.
Abraham ibn Shoshan Abraham ha-Takiui
ABRAHAM Itulilii
ill
(niro,
THE
JEAVISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
IBN SHOSHAN OF CAIKO
lvi.' |il. ill
with HaDli.VZ (I)avicl iliu a (lecisiou ou a poiut of ritual. BIBLIOOKAPHV: Mlcbael, Or /i(i-.tf(i|/l/fni. No.
rculury, who Abi Zimni),
tin- sixlifiilli
t()f;clliir
giiVL'
234.
ABRAHAM BEN SIMEON HAIDE (HAIIIiii, Simkon. ABRAHAM BEN SIMEON BEN JUDAH
DA).
.r.iciii
Si-.'
i;i;n
BEN SIMEON OF WORMS:
horn falialist author of "Sciriillat Mclakiin (Royal IX'vice.s) a treatise containing infornialion on praetie.-il Cabala and on magie and naliiral sciiuct', which he collected on his travels. This treatise he wrote for his .son liaineeh. w hoin he warned against magic, which he denounced as the "black art." The work isdivided into four parts, of which only the lirst part and the tabic of contents to the other three parts are preserved, in a manuscript originall_v belonging to David Oppeiiheinier's library, now- in O.xford. Abraham was a pupil of K. .lacob Eliin in Egypt, contemporary of Pope JIartin V. 14UI;
(liiil
1440.
Ill'
was
tlic
"
,
BiHr.iooRAriiY: NpubiiinT. Cal. UihII. Uclir. Mioliael, Or ha-Hnimim^ No. 'Su.
liliii In Ids sen ice, lie was excuseii ally levied upou the Jews."
MSS.
No. 2051
Talmudic
scholar, who nourished in Ital.v al tlie l)eginning of the thirteenth century. Some of his interpretations and decisions are recorded by Zedekiah l)en Abraham 'Anaw, the author of the " Shibbole ba-l^eket (Ears
of Gleaning) who probably had before him some Abraham had the critof Abraham's manuscripts. ical faculty suHiciently developed to consider Isa. xlv. 7, "I form the light and create darkness," as directed against the dualism of the Parsees (I.e. 12). Bibliography: Zeileklnli ben Ahralinui, Shihlmlr ha-LclU'(, ,
Or
Ruber, inlrnduetlon to Shibholc ha-Lcli<t^liJj Michiiei,
/ia-H(i|/i/im,
.Nil. 2:tT.
L. G.
ABRAHAM BEN SOLOMON AKRA:
An
Italian scholar and editor of scientitic works; lived at the end of the sixteenth century, lie edited the work "Meharere Nemerim " (Venice, 1599), a collection of several methodological essays and com-
mentaries on various Talmudic treatises. Akra is the author of a methodological treatise on the Jlidrash Rabbot, which Isaiah Ilorwitz (n pt') embodied in his work "Shene Lul.iot ha-Berit " (ed. Amsterdam, p. 411), without credit. The same thing occurs in the Wilna edition of the Midrash Ralibot, where Akra's treatise is reproduced from the "Shene Luhot ba-Berit." Akra's work appeared originally as an
appendix to the "Arze Lebanon," a collection of cabalistic essays, Venice, 1001 Abraham makes there the interesting statement that be saw in Egypt the manuscript of the ^lidrash Alikir. This is the last trace of tlie existence of that small Midrash. .
BiBLiOGRAPnv
Michael,
Or
ha-Haiillim, No. H'.
