Solomon vs. Solomon: The Fabrication of a Hebrew-Shuʿūbite Polemic

The article addresses one short poem by Solomon ibn Gabirol, We-shinei haṣevi, though less for the sake of the poem itself than as a conceptual key to Ibn Gabirol’s poetics in particular, and the relationship between Hebrew and Arabic poetries and cultures in general. The core of the poem criticizes King Solomon, who, in his Song of Songs, compares the teeth of the beautiful beloved to a herd of ewes. The article suggests reading the poem against the backdrop of the poetic attacks by the contemporary shuʿūbiyya movement on classical Arabic motives, and leads to the conclusion that it aimed to tighten the bonds between the Arabic and Hebrew poetries and cultures of the time by giving the impression that their glorious pasts were closely intertwined.