Abū Zikrī "Yehudah" ben Yosef ben Simḥa, Rosh haSeder

Judah ben Joseph of Qayrawan

Judah ben Joseph b. Simḥa was perhaps the most important figure in the Jewish community of Qayrawān toward the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh. Known in Arabic as Abū Zikrī/Zakarīyāʾ (the usual kunya for the name Judah), he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Qayrawān and was on very good terms with the Zirid sultan of Tunisia, al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs (r. 1016–1062), and especially with the young sultan’s influential aunt Umm Mallāl, who, if indeed “the illustrious mistress” (Ar. al-sayyida al-jalīla) mentioned by Judah in a letter written toward the end of his life (ca. 1020), sent him as a gift “a dove-colored mule from her [stable] with a [beautiful] saddle . . . and beautiful robes of honor” (Ar. baghla fākhitīya[?] min […]hā bi-sarj . . . wa-khilaʿ ḥisān; trans. per Goitein, pp. 79–82). According to Goitein, Judah was administrator of the sultan’s economic activities and was uniquely privileged with authority to make use of the sultan’s ship for his own trading ventures. Judah’s governmental influence was apparently long-standing, for he was able to successfully intervene with Zirid officials on behalf of the Jews “resettled” from Fez to Ashīr (apparently by Buluggīn ibn Zīrī) around 980.

For his exertions on behalf of the Jewish communities of the Maghreb, as also for his wealth, generosity, and learning, Judah was immortalized in poetic compositions by Hay Gaon (Fleischer, pp. 473–482), Isaac ibn Khalfūn (Mirsky, no. 6, and perhaps, according to Fleischer, nos. 37–40), and at least one other, anonymous poet (Fleischer, pp. 466–467). Judah is also distinguished in the extant sources by the titles rosh sidra/rosh ha-seder , rosh kalla, alluf , and alluf rav peʿalim, and is mentioned in the responsa of the Pumbedita gaons Sherira and Hay. That he died ca. 1020 is evident from a letter written at that time by the sons of Berechiah, Joseph and Nissim (Gil, vol. 2, §149), in which reference is made to “the death in this year of Abī Zikrī Judah, may his rest be in Eden” (Jud.-Ar. wafāt Abī Zikrī Yehūdā n[%C5%ABḥ%C5%8D] ʿ[%C4%93den] fī hādhihī ʾl-sana). He was survived by several sons, one of whom bore the name Dūnash, and the others, perhaps, Isaac, Joseph, Abraham, and David (see Fleischer, p. 458). Four of Judah’s letters (including the aforementioned) are extant, for the most recent editions of which see Gil, vol. 2, §§154–157.

Michael G. Wechsler

Bibliography

Ben-Sasson, Menahem. The Emergence of the Local Jewish Community in the Muslim World: Qayrawan, 800–1057, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997) [Hebrew].

Fleischer, Ezra. “Shiro shel Rav Hayy Ga’on el Rav Yehuda Ro’sh ha-Seder mi-Qayrawān—Nesibbotav u-Sevivotav,” Tarbiṣ 65, no. 3 (1995/96): 451–482.

Gil, Moshe. Be-Malkhut Yishmaʾel bi-Tqufat ha-Ge’onim, 4 vols. (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1997); vol. 1 rev. and trans. D. Strassler as Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

Goitein, S. D. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973).

Mann, Jacob. Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, 2 vols. (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1931).

Mirsky, Aharon. Shire R. Yiṣḥaq ibn-Khalfun (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1961).