É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

BEERI, Tova: The Intriguing Fate of a Geniza Document: Goldziher's Contribution to the Study of Hebrew Poetry in Babylonia

THE INTRIGUING FATE OF A GENIZA DOCUMENT his liturgical-poetic legacy are known to us today, almost all of them preserved in Geniza manuscripts.

7 From a letter by the eminent gaon Rav Hai, sent in 1006 to Qayrawan, we learn that this Yosef was, until his death, the chief cantor (hazzan) of Baghdad.

h At the time Hai Gaon wrote his letter, one of Nahum's sons had assumed this post in the town's Great Synagogue. Hai Gaon also mentions our Nahum, asking his addressee to inform him of his whereabouts. He relates to Nahum as a close friend, referring to him as muqaddam lal kol ha-hazzanim asher be-Bavel, that is: the chief cantor and in charge of all the hazzanim in Babylonia. ' He expresses his hope that Nahum, at this time apparently still in North Africa, will return to Baghdad to resume his position there. Yosef al-Baradani's father, Hayyim al-Baradani, Nahum's grandfather, was probably also a professional cantor, and a gifted author of Hebrew liturgical poetry. Geniza manuscripts have yielded some fifteen of his poems, published recently.

1" Hayyim al-Baradani evidently flourished in Babylonia in the first half of the tenth century; he was thus a contemporary and compatriot of Saadya Gaon. The mere fact that there was a prolific poet in Babylonia during this period took scholars by surprise. It was generally assumed that Babylonian Jewry was reluctant to incorporate piyyut into public prayer. The discovery of the poetic oeuvre of Rabbis Hayyim and Yosef al-Baradani has forced scholars to review some of the most deeply rooted theories concerning the history of medieval Hebrew poetry. Nahum, the son of Yosef al-Baradani, student of Shmuel ben Hoíhi Gaon, friend of Hai Gaon, and chief cantor of Babylon, is also mentioned in a highly interesting series of panegyrics composed by a certain Abraham ha-Cohen in honour of a Babylonian dignitary, also named Abraham. Fragments from these texts, written in the early 990s, were published from Geniza manuscripts first by Solomon Schechter," thereafter by Jacob Mann,

1

2 and by the late Alexander Scheiber.

1' In these poems Nahum is described as performing liturgical poetry in the court or maybe in the private Portrait' in: S. Elizur et al. [eds.], Knesset Ezra: Literature and Life in the Synagogue, Studies Presented to Ezra Fleischer

, Jerusalem 1994, 251 -267 [Hebrew]

. 7 See now: T. Beeri (née Avinery), The "Great Cantor" of Baghdad, The Liturgical Poems of Joseph ben Hayyim al-Baradani. Jerusalem 2002 [Hebrew], 8 This letter was first published by J. Mann, Texts and Studies (n. 6 above), 122. '' Ibid., 122, n. 8a Mann remarks on the term muqaddam: "There seems to have been an office in Baghdad for the leading Hazzan to have supervision over all the Hazzanini in Irak. Such an official probably held office by authority of the Exilarch." A similar view is held by Goitein (see n. 6 above) vol. II, 75. S. Abramson (in Centre and Periphery in Geonic Period

, Jerusalem 1965, 91. [Hebrew]) interprets this term differently, as meaning "the most important Hazzan". 1

0 T. Beeri, 'Early Stages in the Babylonian Piyyut: Hayyim al-Baradani and his Poetic Heritage', Hebrew Union College Annual 68 (1997), Hebrew section, 1-33. 1

1 In Saadvana

, Cambridge 1903, 66-74. 1

2 In JQR N.S. 9 (1919), 157-160. 1

3 See his Geniza Studies (n. 6 above), 19-44, 288-296. 17