Imitating the example of two Caliphs, who respected genius, Chasdaï protected the Jews, and to him is credit due for having given the impulse to the Jewish-Andalusian culture. He gathered around him at Cordova a band of talented philosophers and poets, who in turn immortalized him in their works and poems. "In Spain far and wide, wisdom was cherished in Chasdaï's time. His praise was sung by eloquent tongues." Only two of the philosophers and poets of this time became famous, Menachem ben Saruk and Dunash ben Labrat. Both of these made the Hebrew language, which they considerably enriched, the object of deep research. They went far beyond all their predecessors that had worked at philology, the Karaites and even Saadiah. Dunash ben Labrat in his works developed a symmetry and harmony of expression in the holy language such as was scarcely conceivable by his predecessors. He was the first to employ meter in Hebrew poesy, which he made melodious through the introduction of the strophe. Dunash was blamed by Saadiah for this as though he had made an unheard-of innovation. Saadiah thought that violence was done to the Hebrew language thereby. However, the new Hebrew poetry was enriched through the efforts of the Jewish-Andalusian writers. Hitherto, poetical compositions had been of a synagogal character, always gloomy, and never assuming a joyful tone. Even hymnal poetry was not devoid of this characteristic, and continued halting and rugged like Kaliri's. In didactic and controversial poems a miserable doggerel was used, as in the verses of Solomon ben Yerucham, of Abu-Ali Jephet, of Ben-Asher and Sabbataï Donnolo. Chasdaï, however, gave the poets an opportunity of changing their subjects. His imposing person, his high position, his deeds, and his princely liberality had an inspiring influence upon the poets, and whilst they sang his praises in animated strains, they breathed new life into the apparently dead Hebrew language, rendering it harmonious and capable of development. Of course, the Jewish-Andalusian poets took the Arabs as their model. They in truth do not deny that "Arab became the teacher of Eber." But Dunash and others, who imitated him, did not slavishly adhere to their Arab pattern, nor adopt its unnatural meter, but they selected its beauties and imitated them. The verses at the beginning of this flourishing period of poetry were brisk and lively in their measure, and yet the Hebrew poetry of the epoch of Chasdaï did not entirely cast off its fetters, nor change its high-flown style. "The poets in Chasdaï's time first began to chirp," as the inimitable critic of a later time remarks. The favorite themes of the new Hebrew poesy now became panegyric and satire, but it did not lose sight of liturgical poetry, which it also adorned with the beauty of meter.