Labrat Habib "Shabib" ben Ya'akob al-Qairouan, Rosh haPereq

Shabīb ben Jacob

Shabīb ben Jacob was a resident of Qayrawān, Ifrīqiya (Tunisia), in the latter half of the ninth century, and is one of five named individuals attested by documents from the Cairo Geniza as spiritual-halakhic authorities (i.e., bearers of the title rav and rabbana) of Qayrawān’s Jewish community in that century (the others being Nathan ben Ḥananiah/Ḥanina, Judah ben Saul, Ḥonay, and Samuel). Shabīb is mentioned by Sherira Gaon as the recipient of a responsum written in 870 by Amram ben Sheshna Gaon (Lewin, p. 70, l. 1) and is also the addressee of an extant responsum from Naḥshon bar Ṣadoq (gaon of Sura from 872 to 879) as well as of one from an anonymous gaon based on a ruling of Naḥshon’s son Hay (gaon from 886 to 896); in the latter responsum Shabīb is also addressed by the title rosh ha-pereq. He also carried on correspondence with the Pumbedita yeshiva, since Ibn Jāmiʿ, in his supplement to the ʿ Arukh of Nathan ben Jeḥiel (Buber, p. 17), mentions a responsum sent to him (not to Sherira, per the editor’s correction) by Isaac Ṣemaḥ ben Palṭoy(gaon from 872 to 889).

Michael G. Wechsler

Bibliography

Assaf, Simcha (ed.). Gaonic Responsa from Geniza Mss. (Jerusalem: Darom, 1928) [Hebrew].

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

Buber, Salomon (ed.). “Einleitung un Ergänzungen zum Aruch von Rabbi Samuel ben Jacob G’ama,” in Jubelschrift zum siebzigsten Geburtstag des Prof. Dr. H. Graetz (Breslau, 1887, repr. Hildesheim, 1973), pp. 1–47 (Hebrew sec.).

Gil, Moshe. Be-Malkhut Yishmaʾʿel bi-Tequfat ha-Ge‘onim, 4 vols. (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1997); rev. Eng. trans. of vol. 1 by D. Strassler, Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

Lewin, B. M. (ed.). Ginze Qedem: Me’assef Madda‘i li-Tqufat ha-Ge’onim, vol. 1 (Haifa and Jerusalem, 1922).

Citation Michael G. Wechsler. " Shabīb ben Jacob." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 16 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>