DAHAN

DAHAN (Adhan, Bendahan ), patronymic of several families originating in the Sahara regions of Morocco. The kabbalist saadiah dahan (c. 1630) wielded much influence in the region of Oued Ghéris. His son solomon dahan (c. 1650) was a rabbi and a physician, and his grandson masʿŪd dahan (c. 1680) was the dayyan of Tāfīlālet. The son of the latter, solomon adhan (d. c. 1735), at first lived in Tetuán. He then left for Gibraltar and later for Amsterdam in 1720 to collect funds to redeem his family and synagogue, which had fallen into the hands of the nomad Arabs in the region of Tāfīlālet. He translated the work Zekher Rav of Solomon Sasportas from Hebrew to Spanish under the title Memória de los 613 Preceptos (Amsterdam, 1727), and wrote Bi-Ne'ot Deshe (Amsterdam, 1735), a book on ethics which has been frequently reprinted.

jacob bendahan (c. 1700) of Meknès wrote liturgical poems. His elder son maimon bendahan (1756) was dayyan in Tetuán and his second son moses bendahan (d. 1737) was av bet din in Meknès. Both brothers left many halakhic decisions, some of which were published in various Moroccan rabbinical works. Piyyutim by Moses are included in the maḥzorim of North Africa. joseph bendahan (d. c. 1820), dayyan in Tetuán, was the author of five works (commentaries, homilies, responsa, and piyyutim), one of which, entitled Shufreih di-Yosef, was published in Alexandria (1897) by his grandson joseph nissim bendahan, who added one of his own works, Divrei Yosef, to it. Joseph Nissim also wrote Ma'aseh Bereshit (Djerba, 1925).

bibliography:

Kayeserling, Bibl, 8; J.M. Toledano, Ner ha-Ma'arav (1911), 132, 136, 146f., 162, 189, 211; J. Ben-Naim, Malkhei Rabbanan (1931), 58a, 68a, 81b, 84b, 88b, 100a, 118a.

[David Corcos]