A teenaged spice-shop owner and professional scribe, Shmuel Hanagid wrote such scintillating and literary love letters that a client hired him for bigger and better things. His work was lost for nearly 1,000 years and rediscovered only in the 1930s.

Book:

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492

Music:

Zahava Seewald and Zohara Abulafia – I would lay down my life