of the Jews who were expelled from Iberia in the fifteenth century settled in North Africa. More than 400 years later, Moroccan Sephardic Jews in Fes would engage with Spain again. In this article, I present an unpublished document of historical interest: a letter written in Judeo-Arabic in 1905 by the Jewish community of Fes and addressed to the Spanish king, Alfonso XIII, asking for financial support to build a Spanish school in the mellāḥ of the city. Sephardic Jews in the region had preserved Spanish traditions, claimed to be part of that culture, and, perhaps more importantly, demanded to be protected by it. I take this letter, whose edition, translation, and images are included, as a vantage point for exploring the linguistic, social, and political situation of Sephardic Jews in Fes at the turn of the last century.
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MEAH Sección Hebreo, 2021
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'His Pen and Ink are a Powerful Mirror': Andalusi, Judaeo-Arabic, and Other Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Ross Brann, 2020
In this article I take the story of a Jewish female wine merchant (chapter 28, Mishle he-‘arav) a... more In this article I take the story of a Jewish female wine merchant (chapter 28, Mishle he-‘arav) as a witness of the phenomenon of cultural translation that was developing within the Jewish communities in Medieval Iberia and Provence. I present the Hebrew transcription of the story and provide the first English translation. Then, I examine the motivations that led the author of the work to stress the religion of the wine seller and the consequences of this fact from a cultural translation perspective. The objective is not to find the source and parallels of the story but to understand its meaning in a specific cultural context. Therefore, this article offers my reading of the story as a multilayered text in which we can see intermingled traces of different cultural traditions: the story of the hermit Barṣīṣā, the doctrine of martyrdom in Judaism and the ḥudud crimes in Islamic law.
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La Corónica, 2017
For a community of comparatists, this article examines the idea that the first story of Jacob Ben... more For a community of comparatists, this article examines the idea that the first story of Jacob Ben Elʿazar’s thirteenth-century Sefer ha-meshalim (The Book of Stories) is Romance literature in Hebrew language with an Arabic twist. First, Ben Elʿazar writes in Hebrew, the language that was beginning to replace Arabic in Jewish secular works written in thirteenth-century Christian Spain. Second, he demonstrates a profound knowledge of Hebrew and Romance allegories as a medium for exploring Neoplatonic discourse. Third, he achieves this blend via his adaptation of the prestigious and highly admired Arabic genre of the maqāma. After providing necessary background on the intellectual and literary climates of Ben El‘azar’s Toledo, we offer the first English translation of this story.
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eHumanista, 2016
This article analyzes two short stories written in Medieval Iberia, one in Hebrew and the other i... more This article analyzes two short stories written in Medieval Iberia, one in Hebrew and the other in Spanish. In doing so, it discusses the literary form of each narrative to demonstrate that both belong to the adab literary tradition as well as to their own respective traditions. Furthermore, it explores the peculiar literary structure of El conde Lucanor in the medieval Spanish intellectual milieu and draws parallels between this work and the Arabic adab tradition.
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This study explores the travels of a literary anecdote about ten pieces of advice that a mother g... more This study explores the travels of a literary anecdote about ten pieces of advice that a mother gave her daughter on the eve of the latter's marriage. Tracing the various incarnations of the anecdote from its first attestation in ninth-century Arabic works to later versions in Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Italian, Catalan, and Yiddish demonstrates the connectivity of the medieval Mediterranean and the porous nature of political, religious , and linguistic borders when it comes to popular ethical literary texts. Studying the changes introduced in each new incarnation allows us to explore the process of translation and adaptation involved in cultural transmission between different linguistic and religious communities. The travels of the anecdote also highlight the commonalities and differences in normative gender roles in different societies across the medieval Mediterranean.
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Memorabilia, 2015
Medieval wisdom literature and its translation and adaptation from one language into another is a... more Medieval wisdom literature and its translation and adaptation from one language into another is a field of study to which contemporary scholars have dedicated several works. Unlike the Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Castilian traditions that have received a great deal of attention, the wisdom-literature production in Judeo-Arabic has been neglected in recent scholarship. The following pages present the Kitāb maḥāsin al-’ādāb (The Book of Excellent Conduct), a Judeo-Arabic sapiential work written in the second half of the fifteenth century, which is an adaptation or a shorter translation of a Hebrew work, Mishlei he-‘arav (The Sayings of the Arabs), written in the Iberian Peninsula or Provence at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Furthermore, an edition and a translation into English of the prologue and the index of the work are provided.
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Aliento: Échanges Sapientiels en Mediterranée , 2014
In this article I introduce a medieval Hebrew work on ethical motifs, Mishle he ‘arav [The Saying... more In this article I introduce a medieval Hebrew work on ethical motifs, Mishle he ‘arav [The Sayings of the Arabs] and its later translation into Judeo-Arabic, Kitāb maḥāsin al ’ādāb [The Book of Excellent Conduct]. Then, I carry out a descriptive and comparative study of the prologues of both works, focusing on questions such as the literary genre to which they belong and the concept of authority the author plays with, with the aim of clarifying two issues: the identity of the author and the location and time in which Mishle he ‘arav should have been written. Based on this analysis, I suggest that the work was likely written at the beginning of the 13th century in one of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula or Provence.
