Jewish literature

Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature and rabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only rabbinic literature but also ethical literature, philosophical literature, mystical literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties. The production of Jewish literature has flowered with the modern emergence of secular Jewish culture. Modern Jewish literature has included Yiddish literature, Judeo-Tat literature, Ladino literature, Hebrew literature (especially Israeli literature), and Jewish American literature. Prominent examples of medieval Jewish fiction included: Sefer ha-Ma'asiyyot, by Nissim b. Jacob b. Nissim ibn Shahin of Kairouan, written in Arabic, a book of fables based on aggadic legends. Sefer Sha'ashu'im, by Joseph Ibn Zabara (12th century), a story combining folktales, epigrams, and passages of philosophy and science. Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir, by Abraham b. Samuel ha-Levi Ibn Ḥasdai, based on an Indian tale based on the life of Buddha. Meshal ha-Kadmoni, by Isaac ibn Sahula (13th century), combining aggadah with original stories Mishlei Shu'alim ("Fox Fables"), by Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, Hebrew fables which resemble Aesop's fables. Liturgical Jewish poetry (Piyyut) flourished in the Byzantine Palestine in the seventh and eighth centuries with the writings of Yose ben Yose, Yanai, and Eleazar Kalir. Later Spanish, Provençal, and Italian poets wrote both religious and secular poems. Particularly prominent poets were Solomon ibn Gabirol and Yehuda Halevi. Little writing by Jewish women survives from this period. One Arabic stanza is attributed to the seventh-century Sarah of Yemen, who may have been Jewish; one stanza in Hebrew by the wife of Dunash ben Labrat survives from the tenth century; and three poems in Arabic attributed to the Andalusian woman Qasmuna survive from the twelfth.