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Ahimaaz ben Paltiel
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Ahimaaz ben Paltiel
Ahimaaz ben Paltiel (Hebrew: אחימעץ בן פלטיאל; 1017–1060) was a Byzantine Jewish Graeco-Italian liturgical poet (payyetan) and author of a family chronicle. Very little is known about his life. He came from a family some of whose members are well known in Jewish literature as scholars and poets; for example, Shefatya ben Amitai, Hananiel ben Amittai, and his nephew Amittai ben Shephatiah. Ahimaaz had two sons, Paltiel and Samuel. The family tree of this clan is given by Ahimaaz in his Chronicle.
Benjamin of Tudela mentions an Ahimaaz ben Paltiel in Amalfi in southern Italy, in the year 1162 (see his Travels, ed. Asher, i. 13, 14). This may well have been a descendant of his earlier namesake; for it is known that two brothers of the grandfather of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel were sent with presents to Paltiel by the prince of Amalfi. In a list of twenty-two selihah (elegiac) poets (Italy, fifteenth century?), Ahimaaz ben Paltiel is mentioned as the author of two poems, and a Mahzor of the Roman rite attributes to him a selihah for the Fast of Esther.
Ahimaaz is best known as the compiler of the Chronicle, composed in 1054, which, though intended merely to glorify his immediate ancestors, gives much important information regarding the history of the early Jewish settlements in such towns as Oria, Bari, Otranto, Gaeta, Benevento, Capua, Amalfi, in southern Italy, and Pavia in northern Italy. Written about one hundred years before Abraham ibn Daud, it covers a period (850–1054) about which little is known; the only information hitherto having been obtained from a few inscriptions and from notices in the works of Shabbetai Donolo, who also was a native of Oria. Only one manuscript of the Chronicle is known to exist; it is in the library of the cathedral at Toledo, Spain. It bears the title Sefer Yuhasin (Book of Genealogies) and is written in rhymed prose in the style of al-Hamadani's maqama, brought into prominence fifty years before Ahimaaz, and which Hariri perfected fifty years after him: the same style that in Hebrew literature was affected by Judah al-Harizi and Immanuel of Rome.
According to the traditions preserved by Ahimaaz, his family had its origin among the captives whom Titus brought to Italy after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans. The first person he mentions is Amittai of Oria, whom he calls sabbar and payyat, a man versed in Talmudic halakha and a writer of liturgical poetry. The Chronicle describes Aaron of Babylon, the reputed teacher of Kalonymus of Lucca; also through an account by Rabbi Silano additional information is gleaned about the Jewish community of Venosa, some epitaphs from which place had previously been published by G. J. Ascoli.
Of the sons of Amittai, the Chronicle dwells especially upon Shefatya, one of the earliest and most prolific liturgical poets (about 850–860), and gives some reliable data on the persecutions which the Byzantine Jews had to suffer under Basil I; on the Saracen invasion of Sicily and Italy (872); on another liturgical poet, Amittai ben Shefatya (son of Shefatya ben Amitai); and on the disputation which Hananiel ben Amittai was forced to hold with the bishop of Oria. The author is obviously proud of the honor done to his family by one of its members, Paltiel, the vizier of al-Muizz and Abd al-Mansur (962–992) of Egypt; perhaps the first of the Egyptian nagids, whom De Goeje has tried to identify with Jauhar al-Rumi or al-Saqlabi. Ahimaaz closes with short accounts of Hananiel, of his son Samuel in Capua, and of Paltiel ben Samuel (988–1048), father of the author himself.
The chronicle describes forcible conversions of the Jews under Basil and Leo V.
The unique manuscript in Toledo bears the name of Menahem ben Benjamin in its signature. It is uncertain whether the word used there, נשלם (finished), refers to the composition or to the copying of the work. This signature is also in rhymed prose; and it seems probable that at least part of page 132 (lines 12–23) in Adolf Neubauer's edition is by Menahem and not by Ahimaaz, for it contains an account of the author in language that one would not expect an author to use of himself.
There is no evidence that Ahimaaz made use of any literary records: he simply gathered together traditions that had been current in his family. In describing the activity of the vizier Paltiel, he refers to the Chronicles of Egypt as containing further data on the subject. Even in this case, it is improbable that he has any individual work in mind. The body of the Chronicle contains no dates: a few are to be found in the last two sections, part of which may be, as stated above, a later addition.