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Mediterráneos: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Cultures of the Mediterranean Sea, 2013
The history of the transmission of texts is one of the most interesting and novel aspects of curr... more The history of the transmission of texts is one of the most interesting and novel aspects of current Iiterary criticism. Rather than follow traditional ideas on the author and the Iiterary text, in this paper I would therefore Iike to trace the history of the transmission of a medieval Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic work on ethical motifs, from the time of its composition until the present day. The paper considers different contexts of transmission in different periods and places, and the importance of the two languages in which the work is written. I also analyze the group of works that accompany the main work in the codices and pose some extratextual questions with the aim of enriching our general knowledge of medieval works.
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Bibles of Sepharad / Biblias de Sefarad, 2012
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Edited Volumes by David Torollo
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013
Throughout history, different cultural traditions, all of them with considerable linguistic diver... more Throughout history, different cultural traditions, all of them with considerable linguistic diversity, have flourished and converged in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions.
The International Conference of Junior Researchers in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures provided a transverse and interdisciplinary framework of discussion and reflection on the intellectual and cultural production of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from its earliest stages to the present.
This book is the result of the analysis of the different political, religious and social trends of thought, material culture, and artistic, literary and linguistic expressions brought together in this geographical area, highlighting the scope of this blend of traditions within different space-time surroundings.
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Books by David Torollo
Open Book Publishers, 2022
This groundbreaking new work is the first full critical edition and English translation of the He... more This groundbreaking new work is the first full critical edition and English translation of the Hebrew book Sefer ha-Pardes [The Book of the Orchard], written at the end of the thirteenth century by the Provençal Jewish author Jedaiah ha-Penini. It is purportedly an example of musar: a compilation of wise epigrams and meshalim [parables] that teach moral lessons on different topics, such as the service of God, friendship, the deceitfulness of the world, medicine, logic, music, magic, and poetry. However, it is in reality a compendium of sayings that reveal the author’s personal views and feelings on a variety of religious topics, secular sciences, and their practitioners.
I present a fluent and illuminating English-Hebrew parallel text based on four sixteenth-century witnesses: three manuscripts and a printed edition. A rigorous study accompanies and contextualises the Hebrew work, exploring Sefer ha-Pardes’s transmission and reception in different places over time; its structure and content; its place in the intellectual environment and literary tradition of Provence; and possible lines of enquiry for future research.
This essential new work offers a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of Medieval Hebrew Hispano-Provencal literature.
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Este libro explora la obra Mishle he-'arav [Los dichos de los árabes], un texto sapiencial en heb... more Este libro explora la obra Mishle he-'arav [Los dichos de los árabes], un texto sapiencial en hebreo, probablemente escrito en Provenza en la primera mitad del siglo XIII. Sus cincuenta capítulos contienen secciones en prosa, poemas de estilo andalusí y grupos de versículos bíblicos. El lugar y la fecha de composición son inciertos, pero el autor, cuya identidad también se desconoce, dice que traduce la obra del árabe. Hasta el momento no se contaba ni con una edición crítica de los manuscritos hebreos, ni con una traducción a alguna lengua occidental, ni con un estudio amplio del Mishle he-'arav, que sólo era mencionado brevemente en historias generales de la literatura hebrea medieval o analizado parcialmente en estudios que se centraban en un aspecto particular de la obra. Esto constituía una llamativa laguna en nuestro conocimiento de la literatura hebrea medieval, laguna que este libro tiene la intención de remediar.
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Book Reviews by David Torollo
Journal of Religion & Literature, 2021
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La corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, 2016
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Papers by David Torollo
Edited Volumes by David Torollo
The International Conference of Junior Researchers in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures provided a transverse and interdisciplinary framework of discussion and reflection on the intellectual and cultural production of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from its earliest stages to the present.
This book is the result of the analysis of the different political, religious and social trends of thought, material culture, and artistic, literary and linguistic expressions brought together in this geographical area, highlighting the scope of this blend of traditions within different space-time surroundings.
Books by David Torollo
I present a fluent and illuminating English-Hebrew parallel text based on four sixteenth-century witnesses: three manuscripts and a printed edition. A rigorous study accompanies and contextualises the Hebrew work, exploring Sefer ha-Pardes’s transmission and reception in different places over time; its structure and content; its place in the intellectual environment and literary tradition of Provence; and possible lines of enquiry for future research.
This essential new work offers a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of Medieval Hebrew Hispano-Provencal literature.
Book Reviews by David Torollo
The International Conference of Junior Researchers in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures provided a transverse and interdisciplinary framework of discussion and reflection on the intellectual and cultural production of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from its earliest stages to the present.
This book is the result of the analysis of the different political, religious and social trends of thought, material culture, and artistic, literary and linguistic expressions brought together in this geographical area, highlighting the scope of this blend of traditions within different space-time surroundings.
I present a fluent and illuminating English-Hebrew parallel text based on four sixteenth-century witnesses: three manuscripts and a printed edition. A rigorous study accompanies and contextualises the Hebrew work, exploring Sefer ha-Pardes’s transmission and reception in different places over time; its structure and content; its place in the intellectual environment and literary tradition of Provence; and possible lines of enquiry for future research.
This essential new work offers a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of Medieval Hebrew Hispano-Provencal literature.