Yosef ben Hayyim al-Baradani

Joseph al-Baradānī was a payṭan (liturgical poet) and a cantor in tenth-century Baghdad. His father, Ḥayyim, had also been a poet and cantor, and so too were his son Nahum al-Baradānī and at least one grandson, Solomon. As indicated by his nisba (attributive name) the family was based at some point in the Baghdad suburb of Baradān, though by Joseph’s time it had moved into the city proper, where he served with distinction as cantor of the main synagogue—in fact, in a letter Hay Gaon refers to him, post-mortem, as “the great cantor” (Heb. ha-ḥazzan ha-gadol). Joseph’s corpus of liturgical poetry is of special significance. It was entirely unknown prior to the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, but among the literary treasures there, 303 of Joseph’s piyyuṭim have now been identified (and edited by Beeri); by contrast, only fourteen have been identified as written by his father, thirteen by his son, and one by his grandson Solomon. This corpus is one of the most important representatives of early post-classical Eastern piyyuṭ—especially with respect to the development of the strophic patterns (introduced a generation earlier by Saʿadya Gaon) known as meshullashim (aab, ccb, etc.) and merubbaʿim (aaab, cccb, etc.).

Regarding the date range of Joseph’s life there are at least two date points:

(1) In the letter mentioned above, written on August 11 (Elul 14), 1006 to Judah ben Joseph of Qayrawān, Hay Gaon, who was born in 939, refers to Joseph’s son Nahum as a beloved schoolmate (Heb. aḥ ḥaviv huʾ ve-ʿimmanu gadal mi-neʿurav). Assuming, with Beeri, an average of twenty-five years between generations, this would place Joseph’s birth around 915 (though Beeri suggests 925).

(2) In a letter written in 999 to Samuel ben Hophni Gaon, Nahum refers to his father with the eulogism raḍiya allāh ʿanhu (may God be pleased with him; see Gil, vol. 2, §58, l. 16).

Michael G. Wechsler

Bibliography

Beeri, Tova. The “Great Cantor” of Baghdad: The Liturgical Poems of Joseph ben Ḥayyim al-Baradani (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2002) [Hebrew].

———. “Early Stages in the Babylonian Piyyut: Hayim al-Baradani and His Poetic Heritage,” Hebrew Union College Annual 69 (1977): 1–33 [Hebrew].

Fleischer, Ezra. “ ʿIyyunim be-Shirato shel Rav Hayy Gaʾon,” in Papers on Medieval Hebrew Literature Presented to A. M. Habermann, ed. Tsevi Malakhi (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1977), pp. 239–274.

———. Hebrew Liturgical Poetry in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem: Keter, 2007) [Hebrew].

Gil, Moshe. Be-Malkhut Yishmaʾʿel bi-Tqufat ha-Geʾonim, 4 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1997); vol. 1 slightly revised as Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, trans. D. Strassler (Leiden: Brill, 2004).