Barbary States Barcelona
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tunis there are also many Italian Jews. ity of the 400,000
Jews now
The major-
(1902) resident in Africa
are living in the Barbary States (H. Schurtz, " Katechisnaus der Volkerkunde," p. 326, Leipsic, 1893). All reports agree that the Jews of Barbary represent the unmixed Oriental Jewish type. They are strong and well built; their women are beautiful; and, since they have always been hated and oppressed, it is impossible to assume in explanation an admixture of other Taces. In dress, mode of life, and general customs they follow the Arabs. They are strictly religious, observing to the letter the commands of the Bible and the Talmud; but, like all their neighbors, they are very superstitious. As an example of their severity, the place where adulterous women were stoned to death is still shown. The language of the descendants of the original inhabitants is Berber that of the immigrants, Spagniol but both speak also Arabic. Because of their linguistic attainments they monopoCommercial lize almost the entire commerce of the Precountry and for this reason they are eminence, so much hated by the Moors that some of the tribes will not suffer a Jew among them. It is said that they have their own alphabet; since, because of religious prejudice, they object to the use of the Arabic script. specimen of their writing may be seen in "L'Univers Israelite," 1885, p. 98. In Oran, Fez, and Morocco a peculiar pronunciation of Hebrew prevails (Barges, "Tlemcen," p. 10, Paris, 1859). They are butchers, silversmiths, engravers, tailors, shoemakers, and leather-workers, but never masons, blacksmiths, potters, saddlers, or curriers. They prefer to engage in peddling and small traffic. French officer expresses himself as follows " The Jews, who were our first middlemen and interpreters in Algeria, obtained a long time ago the rights of citizenship, in spite of the pronounced aversion which the Mohammedans, and especially the people of Barbary, have always shown toward them. They have been the agents, and often the martyrs, of a providential rapprochement between rival peoples and religions." See
A
A
Algeria, Morocco, Tunis. Bibliography:
L'Univers (Algerie, Etats Tripolitaim, Tunvs), pp. 95-97, 98, 108, Paris, 1885; A. Leared, Morocco and the Moors, p. 269, London, 1891; E. Rae, The Cyuntrii of the Moors, p. 98, London, 1877 Andree, Zur Volkskunde der Juden, 1881, pp. 194-205; Budget! Meakin, The Jews of Morocco, in Jewish Quarterly Review, iv. 369-396 Benjamin Gordon, Ma'ase Yisrael (Hebrew), p. 102, Lyck, 1859.
d.
S.
BARBASTRO, BARBASTE A
Kb.
city of Ara-
gon, containing a Jewish community with special privileges that were confirmed by successive kings from time to time (as late as 1336). In 1257, this community was so poor that the king found it necessary to reduce its taxes by the amount of 500 maravedis jaceses. In 1271 it paid 2,200 sueldos. In 1331, owing to internal dissensions, the community was Ten years prior to managed by two Christians. this, at the time of the "Shepherd-Persecution," the community of Barbastro was in danger of sharing the fate of Jaca, where 400 Jews had been massacred by the Shepherds but it found favor in the eyes of the nobility, and remained unmolested. In Barbastro dwelt Samuel the Pious, who was personally
526
acquainted with Samuel ben
the grandson of
Mel'r,
Rashi.
Bibliography: Usque, Consolaqam, p. 182b; Joseph haJacobs, Sources, Nos. 116, Kohen, 'Emek ha-Baka, p. 60
1007, 1124, p. 132; Gross,
Gallia Judaica,
p.
US.
M. K.
G.
BARBER, IDA
German authoress
born at Berlin July 9, 1842. She began her literary career when quite young, and published the following novels either in book form or as serials in magazines: " Russische Myste(1) " Gebrochene lierzen " (2) rien" (3) " Geracht, doch Nicht Gerichtet" (4) " Verkaufte Frauen"; (5) "Der Mann Zweier Frauen"; .
" (6) (8) "
t
Aus der Russischen
Gesellschaf " (7) " Clara " Since 1880 Ida Barber has conGerman and Austrian papers.
Wandlungen."
tributed to
many
Bibliography
Eisenberg,
Das
Geistige Wien, p.
s.
18.
I.
BARBERS. See BARBY, MEIR
Br.
Beard. B.
SAUL:
Talmudist and
rabbi born about 1725 at Barby, a small city near Halberstadt, Prussia; died July 28, 1789, at Presburg. His father, a tradesman, was so poor that when he took Mel'r, a weak, thirteen-year-old boy, to the yeshibah at Halberstadt, he carried him on his back part of the way to save traveling expenses. This very poverty, however, and the desire to aid his family, acted as a spur upon the lad; and he
developed into one of the keenest and most learned pupils of the yeshibah, of which Hirsh Bialeh was the head. Indeed, a prominent member of the Halberstadt community was proud to have him as a brother-in-law. Being thus freed from care, Barby went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he studied for two years under Jacob Joshua. Soon after his return to Halberstadt he was made dayyan, and in 1756 became acting rabbi. This position he held until 1763, when he accepted a call to Halle-on-the-Saale. After staying there one year, he assumed the rabbinate at Presburg, holding this position together with leadership of the yeshibah for twenty-five years.
Barby was considered one of the greatest dialectiand his novellas on the Talmud, "Sefer Hiddushe Halakot" (Book of Novelise of
cians of his time
the Laws), Dyhrcnfurth-Prague, 1786-92, brilliantly confirm his reputation for acumen which gave him the surname "Harif." His method contrasts favorably with that of his colleagues, who recorded the results of their scholasticism in the form of responsa, and desired them to be accepted as rules for the regulation of practical matters. Barby, on the contrary, remarked that he wrote only explanations of the Talmud, because their theoretical character would relieve the author from presenting his subjective views as rules for practical guidance. Barby 's personality was remarkable for the times in which he lived. He devoted himself to secular studies, more especially to medicine and he endeavored to impress upon those with whom he came in contact the necessity for a rational diet. He went so far as to forbid one of his pupils to study for half a year, advising him to employ that time in a tour on foot to some interesting localities with beautiful scenery, and thus to refresh both soul and body.
