[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-142432-en":3,"doc-seo-142432-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},142432,5909877438554,"Maeve","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/5600025385ad2bf12a7?_k=1778553567797529272",2,"Literature","Ibn Sahula’s Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer - A Thirteenth Century Don Yllán","A scholarly translation and literary analysis traces a late-13th-century Hebrew exemplum tied to Ibn Sahula’s Mešal Haqadmonī, “Tale of the Ancient One,” composed in Castile around 1281. The work situates the story within its narrative frame and highlights the Dove-and-Crow discourse that treats the tale as a negative example of failing to respect elder learning. It recounts a young Jerusalemite’s journey to Egypt to learn magic, the sorcerer’s illusionary test, and the youth’s remorse and return to apprenticeship, with translation choices preserving figurative language and documenting biblical allusions.","David A. Wacks 1  \nIbn Sahula’s Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer:  \nA Thirteenth Century Don Yllán  \nDavid A. Wacks  \nUniversity of Oregon  \nThe tale of Don Yllán and the Deán of Santiago (ejemplo 11 in Juan Manuel’s Conde Lucanor) has a Hebrew language analogue, written in the late 13th century, that has eluded Hispanists completely for centuries.1 This exemplum is an excerpt from the frametale of Isaac ben Solomon ibn Sahula (b. 1244), Mešal Haqadmonī (=MQ), or ‘Tale of the Ancient One.’ It was written in Castile in approximately 1281, toward the end of the reign of Alfonso X of Castile and Leon (r. 1254-82) .2 MQ is a wide-ranging work of rhyming prose interspersed with poetry in the style of the maqāma.3 Its narrative framework contains fables and poetry as well as discourses on such topics as astrology, medicine, and optics.4 Appearing in part 4, “On Humility,” Ibn Sahula’s exemplum of the Egyptian Sorceror is interpolated in a discussion between two characters, the Dove and the Crow, as a negative example of one who did not respect the learning of his elder.5  \nIn Ibn Sahula’s tale, a young man from Jerusalem travels to Egypt in search of instruction in the magic arts. He finds a sorcerer who agrees to teach him, but the young man’s insolence toward the former prompts the sorcerer to put him to the test. This comes in the form of an illusion in which the youth imagines he arrives in a foreign land where he rapidly climbs the ranks at court, eventually becoming king and fathering a male heir. At this point the illusion is dispelled and the young man realizes he is back in the sorcerer’s home, back to the day of their first meeting. The young man’s remorse for his error is apparently genuine, and the sorcerer agrees to keep him on as apprentice for one year.  \nThe excerpted translation by Scheindlin (in rhyming prose) and the complete one by Loewe (in verse) are both couched in English poetic values, and as a result are more accessible to the general reader. Because my aim in this translation is to lay bare the logic and literary character of the medieval Hebrew text for the medieval Hispanist, I preserve all the figurative language of the original, even when it strikes the reader of English or Spanish as awkward. The more obscure passages are annotated. Biblical allusions are rendered in italics and documented (following OT versification) . I work from the edition of Zemorah, and indicate the pagination of his edition in brackets for easy reference to the Hebrew text.  \nTranslation  \n[Zemorah 194] …just as the old mage did, when the wind of intelligence blew over him and he lifted himself up over the Hebrew in his rebellion, when the latter did not hasten to honor him,  \n1 This despite having been first translated into English in 1983 by Raymond Scheindlin.  \n2 Ibn Sahula was a poet, scholar and kabbalist who may have lived in Guadalajara (Habermann, Sahula) . For further biographical information, see Loewe’s introduction to his English translation of MQ (xvi-xxi) .  \n3 On the maqāma genre, see Drory, Brockelmann, and Habermann,“Maqama”.  \n4 For a textual history, see Loewe’s introduction to his English verse translation. I cite Zemorah’s edition; translations of Ibn Sahula’s text are mine. There is as yet no Spanish translation.  \n5 Before telling the story, the Crow notes that one must demand respect by judiciously demonstrating one’s powers (194) .  \neHumanista: Volume 4, 2004  \nDavid A. Wacks 2  \nand did not harken to the sound of his glory. And he showed him a great and awesome thing that never was and never will be.6  \nThe Dove said: “By your goodness, my pure-hearted friend, how was the matter?”  \nAnd he said: There was in Zion a certain handsome young man who studied the way of rhetoric; he was advanced in all fields of knowledge, for he set his heart upon all learning. But he still sought to study the subject of magic. So he searched, but did not find the terafīm,7 for magic was forbidden to the chosen people, to th","cbCaikq4pzRmdZ0G","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikq4pzRmdZ0G","pdf",171678,1,12,"English","en",105,"# Ibn Sahula’s Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer\n## Narrative framework and historical context\n## Plot summary of the Egyptian sorcerer exemplum\n## Translation principles and annotation method\n## Translation excerpt","[{\"question\":\"What is the origin and time frame of Ibn Sahula’s exemplum of the Egyptian sorcerer?\",\"answer\":\"It is an excerpt from the late 13th-century Hebrew work Mešal Haqadmonī, written in Castile around 1281 during the reign of Alfonso X. The exemplum corresponds to a negative-example discussion within the narrative frame.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the sorcerer test the young man seeking magical instruction?\",\"answer\":\"The sorcerer stages an illusion in which the youth imagines advancement at court, rising rapidly to kingship and fathering a male heir. The illusion is later dispelled when the youth realizes he is back at the time and place of their first meeting.\"},{\"question\":\"What translation approach does the author use for the medieval Hebrew text?\",\"answer\":\"The author preserves the original figurative language even when it feels awkward in English, annotates more obscure passages, and renders biblical allusions in italics with documentation by Old Testament versification. Pagination from the edition by Zemorah is indicated in brackets for reference.\"}]","Ibn Sahula’s Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer - A Thirteenth Century Don Yllán | PDF",1787681115,18,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"ibn-sahulas-tale-of-the-egyptian-sorcerer-a-thirteenth-century-don-yllan","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/ibn-sahulas-tale-of-the-egyptian-sorcerer-a-thirteenth-century-don-yllan/142432/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-03","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":11},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is the origin and time frame of Ibn Sahula’s exemplum of the Egyptian sorcerer?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It is an excerpt from the late 13th-century Hebrew work Mešal Haqadmonī, written in Castile around 1281 during the reign of Alfonso X. The exemplum corresponds to a negative-example discussion within the narrative frame.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the sorcerer test the young man seeking magical instruction?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The sorcerer stages an illusion in which the youth imagines advancement at court, rising rapidly to kingship and fathering a male heir. The illusion is later dispelled when the youth realizes he is back at the time and place of their first meeting.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What translation approach does the author use for the medieval Hebrew text?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The author preserves the original figurative language even when it feels awkward in English, annotates more obscure passages, and renders biblical allusions in italics with documentation by Old Testament versification. Pagination from the edition by Zemorah is indicated in brackets for reference.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]