Date: 05 May 2004
Time: 07:46:10 -0700
I found this on the web. I don't know how accurate it is: Shabazi, the foremost Yemenite poet, died after 1681; he was born, and is buried, in Ta'izz (have you visited there?- it may be more inspiring and efficacious than Uman), in South Yemen, and was probably an itinerant weaver. His hundreds (550 extant) of poems, in Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic, deal primarily with religious themes, and reflect the messianic expectations of the Jews of Yemen, and the persecutions of 1679-81, which destroyed more than half the Jewish population (tho they fled reality to pursue mysticism, like the refugees from Spain in Israel, after 1492, they apparently did not develop the gloominess and detachment of the post-Crusade Ashkenazim). All his poems contain an acrostic version of his name. He was inspired by pre-Lurianic kabala, and owes much to Najara. Tho it employs simple, almost prosaic, rabbinical diction, avoiding rhetorical flourishes of the classical Spanish school, the meaning is often puzzling, due to mystical allusions and abrupt transitions from subject to subject. EJ adds: he wandered in poverty thruout Yemen; he is described as a tzadik and miracle worker; his tomb, in Taiz, was considered holy, and became a shrine where both Jews and Moslems prayed for relief. Many of his poems deal with the glorious past of the Jews in their own land, from which he draws faith and hope for renewed greatness in the future. His ethical poems are outstanding for their teaching and gentle moralizing. Academic and medieval scientific themes are also a frequent feature. His rare secular poems deal with discussions between concrete and abstract objects.
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