Yehudah ben Todros (I) Ben Todros Halevi HaLevi Abulafia

Abulafia (Arabic: أبو العافية‎, Abou l-Afiyya or Abu l-Afia, Hebrew: אבולעפיה, Abulafia) is a surname whose etymological origin is Arabic.

The romanized version of the surname is most commonly Abulafia. Other variations also exist, mostly in English transliterations, including:

Aboulafia, Abolafia, Abouelafia, Aboulafiya, Abulafiya, Aboulafiyya.

Etymologically, the surname is derived from the Arabic words أبو (Abu or Abou; literally "Father" but also carrying the meaning "Owner")' plus the definite article الـ (al or el, or simply l if the preceding word ends with a vowel, to which it attaches itself; meaning "the") and عافية (Afiyya or Afia; literally "Health/Wellbeing" but also carrying the meaning "Power"). Together they form "Abou l-Afiyya" or "Abu l-Afia" (in Medieval Spanish rendered as a single word "Abulafia"), meaning "Father [of] the Health/Wellbeing" or "Owner [of] the Power".

Abulafia (Abū ʾl-ʿĀfiya) Family

The Abulafia family (also Abulafia, Abulefia; from Ar. Abū ʾl-ʿĀfiya, father [possessor] of good health) was an influential Sephardic family of rabbis, intellectuals, poets, dayyanim, communal leaders and Court Jews in Spain in the Middle Ages. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, many of its descendants settled in the Ottoman Empire, where they continued to serve as rabbinic and communal leaders and halakhic decisors (Heb. posqim).

The most important branch of the family lived in Toledo from the twelfth century onward, and its members were generally called Levi (Ar. al-Lawī) Abulafia. Famous members of this family include the physician Moses ben Meʾir (d. 1255); Joseph ben Meʾir, rabbi of Seville (d. 1341); and the communal leaders and courtiers Meʾir ben Joseph, Meʾir ben Solomon (d. 1349–1350), and Samuel ben Meʾir (d. 1380). Meʾir ben Ṭodros Abulafia (ca. 1170–1244), known as the Rama, was a Talmud commentator, thinker, and poet who lived in Toledo; Ṭodros ben Joseph was a kabbalist who was born in 1220 in Burgos and died in Toledo in 1298; Samuel ben Meʾir ha-Levi (ca. 1320–1361) was a communal leader, diplomat, and courtier who built the magnificent synagogue in Toledo in 1357 (now the Museo Sefardí), and was tortured to death by Pedro the Cruel in 1360. Samuel Ha-Levi was a scientist and engineer employed by Alfonso X of Castile in the thirteenth century; Ṭodros ben Judah ha-Levi (1247–after 1298) was a poet in Toledo. Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (1240–ca. 1291) was a kabbalist who considered himself a prophet and messiah. Samuel Abulafia of Almería was a courtier during the campaign of Isabelle and Ferdinand against Granada in 1484. The New Christian Juan Fernandez was a victim of the first auto-da-fé in Seville in 1481.

Many members of the Abulafia family were active in the communities of the Ottoman Empire as rabbis, dayyanim (Heb. judges), legal decisors (Heb. posqim), and kabbalists. They include Jacob ben Solomon (ca. 1550–ca. 1622); Ḥayyim ben Jacob (I) (1580–1668); the kabbalist and rabbinic decisor Ḥayyim ben Jacob Abulafia (II) (ca. 1660–1744), who renewed the Jewish community of Tiberias in 1740; Ḥayyim ben David Abulafia (ca. 1700–1775), known as the Baḥur; Abraham Ezekiel ben Solomon (d. after 1831), a rabbi in Tiberias from the second half of the eighteenth century through the beginning of the nineteenth; Ḥayyim Issachar ben Joseph David, known as Rabbenu (1884–September 25, 1970), ḥakham bashi (Turk. chief rabbi) in Tiberias from 1911 to 1920; Ḥayyim Solomon ben Ezekiel, born in Tiberias and served as emissary of the community from 1816 to 1820 and in 1829; Jacob ben Issachar ben Ḥayyim (d. 1792), who lived in Istanbul and settled in Tiberias, serving as chief rabbi of the community from 1789; Isaac ben Ḥayyim (after 1720–1764), born in Safed. In 1725, Isaac settled in Izmir (Smyrna), returning with his father to Tiberias in 1740 in order to help him renew the community. From 1743 to 1755 Isaac was the leader of the community; he died in Istanbul in July 1764.

Other prominent members of the family include Isaac ben Issachar (d. Tiberias, March 17, 1825) , who served as leader of the communities of Tiberias and Safed; Joseph David (I) ben Issachar (d. Tiberias, 1837) and his grandson Joseph David (II) ben Issachar, known as Rabbi (d. 1898) were also prominent Tiberian members of the family. Moses ben Ḥayyim Nissim was arrested in Damascus in 1840 during the Damascus Affair. Moses converted to Islam and debated with Rabbi Jacob ʿAntebi concerning the blood libel. Moses returned to Judaism but lost his status as a communal leader. Moses’s son was Isaac ben Moses (1824–1910), rabbi and halakhist. Issachar ben Ḥayyim (1726–1781) was leader of the Tiberias community from 1765 onward, and an emissary (Heb. shadar) of the community between 1767 and 1771. From 1771 until his death on May 4, 1781, he served as the rabbi of Sofia. His grave was considered a holy place. All of his works were burned in a fire in 1893. Ḥayyim Nissim ben IsaacAbulafia (1775–1861) was a rabbi and halakhist. Joseph Samuel b. Meir Issachar (1845–1893) was born in Tiberias and served as the community’s emissary to Tunis, where he died on October 1, 1893. Michael Raphael Shabbetay ben Ezekiel lived in Tiberias, which his grandfather Ḥayyim Abulafia had renewed in 1740, and served as the community’s emissary to Turkey from 1794 to 1801. His son Ezekiel Eliezer (d. January 9, 1859) served in the same capacity from 1827 to 1855, and was the emissary of Tiberias from 1827 to 1835. Raphael Abulafia, a dayyan and Jewish legal decisor in Istanbul in the second half of the nineteenth century, wrote Torat ha-Minhagot (Customary Practices), a work still in manuscript, on the traditions of the Istanbul community. Solomon Raḥamim ben Ḥayyim Nissim (d. June 3, 1907), a rabbi in Tiberias, served as an emissary of the community in 1871 and was ḥakham bashi for a few months in 1899.

Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky

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Citation Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky. " Abulafia (Abū ʾl-ʿĀfiya) Family." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 14 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>