ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3081 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3081 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 1 Jul 2005 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if or were used by Jewish men living in Jaffa between 900 or 1100. Here is the information we have found. During your period and the preceding 250 years or so Jaffa was under the control of the Arabs. We found no evidence that Jews lived in Jaffa during this period. [3] We recommend that you consider a different place to locate your persona. We have been unable to find any examples of or variants used by Jews in the Middle Ages. Many Biblical names were not used commonly until modern times; Jews in the Middle Ages used only a limited subset of names from the Bible. Some names, such as those of the Patriarchs and major prophets, were very popular, while the name of an obscure figure might be used rarely if ever. The most common Biblical names beginning with that were used by Jews are , , and . [1] We found examples of all of these names used by Jewish men living in Iraq in the 8th through 11th centuries. [2] We did find an example of a Jew named living in Palestine in the early 11th century [4], as well as one in the late 12th century. [5] We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Juliana de Luna, Aleksandr Traveller, Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Raquel Buenaventura, Juetta Copin, Joshua haLevi, Talan Gwynek, and Gunnvor silfraharr. For the Academy, Arianuia de Cairmerdin, 01 July 2005 -- References: [1] Stampnitzky, Julie, "Biblical Names Used by Medieval Jews" (WWW: Self-published, no date.) http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/academy-library/julie/jewish/biblical.html [2] Stampnitzky, Julie, "Names of Jewish Men, 6th to 11th Centuries" (WWW: Self-published, no date.) http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/academy-library/julie/jewish/sixth.html [3] Deutsch, Gotthard & M. Franco. "Jaffa". (WWW: JewishEncyclopedia.com. 2002). http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp? artid=135&letter=J&search=Jaffa [4] Gil, Moshe. _Palestine During the First Muslim Period (634-1099)_. (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1983). [5] "Agreements on prepayment of rent ca. 1180-81". In: Moshe Gil, ed. _Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Genizah_. Publications of the Diaspora Research Institue, Tel Aviv University 2. Leiden: 1976. pp. 314-316. Doc. #74 (WWW: The Princeton Geniza Project. 19854-1997). http://campuscgi.princeton.edu/~batke/geniza/all_search/TS12_487.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Arval, Jul 2005: Removed mention of the Byzantine rule of the Jaffa area, since that pre-dates the client's period.