Menahem ibn Sarūq was born in Tortosa (in the Upper March, the northeast of al-Andalus) at the beginning of the tenth century (ca. 910–920). His father seems to have been a teacher and gave him an adequate education. Nonetheless, Ibn Sarūq was essentially self-taught and became the prototype of the Jewish intellectual in al-Andalus, perhaps the first one known to history. In fact, he played a decisive role in the birth and development of Andalusian Hebrew philology and poetry.

Ibn Sarūq became family poet and secretary of the Ibn Shaprūṭ…