L. G.
ABRAHAM BEN SOLOMON CONTI. See CoNTi, Achaiiam ckn Soi.omun. ABRAHAM SOLOMON OF SAINT MAXI-
MIN
Physician, who tiourished in the tifteenth centurj-. being in high favor with Rene of Anjou. count of Provence. Ctpsar of Nostradamus, himself of Jewish origin, in "L'Histoire et Chronologic de Provence," p. G18 (Lyons, 1624), says:
"There was
in the city ot Saint
of the iioetry of the Proven(,'al
Solomon really means Abralwim Ixn Solomon, the word "ben" being often omitted in such names. There is reason to believe that his father may liave been Solomon ben Abraham Abigdor, a translator of some repute. BiBi-iooRAPHV
Gross. In Monntsuchrift. xxix. 410: Stelnschnelder, Ih'hr. Uehcrtt. p. (M;!; Deppinpr. Leit Juiftt dan-* le Miiiicn Aye. p. Xi'>. Parts. 18:39: Nubling. Die Jutiowcmciiuicti lies MittcUtltcrs^ p. Sti.
G.
Sns.vL.wo,
ii
p. tJh:
the collection
troubadours, being himself an author of some renown. Abraham was not the only .lew ish physician in the service of the count. According to Nostradamus(p. 021), it was through his .Jewisli physicians that he liecamc aware of the miserable comlition in which the Proveiu.id Jews lived, and he did what he could to ameliorate it. Abraham proliably belonged to the Abigdor family, and has been idenlilied as the Abraham Abigdor (14;ii3-4S) mentioned in a list of physicians al Marseilles during the fourteenth and tifteenth ceiituries ("Rev. f;t. Juives." vii. 294). Here Abraham
K.
ABRAHAM SIRALAVO. See Am: M. ABRAHAM BEN SOLOMON:
Maximin a Hebrew, very
learned anrl widely known in niediciiU'. a celebrated pher named Abnihain .Solomon, who, despite the fact was a Jew, stood in hit'b favor with the prandees of especially with Rene of Anjou. As the king desired
philosothat ho bis day, to keep
from payInK the taxes usu-
Tliis is not surprising on the part of Rene, who devoted a great part of his life to art, and especially
to u
120
ABRAHAM BEN SOLOMON SELAMA. Sulumon. See Si:i.Ai. .Vuumiam ABRAHAM BEN SOLOMON OF TORRUI'.i;.n
TIEL
(Spain): Historian: lived at the end of the tifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth. When only nine or ten years old. lie was compelled to leave Sjiain (1492) in the company of those Ferdinand and Isabella had driven from thi'ir homes. He seems to have been of the family of Asher ben Jehiel, he calls 'jnx. while he speaks of Asher's father as '3'pt. iVpimreutly, his teacher
whom
whom
was one Jacob 7XI?; which name Graetz takes to be a mistake of the copyist for Alfual, while llarkavy emends it to " Al-Wali." Abraham went with a number of the exiles to Fez, Morocco, and with them sutl'ered much through want, and by a lire which broke out in the city eight mouths after his arrival. In later years
Abraham ben Solomon wrote an appendix to "Sefer ha-Kabbalah." the historical work of Abraham ibn Daud. continuing an account of the Jews from the year in which Abraham ibn Daud died (IIW)) to the year l.")2'"). This aiiiiendix made U]) of three parts: (1) A list of learned men not mentioned by Abraham ibn Daud, taken largely from the "Sefer Zeker Zaddik " of Joseph ibn Zaddik (2) a list of learned men from the time of Abraham ibn Daud down to that of Isiiac Campanton (1408) a man for whom he expresses the highest admiration; (8) a history of the kings that ruled in Spain up to Ferdinand an account of the expulsion of tlu! Jews from Spain, of the learned men that lived after Campanton. and of the fortunes of In the preface he promises to add the exiles in Fez. what Abraham Zacuto has to say upon the events that haiipened between the years l.')09and l.'iW. The third section is of the most interest. Like the author of the "Shebct Yehudah," Abraham, though young at the time, was an eye-witness of the events that he narrates with so much feeling. He .speaks with much bitterness of the altitude of the rich men of Spain, who, with Abraham .Senior, chief rabbi of Castile, at their head, preferred to change their faith rather than suffer martyrdom or exile. He holds that the expulsion of 1492 was a just sentence of God u]ion the Jews of .Spain, because of their many sins, and especially on account is
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