Abba Mari ben Isaac of St Gilles was a prominent French Jewish official who flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, and lived at
Saint-Gilles, near
Lunel, in
Languedoc.
According to
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela ( he, בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה, ; ar, بنيامين التطيلي ''Binyamin al-Tutayli''; Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre, 1130 Castile, 1173) was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, an ...
, who visited the Jewish community of that place, Abba Mari held the office of ''bailli'' (magistrate) about 1165, having been appointed by
Raymond V, who was friendly to the Jews. The monarch made St. Gilles the second capital of his country. That a Jew was in those times chosen to so high an office is a fact of some importance, as it goes far to show the position which the Jews occupied in southern France previous to the war with the
Albigenses. The war lasted until 1229. Some scholars pretend to see in this Abba Mari the father of
Isaac ben Abba Mari
Isaac ben Abba Mari (c. 1122 – c. 1193) was a Provençal rabbi who hailed from Marseilles. He is often simply referred to as "Ba'al ha-Ittur," after his ''Magnum opus'', ''Ittur Soferim''.
Biography
Isaac's father, a great rabbinical authority ...
, the author of the ''
' Iṭṭur.'' In this work Isaac refers to his father as a prominent
Talmudist, from which circumstance it is inferred that the subject of this sketch was not only a high official but also a Talmudic scholar—a deduction which has been completely set aside by Gross.
References
12th-century French rabbis
12th-century French judges
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