Joseph Zabara

Joseph ben Meïr Ibn Zabara (c. 1140 - c. 1200) was a Spanish physicist, poet and satirist. He studied in Narbonne under Joseph Kimhi, the founder of the prominent Kimhi family. The only known work of his is the Sefer Sha'ashu'im, or in English, the Book of Delight. The two first known manuscripts were published by Isaac Arish in Constantinople in 1577, and one in 15th Century Paris, but the book is thought to have been finished around 1200. It contains a series of stories and fables, modeled after the Kalilah wa-Dimnah. It also bears similarities to Arabian Nights.

Zabara was probably the first to write Hebrew in rhymed prose, with interspersed snatches of verse, a form used by Arabian poets. The book is thought to be semi-autobiographical, and similarities can been seen in the book and Zabara's life. His work in some sections is philogynist, while in other parts he writes misogynist satires. The work is a unique case, it being the earliest known European series of fables and witticisms that were partly of Indian and Greek extraction.