8-11. El nacimiento de Abraham- version 4: Cuando el rey Nimrod

The earliest written version available of this hagiographic copla appears in a late eighteenth-century Bosnian manuscript (Romero 1991: 41) but may have even earlier sources (Peretz 2000). Rather than being based on the biblical story, this text draws on aggadah (rabbinic exegetical texts) and later midrashim, placing Abraham’s birth in Ur Kasdim during the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Kush. King Nimrod (like the later Pharaoh) ordered all male newborn children to be killed. When the king went out to the field, he looked up to the sky and saw a “holy light” in the Jewish quarter, announcing that Abraham was to be born. Terah’s wife hid her pregnancy; every day she was asked, “Why are you so pale (or so changed)?” She already knew of her blessing. The refrain says, “Abraham our father, beloved father, blessed father, light of Israel.”