Ross Brann

Abstract “The Moors?” interrogates the figure of “the Moor” in some of its medieval and modern textual and cinematic incarnations. This essay discusses the figure's historical evolution and instability and comments on its particular social agency in medieval Iberia.

This essay reflects upon some of the ways in which María Rosa Menocal habitually crossed academic barriers and broke scholarly boundaries in her writing of medieval Iberian cultural history. Through her provocative challenges to the field of study, Menocal came to govern much of the discussion in North America on the nature and significance of the cultural interaction of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in medieval Iberia. Her questions and methods became the prism through which many colleagues and students engage with the field.

... | Ayuda. Representaciones de judíos en la literatura hispano-árabe. Autores: Ross Brann; Localización: La sociedad medieval a través de la literatura hispanojudía / coord. por Ricardo Izquierdo Benito, Angel Sáenz-Badillos Pérez, 1998, ISBN 84-89492-96-4 , pags. ...

... La poesía en la cultura literaria hebrea de al-Andalus. Autores: Ross Brann; Localización: Poesía hebrea en Al-Andalus / coord. por Judit Targarona Borrás, Angel Sáenz-Badillos Pérez, 2003, ISBN 84-338-2970-X , págs. 9-26. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados ...

En este artículo se propone una reconceptualización de ciertos aspectos del universo cultural de los intelectuales literarios judíos de al-Andalus. Se cuestionan los métodos y los términos con los que los estudiosos abordan una plasmación crítica y multidisciplinaria de la materia: la arabización de los judíos de al-Andalus y lo que ésta implica respecto a su historia literaria e identidad cultural. Con el argumento de que la lengua hablada de los judíos no se puede considerar como fenómeno divorciado del entorno cultural en que existía, me remito a cuatro tipos de fuentes: obras en árabe escritas por judíos con destino a un público general; referencias a «íntimos encuentros culturales» entre judíos y musulmanes en al-Andalus; la actividad literaria judía realizada en lengua árabe; y lo más significativo, la internalización de paradigmas árabe-islámicos en la articulación de la culture de los judíos andalusíes. En lugar de considerar la arabización de los judíos como indicativo de una influencia externa ο de asimilación, el artículo sugiere que podría interpretarse como prueba de cierta convergencia cultural dentro de la sociedad andalusíLe présent article se propose de reconsidérer certains aspects de l’univers culturel des intellectuels juifs lettrés d’al-Andalus, remettant en cause les méthodes et le vocabulaire avec lequel les chercheurs entreprennent, de façon critique et pluridisciplinaire, de traiter le sujet, c’est-à-dire l’arabisation des juifs et ses conséquences du point de vue de leur histoire littéraire et de leur identité culturelle. Partant du principe que la langue parlée des juifs ne peut être considérée isolément du contexte culturel où elle se situait, on a ici recours à quatre types de sources : textes arabes écrits par des juifs à l’intention d’un large public, témoignages de « relations culturelles étroites » entre juifs et musulmans d’al-Andalus, activité littéraire développée par des juifs dans le domaine de la langue arabe et, plus significativement encore, l’intériorisation de paradigmes arabo-islamiques présente dans l’articulation de la culture juive d’al-Andalus. Loin de considérer l’arabisation des juifs comme le signe d’une influence externe ou d’une assimilation, le présent article suggère que ce fait pourrait au contraire être interprété comme la preuve d’une certaine convergence culturelle à l’intérieur de la société d’al-AndalusThis essay attempts to re-conceptualize aspects of the cultural universe of Andalusi Jewish literary intellectuals. It questions the methods and terms with which scholars engage a critical manifestation of our subject across the disciplines: the arabization of the Jews of al-Andalus and its implication for their literary history and cultural identity. Asserting that the Jews’spoken language cannot be isolated from the world of culture within which it is situated, I refer to four types of evidence: Arabic works by Jews directed to a general audience; reports of «close cultural encounters» among Jews and Muslims in al-Andalus; Jewish literary activity conducted in Arabic; and most significantly, the internalization of Arabo-Islamic paradigms in the articulation of Andalusi Jewish culture. Rather than viewing thejews’ arabization as a sign of external influence or assimilation, the essay suggests it can be taken as evidence of a certain cultural convergence within Andalusi societ

This essay examines the non-linear development of the topos of the" dissembling poet" in medieval Hebrew literature, from Andalusian Spain down to Renaissance Italy. Drawing on classical and Arabic poetics, medieval Jewish philosophers and religious thinkers ...

Ross Brann studied at the University of California-Berkeley, the Hebrew University-Jerusalem, New York University, and the American University in Cairo. He has taught at Cornell since 1986 and served nineteen years as Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Professor Brann is the author of The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991) and Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Muslims and Jews in Islamic Spain (Princeton University Press, 2002). He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Frankel Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Brann is also the editor of four volumes and author of essays on the intersection of medieval Jewish and Islamic cultures. In 2019 he completed Andalusi Moorings: Al-Andalus and Sefarad ...