NIEBLA (originally Ilipa, Libla):
One of the oldest towns of Spain, situated 12 miles west of Seville and to the east of Huelva. It was one of the earliest Jewish settlements in Spain, having been inhabited by Jews in the days of the Visigoths. When Alfonso VI. took Niebla from the Moors, he left it in care of the Jews who lived there. Thetown was conquered by Alfonso X. of Castile in 1257, after the insurrection under the emir Ibn Maḥfuẓ; but the conqueror generously presented Ibn Maḥfuẓ with a part of the taxes of the Juderia. Jews remained in Niebla and in the neighboring Mogüer until the expulsion. Between Niebla, which in medieval times had a very important slave-market, and the neighboring Mogüer lived about fifty Jewish families which belonged to the congregation of Niebla. The ancient synagogue in Niebla was transformed into a church which still (1904) exists.
- Boletin Acad. Hist. xviii. 524, 530, 539 et seq.
