Yehuda Alharizi

Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi (Hebrew: יהודה בן שלמה אלחריזי, romanized: Yehudah ben Shelomo al-Harizi, Arabic: يحيا بن سليمان بن شاؤل أبو زكريا الحريزي اليهودي من أهل طليطلة, romanized: Yaḥyà bin Sulaymān bin Shāʾul abū Zakarya al-Harizi al-Yahūdī min ahl Ṭulayṭila), was a rabbi, translator, poet, and traveler active in al-Andalus (mid-12th century Toledo, Spain?

Yehuda al-Harizi was born in Toledo in the mid-12th century to a family originally from Jerez and was educated in Castile.

A Hebrew biographer and a contemporary, Ibn al-Sha’ar al-Mawsili (1197–1256), provided the only known physical description of al-Harizi: "a tall silver-haired man with a smooth face".

[1] As was the practice for educated men of the period, he traveled extensively throughout the region, visiting Jewish communities and various centres of learning across the Mediterranean and the East.

His Maqama imitated the structure of Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani and al-Hariri, but his work also reflects his Jewish identity in a society that was in transition, shifting from al-Andalus to Christian Iberia.