un of Arabic-Jewish-Spanish culture.

JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS

A great tournament at the court of Pedro I.! Deafening fanfares invite
courtiers and cavaliers to participate in the festivities. In the
brilliant sunshine gleam the lances of the knights, glitter the spears
of the hidalgos. Gallant paladins escort black-eyed beauties to the
elevated balcony, on which, upon a high-raised throne, under a gilded
canopy, surrounded by courtiers, sit Blanche de Bourbon and her
illustrious lord Dom Pedro, with Dona Maria de Padilla, the lady of his
choice, at his left. Three times the trumpets have sounded, announcing
the approach of the troubadours gathered from all parts of Castile to
compete with one another in song. Behold! a venerable old man, with
silvery white beard flowing down upon his breast, seeks to extricate
himself from the crowd. With admiring gaze the people respectfully make
way, and enthusiastically greet him: "Rabbi Don Santo! Rabbi Don Santo!"

The troubadour makes a low obeisance before the throne. Dom Pedro nods
encouragement, Maria de Padilla smiles graciously, only Dona Blanca's
pallid face remains immobile. The hoary bard begins his song:[41]

"My noble king and mighty lord,
A discourse hear most true;
'Tis Santob brings your Grace the word,
Of Carrion's town the Jew.

In plainest verse my thought I tell,
With gloss and moral free,
Drawn from Philosophy's pure well,
As onward you may see."[42]

A murmur of approval runs through the crowd; grandees and hidalgos press
closer to listen. In well-turned verse, fraught with worldly-wise
lessons, and indifferent whether his hortations meet with praise or with
censure, the poet continues to pour out words of counsel and moral
teachings, alike for king, nobles, and people.

Who is this Rabbi Don Santob? We know very little about him, yet, with
the help of "bright-eyed fancy," enough to paint his picture. The real
name of this Jew from Carrion de los Condes, a city of northern Spain,
who lived under Alfonso XI and Peter the Cruel, was, of course, not
Santob, but Shem-Tob. Under Alfonso the intellectual life of Spain
developed to a considerable degree, and in Spain, as almost everywhere,
we find Jews in sympathy with the first intellectual strivings of the
nation. They have a share in the development of all Romance languages
and literatures. Ibn Alfange, a Moorish Jew, after his conversion a high