ABSTRACT
Samuel ibn Gabirol was not the only Andalusian scholar-poet to incorporate seemingly problematic familial relationships from Scripture into his secular lust poetry. We find this phenomenon occurring also in a poem by his Muslim contemporary, our theologian-jurist-poet Ibn Ḥazm. Where Ibn Gabirol discomforts his readers by referring to the incestuous rape by a brother of his sister as a model for a romantic couple in his love poem, Ibn Ḥazm raises eyebrows by employing a father-son relationship in his. More specifically, the current discussion concerns a poem in which Ibn Ḥazm's narrator-lover compares the romantic and passionate love between himself and his beloved to the paternal-filial bond of love that the Muslim prophets Jacob and Joseph held for one another. While Ibn Gabirol utilizes an inappropriate family relationship in his lust poem, Ibn Ḥazm uses an otherwise innocent family relationship seemingly inappropriately.