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Ahimaaz ben Paltiel
Ahimaaz ben Paltiel (Hebrew: אחימעץ בן פלטיאל; 1017–1060) was a Byzantine Jewish Graeco-Italian liturgical poet (payyetan) and author of a family chronicle. Very little is known about his life. He came from a family some of whose members are well known in Jewish literature as scholars and poets; for example, Shefatya ben Amitai, Hananiel ben Amittai, and his nephew Amittai ben Shephatiah. Ahimaaz had two sons, Paltiel and Samuel. The family tree of this clan is given by Ahimaaz in his Chronicle.
Benjamin of Tudela mentions an Ahimaaz ben Paltiel in Amalfi in southern Italy, in the year 1162 (see his Travels, ed. Asher, i. 13, 14). This may well have been a descendant of his earlier namesake; for it is known that two brothers of the grandfather of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel were sent with presents to Paltiel by the prince of Amalfi. In a list of twenty-two selihah (elegiac) poets (Italy, fifteenth century?), Ahimaaz ben Paltiel is mentioned as the author of two poems, and a Mahzor of the Roman rite attributes to him a selihah for the Fast of Esther.
Ahimaaz is best known as the compiler of the Chronicle, composed in 1054, which, though intended merely to glorify his immediate ancestors, gives much important information regarding the history of the early Jewish settlements in such towns as Oria, Bari, Otranto, Gaeta, Benevento, Capua, Amalfi, in southern Italy, and Pavia in northern Italy. Written about one hundred years before Abraham ibn Daud, it covers a period (850–1054) about which little is known; the only information hitherto having been obtained from a few inscriptions and from notices in the works of Shabbetai Donolo, who also was a native of Oria. Only one manuscript of the Chronicle is known to exist; it is in the library of the cathedral at Toledo, Spain. It bears the title Sefer Yuhasin (Book of Genealogies) and is written in rhymed prose in the style of al-Hamadani's maqama, brought into prominence fifty years before Ahimaaz, and which Hariri perfected fifty years after him: the same style that in Hebrew literature was affected by Judah al-Harizi and Immanuel of Rome.
According to the traditions preserved by Ahimaaz, his family had its origin among the captives whom Titus brought to Italy after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans. The first person he mentions is Amittai of Oria, whom he calls sabbar and payyat, a man versed in Talmudic halakha and a writer of liturgical poetry. The Chronicle describes Aaron of Babylon, the reputed teacher of Kalonymus of Lucca; also through an account by Rabbi Silano additional information is gleaned about the Jewish community of Venosa, some epitaphs from which place had previously been published by G. J. Ascoli.
Of the sons of Amittai, the Chronicle dwells especially upon Shefatya, one of the earliest and most prolific liturgical poets (about 850–860), and gives some reliable data on the persecutions which the Byzantine Jews had to suffer under Basil I; on the Saracen invasion of Sicily and Italy (872); on another liturgical poet, Amittai ben Shefatya (son of Shefatya ben Amitai); and on the disputation which Hananiel ben Amittai was forced to hold with the bishop of Oria. The author is obviously proud of the honor done to his family by one of its members, Paltiel, the vizier of al-Muizz and Abd al-Mansur (962–992) of Egypt; perhaps the first of the Egyptian nagids, whom De Goeje has tried to identify with Jauhar al-Rumi or al-Saqlabi. Ahimaaz closes with short accounts of Hananiel, of his son Samuel in Capua, and of Paltiel ben Samuel (988–1048), father of the author himself.
The chronicle describes forcible conversions of the Jews under Basil and Leo V.
The unique manuscript in Toledo bears the name of Menahem ben Benjamin in its signature. It is uncertain whether the word used there, נשלם (finished), refers to the composition or to the copying of the work. This signature is also in rhymed prose; and it seems probable that at least part of page 132 (lines 12–23) in Adolf Neubauer's edition is by Menahem and not by Ahimaaz, for it contains an account of the author in language that one would not expect an author to use of himself.
There is no evidence that Ahimaaz made use of any literary records: he simply gathered together traditions that had been current in his family. In describing the activity of the vizier Paltiel, he refers to the Chronicles of Egypt as containing further data on the subject. Even in this case, it is improbable that he has any individual work in mind. The body of the Chronicle contains no dates: a few are to be found in the last two sections, part of which may be, as stated above, a later addition.
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