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Etymology | Possibly derived from the Spanish locality, Alfambra |
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Alfandari was a family of eastern rabbis prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries, found in Smyrna, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The name may be derived from a Spanish locality, perhaps from Alfambra. The following is a list of the chief members of the family:
Members of this family were to be found as of 1906 in Constantinople and in Beirut. A Portuguese family of the name Alphandéry still exists, as of 1906, in Paris and Avignon. In Avignon there was a physician, Moses Alphandéry, in 1506, [1] and a Lyon Alphanderic, in 1558. [2] Compare the names Moses אלפנדריך [3] and Aaron אלפנדארק. [4]
In addition to the persons mentioned above, there is known a Solomon Alfandari (Valencia, 1367), whose son Jacob assisted Samuel Ẓarẓa in tranṣlating the Sefer ha-'Aẓamim of pseudo-ibn Ezra from Arabic into Hebrew. A merchant, Isaac Alfandari, was wrecked in 1529 on the Nubian coast. [5] In Israeli popular culture, the principal family in the 1973 film Daughters, Daughters is named Alfandari.
For a possible explanation of the name, see Steinschneider. [6]
Henri Alfandari has been a French Member of Parliament since 2022.
Rabbi Samuel ben Moses de Medina, was a Talmudist and author from Thessaloniki. He was principal of the Talmudic college of that city, which produced a great number of prominent scholars during the 16th and 17th centuries. His teachers were the noted Talmudists Joseph Taitazak and Levi Ibn Chaviv, and among his schoolmates were Isaac Adarbi, Joseph ibn Leb, and Moses Almosnino. While on a mission to Constantinople he met the noted grammarian Menahem Lonzano, who studied under him for some time and who therefore speaks of him as his teacher.
Isaac Israeli ben Joseph or Yitzhak ben Yosef was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer/astrologer who flourished at Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century.
Solomon ben Jacob Almoli was a rabbi, physician and Hebrew author of the sixteenth century; lived in the Ottoman Empire, probably in Constantinople. As a physician he seems to have enjoyed quite a reputation, but he is better known as a Hebrew grammarian. He appears to have become a man of wealth in later years, for he published at his own expense numerous grammatical works. Thus in 1529 he published Ibn Ezra's "Yesod Mora," and in 1530 the work "Sefat Yeter" by the same author. To an edition of Ibn Yaḥyah's "Leshon Limmudim" in 1542 he supplied an introductory poem beginning with the words "Reu Sefer." Outside of the frequently reprinted "Pitron Ḥalomot," his other works are extremely rare.
Joseph ben Shem-Tov ibn Shem-Tov was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de León (1441); Alcalá de Henares (1451); and Segovia (1454).
Simeon ben Zemah Duran, also Tzemach Duran, known as Rashbatz (רשב"ץ) or Tashbatz, was a prominent Jewish scholar, rabbinic authority, and polemicist. He was proficient in various fields, including philosophy, mathematics, natural sciences, astronomy, and medicine. Born in Medieval Spain, he fled with his family to Algeria in the aftermath of the 1391 pogroms that devastated the Jewish community of Spain. In 1408, he became the rabbinic leader of Algerian Jewry, earning widespread recognition for his legal rulings in Spain, North Africa, France, and Italy.
Joseph ben Tzaddik was a rabbi in Arevalo, in Spain, during the fifteenth century. He was the author of a treatise entitled Zeker Ẓaddiḳ, on ritual matters, in fifty chapters, which by 1900 was still in manuscript. The last chapter contains a chronicle of Jewish worthies from the Creation down to the day of the writer; the last entry being dated 1487. A few of the events near or in his own time are treated somewhat fully. The rest is made up of names and dates which are often distorted, both by the author and by the writer of the manuscript. Nearly all the data given in the historical chapter are found in the Yuḥasin of Abraham Zacuto. According to Neubauer, the two authors drew from a common source.
