Iacob Tam (Schlomo) ben David Ibn Yahya

Jacob ben David Tam Ibn Yaḥya (ca. 1475–1542) was one of the leading Jewish scholars in Istanbul and indeed the Ottoman Empire during the first half of the sixteenth century. In addition to Judaica and rabbinics, he commanded a broad knowledge of medicine, Islamic law, and other subjects. Jacob was born in Lisbon into a prosperous and distinguished family of rabbis, scholars, and communal leaders. His father, David ben Solomon Ibn Yaḥya (ca. 1440–1524), was rabbi of the community, but was driven from the country under persecution by King João II(r. 1481–1495) while Jacob was still quite young. The family lived in a number of places, including Naples, where they encountered further hardships. Around 1496 or 1497 Jacob ibn Yaḥya arrived in Istanbul, the new Ottoman capital, where his erudition soon established him as a prominent scholar both within the Jewish community and in the city at large. Chief Rabbi Elijah ben Abraham Mizraḥi, known by his Hebrew acronym as the Reʾem (1450 or 1454–1525 or 1527), appointed Ibn Yaḥya to the Istanbul rabbinical court, and in 1512 sent him to take charge of the collection of communal taxes in Salonica. Like Mizraḥi, Ibn Yaḥya was tolerant in his dealings with Karaites (see Karaism). Although opposed to kabbalism, he was similarly lenient here and studied its texts at length. Some of his legal rulings in other spheres were more stringent, however. Ibn Yaḥya made a point of learning Arabic and Turkish in Istanbul (he already knew Spanish) and also studied the Qurʾān, reportedly attaining sufficient mastery that Islamic judges (qāḍīs) consulted with him. His medical knowledge gained him an appointment to the medical corps, and he served as a physician to Kanuni Sultan Süleyman I(Suleiman the Magnificent; r. 1520–1566).

After Elijah Mizraḥi’s death in the late 1520s, the various ethnic groups in the Istanbul Jewish community could not at first agree upon a successor. They eventually selected Jacob Tam Ibn Yaḥya, but his authority as chief rabbi may not have extended beyond Istanbul. Ibn Yaḥya was a prolific author on both religious and profane subjects, but a fire in the capital in 1541 destroyed most of his writings. One of his contemporaries wrote that the loss of his life’s work broke his spirit and hastened his death, and, in fact, he died the next year (1542). Sometime later, 213 of his surviving responsa were collected under the title Ohale Tam (The Tents of the Pure) and published in the volume Tummat Yesharim (The Integrity of the Upright; Venice, 1622). The book also included a list of his destroyed works. Among them were a large commentary on the great compendium of talmudic law by Isaac al-Fāsī (d. 1103); Maʿase Nissim, an unfinished compilation of laws (halakhot) by Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi (1320–1380); ʿAl ha-Nissim, an intellectual dispute with Nissim in the style of conceptual extrapolation (pilpul); a large book of talmudic laws that he cited repeatedly in his responsa; as well as responsa, interpretations, commentaries, collections of homiletical sermons, and books on secular matters. The influence of Ibn Yaḥya’s works stretched far beyond the Ottoman Empire to France and Germany.

Ibn Yaḥya had two sons, both of whom were rabbis and physicians —Joseph (d. 1534) and Gedaliah Ibn Yaḥya (d. 1575). The elder, Don Joseph, was an assistant physician to Süleyman I. According to Rosanes, he was very generous and despite his high rank displayed great humility (not a common virtue among court Jews). He accompanied the sultan on his campaign against the Safavid Empire, falling in battle during the conquest of Iraq in 1534. Rosanes claimed that his death was mourned not only by the community but even by the sultan and his ministers. Jacob Tam Ibn Yaḥya also had a daughter who married Solomon (III) ben Isaac (II) ha-Levi (1581–1634).

D Gershon Lewental

Bibliography

Carmoly, Eliakim. Divre ha-Yamim li-Vne Ya ḥ ya (Frankfurt a. M.: Kaufmann, 1850).

Galanté, Abraham. Histoire des Juifs de Turquie (Istanbul: Isis, 1985), vol. 1, p. 237; vol. 9, pp. 48–50.

Levy, Avigdor. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1992), pp. 5, 39, 57.

Rosanes, Salomon A. Qorot ha-Yehudim be-Turqiya u-va-Ar ṣ ot ha-Qedem: mi-Shenat 5280 ʿad Shenat 5335, 1520–1574 (Sofia: Defus ha-Mishpaṭ, 1937–38), vol. 2, pp. 6–9.

Shaw, Stanford J. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (New York: New York University Press, 1991), pp. 102, 272.

Shmuelevitz, Aryeh. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the Late Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Centuries: Administrative, Economic, Legal, and Social Relations as Reflected in the Responsa (Leiden: Brill, 1984), pp. 49, 82, 188, 193.

D Gershon Lewental. " Ibn Yaḥya, Jacob Tam ben David." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2012. Reference. Jim Harlow. 09 July 2012 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>

Reference: "Divrei ha-Yamim le-Bnei Yahya,( דברי הימים לבני יחייא )", by Eliakim Carmoly, Printed in Frankfort am Main/Rodelheim, Published by: Isak Kaufman, 1850. Genealogy of, and biographical work on, the Yahya family by Eliakim Carmoly. There is an introduction from Carmoly, in which he informs that the Yahya family is one of distinction from the time of Maimonides. Originally achieving greatness in Portugal and Spain, they after settled in Italy and Turkey. The text is preceded by a chart of the family, beginning with the Nasi, Don Yahya, and concluding with Don Gedalia. The text, in seven chapters, is set in a single column, primarily in rabbinic type although there are instances of vocalized square letters, and is accompanied by extensive footnotes. The final page is an announcement of the forthcoming publication of seven minor Yerushalmi tractates by Carmoli. The text of this book was compared to the "bin Yahya Family Tapestry", currently stored in the antiquity archives of Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, by Abraham Greenstein - grandson of Abraham Gindi HaKohen. The text matches the Tapestry.

A Talmudic authority, Iacobo Tam succeeded Elijah Mizraḥ as rabbi of the Turkish capital. He was the body-physician of Sultan Sulaiman and a renowned authority on Shariah law. His 213 responsa, "Ohole Tam," form a part of "Tummat Yesharim" Tam had three sons, Avraham, Joseph and Gedaliah, and a grandson, Tam ben Gedaliah.

Reference: "Divrei ha-Yamim le-Bnei Yahya,( דברי הימים לבני יחייא )", by Eliakim Carmoly, Printed in Frankfort am Main/Rodelheim, Published by: Isak Kaufman, 1850. Genealogy of, and biographical work on, the Yahya family by Eliakim Carmoly. There is an introduction from Carmoly, in which he informs that the Yahya family is one of distinction from the time of Maimonides. Originally achieving greatness in Portugal and Spain, they after settled in Italy and Turkey. The text is preceded by a chart of the family, beginning with the Nasi, Don Yahya, and concluding with Don Gedalia. The text, in seven chapters, is set in a single column, primarily in rabbinic type although there are instances of vocalized square letters, and is accompanied by extensive footnotes. The final page is an announcement of the forthcoming publication of seven minor Yerushalmi tractates by Carmoli.

Some posters have implied that Rabbi Shlomo lived in Ancona and/or Pisa, Italy

Rabbi Shlomo died in Salonica according the to the reference noted above. There is no record of his living in Ancona or Pisa.