Ibrahim ben Ḥasan Ibn Bundār, al-Aden

Ibn Bundār, Ḥasan , Abū ‘Alī (Japheth)

Abū ‘Alī Ḥasan (Japheth) ibn Bundār, in the second half of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth, was the “representative/trustee of the merchants” (Heb. peqid ha-soḥerim; Ar. wakīl al-tujjār) in Aden and “ head of the [Jewish] communities” (Heb. rosh/śar ha-qehillot; Ar. rayyis) in southern Yemen. The name Bundār (Pers. established, intelligent, rich) indicates that either he or his predecessors came to Yemen from Iran—the former scenario being more likely, because Ḥasan is the first member of the Bundār family in Yemen attested in the extant records (Goitein, Yemenites, pp. 78–79). The same name is also attested in the Cairo Geniza for the head of a congregation in or around the city of Ḥelwān in northwestern Iran. Geniza letters further indicate that Ḥasan traveled to the Malabar Coast in India on business and that he was involved in the resolution of a lawsuit between Jekuthiel (Abū Ya‘qūb) al-Ḥakīm and Joseph Lebdi (Ibn al-Lebdīya), from the latter of whom we have three letters addressed to Ḥasan, written from Fustat ca. 1098 (see Goitein and Friedman, pp. 198–208).

After Ḥasan’s death, his son Maḍmūn (one of three, the others being Bundār, the eldest, and Abraham) succeeded his father as leader of the merchants and of the Jewish community in Aden. He was “officially” confirmed in the latter position around 1140 by the dual commission of the head of the Palestinian yeshiva (Maṣliaḥ Gaon ben Solomon) and the Babylonian exilarch. In addition to bearing his father’s titles, Maḍmūn is also described in the sources as “prince [of the Jewish community] in Aden and the Indian Ocean” (Jud.-Ar. negīd ‘Adan wa-’l-Hind), “prince of the land of Yemen” (Heb. negīd ereṣ teman), “vicegerent of the multitude” (segan ha-hamulla), “friend of the yeshiva” (yedid ha-yeshiva), “prince of princes” (śar ha-śarim), “distinguished scholar” ( alluf ), and “[the] one appointed by the heads of the diasporas and the heads of the yeshivot over all of Israel, and the trustee of the rulers who are in the cities of the sea and in the desert” (Jud.-Ar. memunneh min raʾshe galuyyot u-min raʾshe yeshivot ‘alā yis. jamīʿihim ve-ne’eman ha-shalliṭim asher hem bi-mdin[o]t ha-yam va-asher hem ba-midbar).

The Bundār family seems to have retained its leadership status in the Adeni Jewish community for some time, since the title of nagid is also attested in connection with Maḍmūn’s son Ḥalfon (Khalaf), his grandson David ben Ḥalfon, his great-grandson Maḍmūn/Shemariah(?) (b. David), and his great-great-grandsons Ḥalfon and Jeshua (benē Maḍmūn).

Michael G. Wechsler

Bibliography

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

———. A Mediterranean Society, 6 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967–1993).

———. The Yemenites: History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life, ed. Menahem Ben-Sasson (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1983) [Hebrew].

——— and Mordechai Akiva Friedman. India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Genizah (“India Book”) (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

Margariti, Roxani Eleni. Aden & the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

Citation Michael G. Wechsler. " Ibn Bundār, Ḥasan , Abū ‘Alī (Japheth)." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 24 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>