Political Power and Prayerful Poetry

Samuel ben Hosha‘na was a prolific author of liturgical poetry and a member of the political and religious leadership of the Jewish community of the Land of Israel in the late tenth and early eleventh century CE, yet over the centuries his poetry and his very existence were forgotten by history. He was rediscovered by twentieth-century scholars from manuscripts in the Cairo Geniza. This volume presents all the information known about Samuel's life, and a selection of his poetry, as well as Megillath Miẓrayim, his prose account of a harrowing event that he experienced in Cairo in 1012. The texts are presented in Hebrew, with an English translation on facing pages, and English commentary explaining the poet's allusions.