Solomon Ma'tuk

Solomon Ma'tuk, or Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk (18th century) was a communal leader, astronomer and Jewish devotional poet of Baghdad, whose piyyutim are still incorporated in Iraqi Jewish liturgy.

Family Origin

Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk was a descendant of Rabbi Ma'tuk, the nasi or prince of the Jewish community of 'Ana, in Iraq.[1]

From a line of rabbis, stretching back to the geonim, the rabbinical authorities talmud, the Ma'tuk family had been communal leaders of Iraqi Jewry first recorded at the time of the Nehardea Academy.[2] The Jewish community of Nehardea was known to be one of the oldest in Mesopotamia, dating from the first Babylonian exile.[3][3] It was to become the first seat of the Exilarch and his Beth Din.[3] The Ma'tuk family are recorded as having lived in 'Ana for centuries.[4]

The Ma'tuk family fled from 'Ana to Baghdad under threats and suffering from the persecution of a tyrannical Ottoman governor in the first quarter of the 17th century.[1] In Baghdad the 18th and 19th century the family gained considerable renown and importance amongst Iraqi Jews.[5]

The family produced several notable scribes and poets and had in its possession an important library of both Jewish literary and religious works, some of which were produced in Spain prior to the Edict of Expulsion.[6]

Biography

Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk was famed in Baghdad for having the largest library in the city.[7]

He was reputed to have been the possessor of a library of over seven thousand volumes, both manuscripts and printed books.[4]

In his lifetime he was known across the Jewish communities of the Middle East as a great collector of Hebrew manuscripts. This included Arabic translations of the Pentateuch, Song of Songs, the Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Book of Lamentations and the Book of Daniel.[2] Also in the library was the Kabbalistic work Ha Kanah, the poem Mi Khamokhah and miscellany written by Abraham ben Hayyeem ha-Sefaradi in the 15th century that had previously belonged to Simeon Mizrahi.[4] Present was also a Talmud methodology of Jeshua ben Joseph of Tlemcen, written in the hand of his paternal uncle Joseph ben Sulayman Ma'tuk in the year 1680.[4]

He excelled as a scholar, poet and communal leader.[2]

Many of his surviving poems, tell of the suffering of the Jews of Baghdad at the hands of a tyrannical governor.[8]

One of his most famous poems, recount how he was forced to hide in a turkish bath, to escape persecution, after which he left Baghdad with his family for Basra.[9]

From his work as an astronomer several geometrical manuscripts, including one combined with a commentary and a treatise on the astrolabe have survived.[4]

He was eulogized by Saleh ben Joseph Masliah, a Jewish poet from Baghdad.[4]

The recorded contents of the famed Ma'tuk library offer an insight into how the Jews of Baghdad were linked into a Mediterranean community of Sephardic rabbis and of the place of scientific learning in the culture of 18th century Iraqi Jewry.[4]

Legacy

The piyyutim of Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk were considered of such beauty his works were published by Judeo-Arabic speaking Iraqi Jews and Baghdadi Jews in communities in India and Iraq.[1] They are still incorporated in the traditional Iraqi Jewish liturgy. These Hebrew devotional poems, are infused with Persian Arabic, and fused with traditional Arabic poetry and music.[8]

During the lifetime of his grandson the family name was changed to Judah, or Yahuda in Hebrew.[1]

In the early 19th century persecution at the hands of Dawud Pasha of Baghdad, drove many of the leading Jewish families of Baghdad across the Indian Ocean and to found the communities across Asia known as the Baghdadi Jews.[9] This included Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk's descendants.[4] Fleeing Baghdad, the family moved to India, when Ezekiel Judah, crossed the Indian Ocean in 1825 and was to become one of the founders of the Jewish community of Calcutta and one of the leaders of the Baghdadi Jews of Asia.[10][11][1]

In the 20th century the works of Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk were studied by the renowned bibliophile David Solomon Sassoon, the grandson of David Sassoon, who had in his personal collection several books, including Jonah Gerondi's Sha'are Teshuvah, crafted in Fano in 1505, Judah Ha Levy's Kuzari, crafted on Fano in 1506 and David ibn Yahya's Limmudim, from Constantinople in 1542.[4]

His poems were stored at the Sassoon collections of the British Library in London.[9] Some have since been dispersed with the auctioning of the Sassoon collection but many reside with the remaining collection at the library of the University of Toronto.[12]

Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk's descendants include Abraham Yahuda and Tim Judah.[13] [14]

  • Encyclopedia Judaica, 2007.
  • Jewish Virtual Library.
  • The Jewish Quarterly Review, 1927.
  • Rites of Return: Diaspora Poetics and Politics of Memory, 2011.
  • A History of the Jews in Iraq, 1965.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ma'tuk, Sulayman ben David". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  2. 1 2 3 Sassoon, David S. (26 July 2018). "The History of the Jews in Basra". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 17 (4): 407–469. doi:10.2307/1451490 – via JSTOR.
  3. 1 2 3 "Nehardea". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Sassoon, David Solomon (1949). A history of the Jews in Baghdad. S.D. Sassoon.
  5. ↑ Yehuda, Zvi (2017-08-28). The New Babylonian Diaspora: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th Centuries C.E. BRILL. ISBN 9789004354012.
  6. ↑ http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/important-judaica-n09239/lot.105.html
  7. ↑ Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael (26 July 2018). "Encyclopaedia Judaica". Macmillan Reference USA – via Google Books.
  8. 1 2 Hirsch, Marianne; Miller, Nancy K. (2011-11-22). Rites of Return: Diaspora Poetics and the Politics of Memory. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231150903.
  9. 1 2 3 Hirsch, Marianne; Miller, Nancy K. (22 November 2011). "Rites of Return: Diaspora Poetics and the Politics of Memory". Columbia University Press – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ Ojeda-Mata, Maite (20 December 2017). "Modern Spain and the Sephardim: Legitimizing Identities". Lexington Books – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus (26 July 2018). "The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day". Funk and Wagnalls – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ Reif, Rita. "SASSOON JUDAICA SOLD AT SOTHEBY'S". Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  13. ↑ https://www.thejc.com/comment/columnists/ben-judah-the-last-of-our-synagogues-1.429978
  14. ↑ "Passover in Baghdad". 1 July 2003.
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