Dunash ben Labrat

Who was Dunash ben Labrat?

Dunash ha-Levi ben Labrat was a medieval Jewish commentator, poet, and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. He was, according to Moses ibn Ezra, born in Fes. The name Dunash being of Berber origin. In his youth he travelled to Baghdad to study with Saadia Gaon.

Dunash is called the founder of Spanish Hebrew poetry. He first introduced Arabic meter into Hebrew poetry. Traditional Arabic poetry was built on interspersing long and short vowels. In contrast, Hebrew distinguishes between the quality of the vowels, rather than their length. Dunash's innovation came in drawing a parallel between the šəwâ and ḥāṭēp̄ and the Arabic short vowels, so as to create a new Hebrew meter. This meter formed the basis for all subsequent medieval Hebrew poetry. At the time, however, it opened him up to severe criticism, particularly among the students of Menahem ben Saruq, that he was corrupting the Hebrew language by introducing Arabic forms, and changing traditional Biblical styles to conform to Arabic meter and rhyming schemes. For instance, in his classic poem "Dror Yikra," he begins the second line: Ne'im shim'chem, with a modifying form of the adjective "pleasant," where properly it should be na'im.