Isaac ben Abraham Akrish (; – after 1578) was a
Sephardi
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
scholar, bibliophile, and editor.
Biography
Isaac ben Abraham Akrish was born in
Salonika
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, the son of
exiles from Spain who settled there in 1495 after briefly living in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
.
Though
lame
Lame or LAME may refer to:
Music
* "Lame" (song) by Unwritten Law
* ''Lame'' (album) by Iame
People
* Ibrahim Lame (born 1953), Nigerian educator and politician
* Jennifer Lame (), American film editor
* Quintín Lame (1880–1967), Colombian ...
in both legs, Akrish travelled extensively throughout his life. His primary interest was in
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
s which he attempted to save from destruction.
The course of his tiresome travels at length brought him to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. There he was taken into the house of the
Radbaz
David ben Solomon ibn (Abi) Zimra ( he, ר׳ דָּוִד בֶּן שְׁלֹמֹה אִבְּן אָבִי זִמְרָא) (1479–1573) also called Radbaz (רַדְבָּ"ז) after the initials of his name, Rabbi David iBn Zimra, was an early A ...
(David ibn Abi Zimra), an immigrant who had attained to a high communal position. An avid bibliophile, Akrish spent his money on
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
s whom he hired to copy the Radbaz's manuscripts, amassing a large collection of documents.
Akrish remained at Cairo as private tutor to the Radbaz's children and grandchildren for about ten years (about 1543–1553), until his patron's emigration to the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
. Akrish then left for
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, stopping in
Candia. There, his books were confiscated by the Venetian government in the wake of the recent decree by
Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III ( la, Iulius PP. III; it, Giulio III; 10 September 1487 – 23 March 1555), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 February 1550 to his death in March 155 ...
to burn the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
. After successfully regaining his collection, he settled in Constantinople where
Esther Handali
Esther Handali (died 18 or 19 December 1588Pedani, Maria Pia. “Safiye's Household and Venetian Diplomacy”. Turcica 32 (2000). ) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and ''Kira'' (business agent) of Nurbanu Su ...
and
Joseph Nasi
Joseph Nasi (1524, Portugal – 1579, Konstantiniyye), known in Portuguese as João Miques, was a Portuguese Sephardi diplomat and administrator, member of the House of Mendes/Benveniste, nephew of Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi, and an influential fi ...
supported his efforts to amass manuscripts. Most of his books were destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1569 which devoured almost the whole Jewish quarter; he left Constantinople for
Kastoria
Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...
where he lived in poverty for the rest of his life.
Work
In his later life Akrish edited a series of books and documents he had collected during his travels. In about 1577 he published a collection of ten documents (afterward called ''Kobetz Vikkuḥim''), containing notably the satirical letter addressed by
Profiat Duran
Profiat Duran (c. 1350 – c. 1415) (Hebrew: פרופייט דוראן), full Hebrew name Isaac ben Moses ha-Levi; was a Jewish apologist/polemicist, philosopher, physician, grammarian, and controversialist in the 14th century. He was later sometim ...
to his former friend David En-Bonet, ''Al Tehi ka-Avotekha'' ('Be Not Like Thy Fathers'). The same volume contained, also, the proselyting epistle of the apostate
Astruc Remoch to his young friend En-Shaltiel Bonfas, the satirical reply to it by
Solomon Bonfed, a polemical letter of
Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera
Shem-Tov ben Joseph ibn Falaquera, also spelled Palquera ( he, שם טוב בן יוסף אבן פלקירה; 1225 – c. 1290) was a Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet and commentator. A vast body of work is attributed to Falaquera, includi ...
, and ''Kunteres Ḥibbut ha-Kever'' by Akrish himself.
He also edited a second collection of documents, largely of a historical character. The first part bore the title ''Ma'aseh Beit David'', and contained the history of
Bostanai Bostanai (Hebrew: בוסתנאי), also transliterated as Bustenai or Bustnay, was the first Exilarch (leader of the Jewish community of Mesopotamia) under Arab rule. He lived in the early-to-middle of the 7th century, and died about 660 CE. The na ...
; the second, that of ''Kol Mebasser'', comprising
a correspondence between
Hasdai ibn Shaprut
Hasdai (Abu Yusuf ben Yitzhak ben Ezra) ibn Shaprut ( he, חסדאי אבן שפרוט; ar, حسداي بن شبروط, Abu Yussuf ibn Shaprut) born about 915 at Jaén, Spain; died about 970 at Córdoba, Andalusia, was a Jewish scholar, ph ...
and the king of the
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
that he had recovered in his travels; and the letter of
Elijah of Ferrara. In addition to other works, Akrish is said to have edited a triple commentary upon the
Song of Songs along with a few other Hebrew polemical works.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akrish, Isaac
16th-century Sephardi Jews
Book and manuscript collectors
Jews from Thessaloniki
Writers from Cairo
Writers from Istanbul
Year of birth uncertain