ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2406 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2406 ************************************ 17 Dec 2001 From: Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether the name could have been used by a Jewish woman living in the Ottoman Empire during the 14th to 16th centuries whose family moved there from Spain or Portugal, and you wanted help building a complete name. We found evidence that was used, though perhaps only rarely, during your period of interest. One instance was in the Aragonese town of Teruel, dating from sometime during the 13th to 15th centuries. [1] Another woman named , this one probably not Sephardi, died in 1541 in Salonika, in the Ottoman Empire. [2] We also found four instances of this name in Germany from 1096 to 1298. [3] By your period, Jews in Spain and Portugal generally had inherited family names, as in these examples from non-Jewish records: , sister of 1385 [4] , widow of 1495 [5] (The slash represents an acute accent on the preceding letter; "C," represents c-with-cedilla.) You can find more surnames used by Sephardi Jews in the books listed in references [4, 5, 6, 7]. Sephardi Jews who moved to the Ottoman Empire continued to use such surnames. In written Hebrew, a woman would be identified by given name and surname; in most cases she would also be identified with reference to her father or husband, using the term "daughter of," "wife of," or , "widow of." The following are typical examples from Hebrew grave inscriptions: [2] Estrilya de Bosaldo, 1538 Rachel bat Avraham Ortafa, 1527 Chana bat Bonafos Alkostantini, 1530 Donya eshet Moshe Alton, c. 1517 Reina eshet Yosef de Molina, 1522 Jamila eshet Vidal de Narbona, 1528 Chana almanat Yochanan D'Asael, 1530 Bienvenida almanat Shmuel Alatini, 1531 Mevorechet bat Shlomo Chayon eshet Yaakov Chason, 1515 It's not clear whether the same types of names would be used when speaking; it's possible that the more elaborate name-structures were only used in writing, and in speech a woman would be addressed simply by given name and surname. We have not found surnames being used in Ottoman records; in such contexts, a person is identified by his or her given name and the father's name, for example . [8] I hope that this letter has been helpful. Please do not hesitate to write again if any part of it was unclear, or if you have any other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Raquel Buenaventura, Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, and Pedro de Alcazar. Yours in service, Julie Stampnitzky 17 December 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- References: [1] Friedenberg, Daniel. Medieval Jewish Seals from Europe. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987. p. 137 [2] Emmanuel, Yitzchak Shmuel. Matzevot Saloniki [Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Machon Ben Tzvi, 1963. pp. 33, 35, 39, 42, 45, 50, 54, 58, 79, 95 [3] Salfeld, Siegmund. Das Martyrologium des Nu"rnberger Memorbuches (Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland III). Berlin: Verlag von Leonhard Simion, 1898. pp. 6, 11, 14, 29 [4] Cubellis i Llorens, Josefina. The Jews of Tortosa 1373-1492: Regesta of Documents from the Archivo Histo/rico de Protocols de Tarragona (Sources for the History of Jews in Spain vol. 3, Ed. Yom Yov Assis). Jerusalem, 1991. p. 74 [5] Motis Dolader, Miguel Angel. The Expulsion of the Jews from Calatayud 1492-1500: Documents and Regesta (Sources for the History of Jews in Spain vol. 2, Ed. Yom Yov Assis). Jerusalem, 1990. p. 234 [6] Hinojosa Montalvo, Jose. The Jews of the Kingdom of Valencia: from Persecution to Expulsion, 1391-1492 (Hispania Judaica IX). Jerusalem, Hebrew University, 1993. [7] Molho, Michael. Les Juifs de Salonique a\ la fin du XVIe: Synagogues et patronymes. France, Centre de recherches sur le Judai"sme en Salonique, 1991. (Note that the author, working from Hebrew sources, has transliterated the names using French orthography.) [8] Cohen, Amnon. A World Within: Jewish Life as reflected in Muslim Court Documents from the 'Sijill' of Jerusalem (XVIth Century). University of Pennsylvania Center for Judaic Studies, 1994. p. 115