Abraham ben Ḥalfon
ABRAHAM BEN ḤALFON
ABRAHAM BEN ḤALFON (15th or 16th century), Hebrew poet in Yemen. His verse follows the genre of Spanish poetry in its meter, style, and content. Y. Tovi published his poems in 1991. Their subjects include moral and ethical exhortations, songs for weddings and circumcisions, religious verse, and hymns for special occasions and festivals. If he is identical with the person of the same name mentioned in the Sefer ha-Musar (pp. 46, 84, 151) of Zechariah Al-Dahri, he must have flourished in the 16th century, not in the 15th as was formerly believed.
bibliography:
I. Davidson, in: Ẓiyyunim (J.N. Simḥoni Memorial Volume, 1929), 58–81; idem, in: Minḥah le-David (D. Yellin Jubilee Volume, 1935), 187–96; Ish-Shalom, in: Tarbiz, 18 (1947), 187–93.add. bibliography: Shirei Avraham ibn Halfon, ed. Y. Tovi (1991); R. Halevi (ed.), Shirat Yisra'el be-Teiman, 1 (1998), 355–71.
[Yehuda Ratzaby]