ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1786 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1786 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 24 Nov 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a name appropriate for an Iberian Jewish woman around the year 950, and a peerage title that fits that culture. You are particular interested in the name , possibly with an additional phrase meaning "from Cordova". Here is what we have found. Before I begin, I'd like to thank you for your question. It's been a particularly interesting piece of research. I only wish we could have found more information for you. We have no sources for Jewish names in Iberia before the millenium. We have some good sources for Jewish names in Iberian Christian kingdoms in later centuries, and some sources for Jewish names in Islamic kingdoms outside Iberia. Cordova in your period was an important Islamic city, of course, having been conquered by Muslims in 756 and not re-captured by Christians until 1236 [13]; so our data isn't a great basis for answering your question. With that caveat, we'll offer our best suggestions. In our data, the general pattern in both Christian and Islamic kingdoms is that Jewish women used non-Hebrew names much more often than not and were generally known by their given names alone. Joseph Schatzmiller, in the best general survey of medieval European Jewish names that we've found, says: Les femmes juives, qui n'assument que peu de responsabilite/s religieuses ou juridiques, n'ont en ge/ne/ral qu'un seul nom, et assez souvent il s'agit d'une unique nom latin, arabe or allemand [1]. Jewish women, who bore few religious or juridical responsibilities, generally had only a single name, and quite often that one was a single Latin, Arabic, or German name. This is not to say that Hebrew names were not used in some cases. We have found examples in medieval Christian Spain of several [6, 7, 8]: Standard Medieval Spanish English Form Forms Hannah 13th c. Catalonia Sara and 13th c. Catalonia Miriam and 13th c. Catalonia Rachel in "El Cid" Esther 13th c. Catalonia; 14th c. Navarra Hava (Eve) 14th c. Navarra In medieval Egypt, we found the same basic pattern: Most women used standard Arabic names, though a few biblical names were used, comprising 2.5% of the names in our sample [10, 11]: Standard Medieval Egyptian English Form Forms (transliterated from Arabic or Hebrew characters) Rebecca and Sara Esther Miriam Schatzmiller notes French medieval examples of , , , and . He also notes that medieval Jews used only a fairly small sub-set of Old Testament names, and not always the expected ones. For that reason, we do not recommend using a biblical name without evidence that it was actually used in period. All our sources agree, though, that most women used non-Hebrew names, including many names that were also common among the surrounding Christian population. In most cases where we find a Jewish woman identified beyond her given name in Christian Europe, it is by a relational phrase, "daughter of" or "wife of" a man, which isn't treated as part of her name [2]. For example, these names were recorded in Catalonia between 1250 and 1400 [6]: Mancose uxori Abrahe de la Roxela "wife of Abraho de la Roxela" Adzero filee mei "my daughter" Baynole sorori mei "my sister" Regine filie Goyo filie mee "daughter of my daughter Goyo" Jewish men are sometimes identified by a locative phrase like in the example above, but we think this is less likely both for women and for your early period. We should note that we have studied vernacular sources for the most part, not Hebrew. It is possible that Jewish naming patterns in Hebrew are different from those in other languages; but Schatzmiller was far more familiar with the evidence and our advice is consistent with his findings. It's worth noting that in Christian Spain in your period surnames were just beginning to be used, typically appearing in less than 10% of names. Women's use of surnames developed later than men's [3]. This makes it more likely that, at least in vernacular records in Christian kingdoms, a 10th century Iberian Jewish woman's name would have consisted simply of a given name. In an Arabic culture, where both men and women were normally known as their father's children, we think it is likely that Jewish names would have followed the same pattern [12]. We suspect that a Jewish woman's name might have been constructed either with the Hebrew or the Arabic . Women in Arabic culture sometimes used other types of bynames. We have found an example of "the Cordovan [woman]" in Muslim Spain [12]. We have no suggestion for a Hebrew title suitable to your rank and culture. We suspect is not appropriate, since it is a masculine term; but we