| ABU YUSUF BEN ISAAC IBN SHAPRUT – See Ḥasdai (Abu Yusuf) ibn Shaprut. |
| ABU YUSUF HA-ZAḲEN – See Joseph ha-Zaḳen. |
| ABUBUS – Father of Ptolemy, who murdered Simon at Jericho, where he was stationed as military officer. (I Macc. xvi. 11, 15.) G. B. L. |
| ABUDARHAM – A family name borne by Spanish Jews, for the first time by David Abudarham, who was a tax-collector and elder of the congregation of the Jews of Tudela during the reign of Sancho the Great, king of Castile and Leon (1258-95).... |
| ABUDARHAM, DAVID BEN JOSEPH BEN DAVID – A commentator on the Synagogue liturgy, who lived at Seville, Spain, about 1340, and was a pupil of Jacob ben Asher. He belonged to the class of writers who, in an age of decline, felt the need of disseminating in popular form... |
| ABUDIENTE – Name of a Marano family living at Lisbon. Gideon Abudiente, about the end of the sixteenth century, is the earliest bearer of this name of whom we have cognizance. His son, together with some other members of the family,... |
| ABUDIENTE, SAMSON – See Gideon, Samson. |
| ABU-L-FADHL DAUD – See Daud, Abu Fadhl. |
| ABU-L-KHEIR – A Spanish scholar and translator, who flourished in the fifteenth century. He was expelled from Spain in 1492, and settled at Padua, where, in 1496, he completed his Hebrew commentary upon Al-Fergani's "Extract from the... |
| ABU-L-RABI – See Solomon ben Abraham ben Baruch. |
| ABU-L-SAR BEN JUTA – See Sahl ben Maẓliaḥ. |
| ABU AL-WALID MERWAN IBN JANAH – See Ibn Janaḥ. |
| ABULAFIA – Name of a widely scattered Jewish family of Spanish origin, one of whose branches, for the sake of clearer designation, bore the surname of Ha-Levi. Members of this family were found in various cities of the Orient and in Africa... |
| ABULAFIA, ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL – One of the earliest cabalists; born 1240 at Saragossa, in Aragon; died some time after 1291. Very early in life he was taken by his parents to Tudela, in Navarre, where his aged father carefully instructed him in the Bible and... |
| ABU AL-FARAJ BAR HEBRÆUS – See Bar Hebræus, Abu al-Faraj. |
| ABULḤASSAN, JUDAH BEN SAMUEL HA-LEVI (IBN ALLEVI) – See Judah ha-Levi. |
| ABUMAI – Gaon in Sura from 811 to 819; brother of Rabbi Mordecai. He appears to have been the father of the gaon of Sura, Cohen-Ẓedeḳ, who is renowned for his many ritual and judicial decisions. See Geonim. A. K. |
| ABUMAI BEN ABRAHAM – Gaon in Pumbedita from 810 to 814. No responsa in his name are known. See Geonim. A. K. |
| ABUN ASTRUC – See Astruc, Desmaister ben. |
| ABUN BEN SAUL – An elegist who was probably a pupil of Isaac Alfasi and, most likely, is the one whose death Moses ibn Ezra deplores in a poem. Two of his elegies are found in the Maḥzor of Avignon.Bibliography: Zunz, Literaturgesch. p. 343;... |
| ABUN BEN SHARADA – A Spanish poet; flourished at the beginning of the eleventh century, first at Lucena, afterward at Seville. None of his poetical works has survived; and his name is known only from quotations made by poets like Solomon ibn... |
| ABYSS – Term for the (Gen. vii. 11) of the Old Testament, used in the apocalyptic, New Testament, and cabalistic literature for the place of punishment of the wicked; hell; the abode of certain demons. As such the Abyss of Fire is... |
| ABYSSINIA – See Falashas. |
| ACACIA – Biblical Data: A hard and durable but light wood; at first yellowish, but gradually turning very dark, like ebony. Of this the Ark and its altars, with their staves, and the bars of the Tabernacle were made (Ex. xxxv. 7; Deut.... |
| ACADEMIES IN BABYLONIA – The Jews of Babylonia, no doubt, shared in the changes and movements that Ezra and his successors, who came from Babylonia, introduced into Palestine. But for the four centuries covering the period from Ezra to Hillel there are... |