  Judah ben Samuel Halevi (c. 1075–1141) was the premier Hebrew poet of his generation in medieval Spain. Over the course of some fifty years, from the end of the 11th century to the middle of the 12th, he wrote nearly 800 poems, both secular and religious. However, because this was a time of intensifying religious conflict characterized by physical, social, and political upheaval, Halevi also sought to develop a reasoned defense of the Jewish religion, which was then under attack on all fronts. Christians and Muslims dismissed Judaism as a superseded religion and reviled its adherents as guilty of both blindness and faithlessness. Those more inclined to philosophy, inside as well as outside the Jewish faith, found many more points to contest. For some, these included even the most fundamental teachings of Judaism, such as God's creation of the world and his involvement in the affairs of mere flesh and blood, which they regarded as perplexing, at best, or incredible altogether.