do not know what honorific might have been used for a learned woman in Hebrew. You may be able to find more information in Bernadette Brooten's book _Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue_ [5]. We can suggest two non-Hebrew titles appropriate to medieval Christian Spain: or its Latin form , which means "master" in the same sense as the English honorific for skilled artisans; and or its Latin form , which is best translated "lady". In your period, we would expect written records to use the Latin forms; we're not sure what would have been used in daily speech. We found the masculine Latin in use in your period [9]: Magister Leui (976) magister Gundesindo (994) The first of these is especially interesting since the given name appears to be the Hebrew name , suggesting that the title was used at least for Jewish men. The earliest feminine example we found is (12th century). We found vernacular forms of the title beginning in the 11th century: 1049, 1064, 1104-34, and = 1160 [9]. For the second title, we found the masculine form in 965, and feminine in 1079 [4]. In our Egyptian data, we found the byname "the schoolmistress" used by a Jewish woman [10]. This is the SCA's official Arabic form of , so it is one you may want to consider. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Jaida Tanfa, Raquel Buenaventura, Alan Fairfax, Alexander the Traveller, and Barak Raz. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 24 Nov 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Shatzmiller, Joseph, "Le Monde Juif", pp.87-96 in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996). [2] Our conclusions are drawn from various sources: Eleazar ha-Levi, "Jewish Naming Convention in Angevin England" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/jewish.html Eleazar ha-Levi, "Names Found on List of 11th to 16th Century Italian Jewish Scribes", in Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings, Aethelmearc, 1998. Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html Juliana de Luna, "Medieval Spanish Jewish Names of the 13th and 14th Centuries" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/iberian-jewish/ as well as reference [11] below, which is based on [10]. [3] Sopena, Pascual Marti/nez, ed., _Antroponimia y Sociedad_: Sistemas de identificacio/n hispano-cristianos en los siglos IX a XIII_, Historie y Sociedad no. 46 (Valladolid, Spain: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and Universidad de Valladolid, 1995). This book is a collection of articles on naming patterns throughout early medieval Christian Spain. They generally show the use of bynames being rare until the 11th century, gradually increasing in popularity over the next century or so, and then becoming the dominant naming pattern around 1200. Women's names were generally less complex than men's, with single names persisting longer. [4] Menedez-Pidal, Ramon, _Crestomati'a del Espan~ol Medieval_ (Madrid: 1971). [5] Brooten, Bernadette J., _Women leaders in the ancient synagogue : inscriptional evidence and background issues_ (Chico, Calif. : Scholars Press, c1982). [6] Burns, Robert I., _Jews in the Notarial Culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250-1350_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). [7] Carrasco Pe/rez, Juan _La Poblacio'n de Navarra en el Siglo XIV_ (Pamplona, Spain: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A, 1973). [8] _Poem of the Cid_, ed. Ramo/n Mene/ndez Pidal, trans. W. S. Merwin (New York, Meridian, 1975 [1959]). [9] Kremer, Dieter. 'Bemerkungen zu den mittelalterlichen hispanischen cognomina', in _Aufsa"tze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte_, vols. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. Sonderdruck aus Portugiesische Forschungen der Go"rresgesellschaft. Herausgegeben von Hans Flasche (Mu"nster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970-1981/82), VII:84. [10] Goitien, Solomon D., _A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza_, Vol III: The Family (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). [11] Juliana de Luna, "Jewish Women's Names in Arab Context: Names from the Geniza of Cairo", in preparation. [12] Juliana de Luna, "Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain", in preparation. The article is based on Manuela Mari/n, _Estudios Onoma/stico-biogra/ficos de al-Andalus_, 8 volumes (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienti/ficas, Instituto de Filologi/a, Departmento de Estudios Arabes, 1988-1997). [13] "Co/rdoba" Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. [Accessed 16 November 1999]. -------------------------------------------------- Addendum 10 May 2000: See report 2046 for more information on Hebrew titles.