Jewish poetry from al-Andalus

The golden age of Jewish poetry in Al-Andalus developed in the literary courts of the various taifas.

[1] In the last part of the 10th century, Dunash ben Labrat revolutionized Jewish poetry in Al-Andalus[2] by bringing Arabic meter and monorhyme into Hebrew writing.

Practically all Jewish works about philosophy, theology, mathematics, were written in Arabic, typically in Hebrew characters.

[3] In the late 10th century, Dunash ben Labrat, a North African rabbi and student of Saadia Gaon, arrived at the Caliphate of Córdoba and revolutionized Hebrew poetry in al-Ándalus.

Dunash designed a system of short and long vowels for Hebrew that allowed it to imitate Arabic meter, and adopted the structure of the qasida.

[17] As for themes, Jewish poetry, which had previously centered on the liturgical, became very similar to the Arabic tradition.

Jewish poets used the nostalgic tone of poetry of the Arabian Desert for poems about their own exile; imitated the Bacchic poems that described the pleasures of wine and sheltered gardens, and reflected on the lifestyle of a well-to-do class that shared values with their Muslim peers.