biography
| name: |
Nagrella, Shemuel Ha-Levi Ben Yosef
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pronunciation:
[nagrelya]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (993–1056)
|
| biography:
| Poet, rabbi, and army general, born in Merida, W Spain. He was educated in Córdoba, but fled in 1013 when the city was sacked by the Berbers, settling in Málaga, where he rose to become secretary first to the wazir Abu 'l-Qasim ibn al-'Arif and later to the king of Granada (1025–38), who appointed him wazir in 1027, when he became known among his fellow-Jews as ha-Nagid, ‘the prince’. He was later appointed commander-in-chief of the army and led it many times between 1038 and 1056, against Sevilla, Carmona, and Almería. His son Yosef was probably the only other Jew to have commanded a Muslim army. A great patron of learning, Nagrella presented money and books to poor scholars and helped Ibn Gabirol after his banishment from Zaragoza. Nagrella's prose works concerned the art of war, politics, and Talmudic exposition, and he wrote a Hebrew grammar, Sefer na-osher, now lost. His religious poetry was profoundly influenced by the Bible: Ben Tehillim (New Psalms), Ben Mishlei (New Proverbs), and Ben Kohelet (New Ecclesiastes). |
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