Astruc, Saul Ha-Kohen

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ASTRUC, SAUL HA-KOHEN

ASTRUC, SAUL HA-KOHEN (d. after 1395), physician and scholar. Astruc was the leader of a group which emigrated from Spain to Algeria before 1391. While physician to the ruler of Tlemcen, he generously supported the needy of all communities and was esteemed by both Jews and Gentiles. He was dayyan of Algiers, but ceded this position to R. Isaac *Bonastruc, when the latter arrived from Spain or Majorca, and Astruc gave him financial support. He was on friendly terms with R. *Isaac b. Sheshet Perfet, who was appointed chief dayyan of Algiers as a result of Astruc's intervention with the ruler of the Ziyānid dynasty.

bibliography:

I. Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Simeon b. Zemah Duran (1930), 18, 19, 97, 99; A. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet and His Times (1943), index. add. bibliography: H.Z. (J.W.) Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa, 1 (1974), 382.

[Abraham David]

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