The language and structure of unknown samaritan poems

In this paper I present several samples of a hitherto unknown type of Samaritan liturgical poem called Tawhīd. Written in Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic, the main motif of these poems is "to declare God to be one; to profess belief in the unity of God" (which is one of the uses of the Arabic word ). Most of the Tawhid poems share several marks and characters: i. each poem carries the title Tawhīd always written in Samaritan characters: (Hebrew: ); 2. most of the poems consist of five or six stanzas, each including four feet; 3. each stanza is graphically presented by two lines (rather than four). All the poems of this genre are anonymous and do not include any direct indication as to their date of composition. However, a time which is not earlier than the twelfth century can be deduced from the several language styles of the poems.