Dunash ben Labrat
10th-century Moroccan Jewish poet and grammarian
Dunash ha-Levi ben Labrat (920 – 990) (Hebrew: ר׳ דוֹנָש הַלֵּוִי בֵּן לָבְּרָט; Arabic: دناش بن لبراط) was a medieval Jewish commentator, poet, and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. He is known for his philological commentary, Teshuvot Dunash, and for his liturgical poems D'ror Yiqra and D'vai Haser.
Life
Dunash was, according to Moses ibn Ezra, born in Fes, the name Dunash being of Berber origin. In his youth he travelled to Baghdad to study with Saadia Gaon. On returning to Morocco he wrote many poems and became famous, and there were even poems written about him. He taught grammar and poetry.
Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who lived in Córdoba, invited Dunash to Spain. Córdoba was then the center of culture and poetry in the Islamic world, and Hasdai endeavored to bring the best minds there. In Córdoba, Dunash met Menahem ben Saruq, also an important grammarian, though the two did not get along because of their many grammatical disputes as well as Menahem's tough criticism of Saadia Gaon, Dunash's mentor. Their dispute turned into personal rivalry, which included many polemic compositions and exchanges of accusations to Hasdai ibn Shaprut.
“Dunash ben Labrat” enters the record as 10th-century Moroccan Jewish poet and grammarian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dunash, Labrat and 10th-century can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q720129. VIAF identifies the subject as 71437573. The Library of Congress control number is nr88006878. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dunash ben Labrat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.