Very little is known about the thirteenth-century Jewish poet Joseph al-Qarawī. What information there is derives from sixteen poems that were part of a poetic exchange between him and the celebrated poet Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia (d. 1306) and are preserved in the latter's dīwān. The superscription to al-Qarawī's poem ṢeviyyatḤen Ḥavaṣelet Sheronim ("Charming Gazelle, Rose of Sharon") states that he wrote the poems at the age of twelve, a claim that some scholars have questioned. According to the superscription to his poem Sefatha-Meshorerim Avla ve-Navla ("The language …