Samuel ibn Seneh Zarza was a Spanish philosopher who lived in Palencia in the second half of the 14th century. According to Leopold Zunz, his surname is derived from the Spanish town Zarza, and is accordingly synonymous with the Hebrew "seneh." Of his life no details are known, for while in his notes on the Sefer ha-Yuḥasin Samuel Shullam states that Zarza was burned at the stake by the tribunal of Valencia on the denunciation of Isaac Campanton, who accused him of denying the creation of the world, historians have proved this assertion a mere legend. Although a comparatively unimportant writer, if his two works may serve as a criterion, Zarza ranked high in the estimation of his contemporaries, so that the poet Solomon Reubeni of Barcelona and the astronomer Isaac ibn Al-Ḥadib composed poems in his honor.
Hayyim ben Isaac Raphael Alfandari was rabbi in Constantinople during the latter half of the 17th and in the beginning of the 18th century. In his old age he went to Palestine, where he died. He was the author of Esh Dat, a collection of homilies printed together with his uncle's Muẓẓal me-Esh in Constantinople, 1718. Several short treatises by him are published in the works of others. Azulai speaks very highly of him as a scholar and as a preacher.
Hayyim ben Jacob Alfandari was a talmudic educator and writer, teaching at Constantinople in 1618. He was the pupil of Aaron ben Joseph Sason. Some of his responsa were published in the Maggid me-Reshit, Constantinople, 1710, which contains also the responsa of his son Isaac Raphael, and which was edited by his grandson Hayyim ben Isaac Raphael. His novellæ on several Talmudic treatises are still extant in manuscript.
Solomon ben Judah of Lunel was a Provençal philosopher. His Provençal name was Solomon Vives. When he was only 13 years of age he composed, under the direction of his master, Frat Maimon, a commentary on the Cuzari of Judah ha-Levi. This commentary is extant in manuscript under the title Ḥesheḳ Shelomoh. The young author displays in this work a considerable knowledge of the philosophical literature of his time. From a quotation made therein, it seems that Solomon wrote another commentary on the Ruaḥ Ḥen, which he wrongly attributes to Samuel ibn Tibbon.
Jacob ben Nissim ibn Shahin was a Jewish philosopher and mathematician who lived in Kairouan, Tunisia, in the 10th century; he was a younger contemporary of Saadia. At Jacob's request, Sherira Gaon wrote a treatise entitled Iggeret, on the redaction of the Mishnah. Jacob is credited with the authorship of an Arabic commentary on the Sefer Yeẓirah.
Samuel ben Jacob ibn Jam or Samuel ben Jacob Jam'a was rabbi of the North-African community of קאבס (Gabès?) who flourished in the 12th century. He was on intimate terms with Abraham ibn Ezra, who dedicated to him his Ḥai ben Meḳiẓ and mentioned eulogiously three of his sons — Judah, Moses, and Jacob.
Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus was a French Jewish philosopher and controversialist. He lived at Arles, perhaps at Avignon also, and in other places in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Mordecai ben Eliezer Comtino was a Talmudist and scientist.
Caleb Afendopolo was a Jewish polyhistor. He was the brother of Samuel ha-Ramati, ḥakam of the Karaite congregations in Constantinople and of Judah Bali, brother-in-law and disciple of Elijah Bashyatzi.
Moses ibn Tibbon was a Jewish physician, author and translator in Provence. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon suggest that he reached a great age.
Nathan Judah ben Solomon was a Provençal Jewish physician and scholar of the fourteenth century. His Provençal names were En Bongodas and Bonjues and he was probably a native of Avignon, where lived many other members of the Nathan family. Judah, like all the other members of his family, added to his father's name the formula "of the race of Ben Jesse," which is probably an allusion to the house of David, from which several Provençal families claimed to be descended.
David ben Judah Messer Leon was an Italian rabbi, physician and writer, who defended the value of secular disciplines and the Renaissance humanities as an important part of traditional Jewish studies.
Elijah ben Moses Ashkenazi Loans also known as Elijah Baal Shem of Worms was a German rabbi and Kabbalist.
Aaron ben Gershon Abu Al-Rabi of Catania was a Sicilian-Jewish scholar, cabalist, and astrologer of the 15th century.