Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/399

357 the fact that the

Jews only concluded

when they found out

that resistance

to be baptized

by arms was

impossible ("Carm." v. 5). Erom Gregory's letters to Virgilius of Aries and to Theodore of Marseilles, it appears that the Jews who escaped to Marseilles were later also forced to adopt Christianity. Bibliography

Gregory ol Tours, Histnlre Ecclesiastique de v. 11 (Tarannes edition, ii. 199, Paris, 1837); Dahn, Urgeschichte, iii. 177-179 Aronius, Regesten, p. 14 Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed. v. 46.

France,





H. R.

t.

AVLONA, AULONA,

VALONA

or (rm^lN, Varying names of a town and seaport of Albania, on the Gulf of Avlona, on the Adriatic. From early times there seems to have been a flourMesser ishing Jewish community in the place. David Leon, born about 1470, son of the philosopher Judah Leon, was in Salonica about 1510, when he received an invitation to go to Avlona and assume charge of the three Jewish congregations there, with an annual salary of 70 florins. He accepted the offer because he wished to go to Corfu, and Avlona was on his way. David preached in the synagogues in

NJI^aK)

Avila

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

357



A quarrel breaking out among the various Jewish nationalities of the town, the Sephardim (comprising under that name the Jews of Portugal and Castile) separated from the Catalans and organized a prayer-meeting in the house of Abraham Zarfati. Toward the end of the second year of David's stay dissensions broke out also among the Sephardim. David sided with the Portuguese, who, he said, were "hot-tempered but obedient; they are open and generous, and not hypocritical and proud The Portuguese established a like the Castilians. " synagogue for themselves the Castilians demanded that David should compel the Portuguese, under penalty of excommunication, to continue to attend But David dethe former common synagogue. clined on the ground that the Portuguese were in

rotation.



the majority, and therefore had the right to separate from the minority. At this juncture there arrived at Avlona a Jewish physician of Lisbon, Don Solomon Cressente. Slowly recovering from a serious illness, he offered, in testimony of gratitude to God, a gift of paraphernalia to He intended by this to the Portuguese synagogue. bring about the reconciliation of the Castilians with the Portuguese; and upon the sacred evening of Kol Nidre (the eve of Atonement Day) he sent messengers to the Castilians in their synagogue to implore to pardon the Portuguese for any wrong which the latter might have done them. But his exertions were of no avail: The next day, the Day of Atonement, lie requested David to intervene as conciliator; but the Castilians refused to obey David's summons to come to him for a mutual explanation, and so the The Portuguese, with David strife grew warmer. at their head, launched anathemas against the CasAt the head of tilians, who responded similarly.

them

the Castilians at that time were Abraham de Collier and Abraham Harbon, judge, the former an enemy of David. In the question of the conflicting synagogues, however, Abraham Harbon, who was a friend of David, pronounced against him, though among other

arguments David had instanced his

title

of -|DD1D

Awani

("ordained teacher") to influence the obedience of the Castilians. The Sephardim, on the other hand, laughed at the custom of ordaining rabbis (rCDO) as practised in France, Germany, and Italy. They claimed that the ceremony could only be legally performed in Palestine, and that rabbis who performed it in other countries did so only in imitation of the Gentiles. Moses ben Jacob Albelda, author of commentaries on various parts of the Bible, also lived in Avlona toward the end of the sixteenth century (Conforte, "Kore ha-Dorot," p. 39a). Bibliography Schechter, Notes sur Messer David Leon, in Revue Etudes Juives, xxiv. 128 et seq. Kebod Hahamim, ed. S. Bernfeld, in the Mekize Nirdamim collection, Berlin,



1899



Ha-Zefirah, xxvii., No.

71, p. 291.

A. D.

g.

AVVITES, AVVA, AVVIM

(in A. V. AVpeople mentioned in Deut. ii. 23 This, as being dispossessed by the Caphtorim. however, could not have taken place before the days of Joshua, for it is stated in Josh. xiii. 3 that the Israelites upon entering Canaan failed to conquer them and their place of settlement is identical with the one mentioned in Deut. ii. 23. Although settled in the Philistine district, they do not appear to have had anything in common with the Philistines; they resemble rather the class of Bedouins who had made some

ITES)



1.

A

progress toward the stage of permanent settlements. 2. city in the domain of Benjamin, which may once have been a city of the Avvites (Josh, x viii. 23). 3. The place from which the king of Assyria brought people, worshipers of Nibhaz and Tartak, whom he settled in Samaria (II Kings xvii. 31). Called "Ivvah" in II Kings xviii. 34, xix. 13; Isa. xxxvii. 13. G. B. L. j. jr.

A

AWANI, ISHAK IBN ALAcademy of Bagdad

until displaced

Head of the by a rival lived





He was a contemporary of who seems to have made much fun of him.

in the thirteenth century.

Al-Harizi,

Referring to his displacement from his academical position, Al-Harizi accuses him of having paid for the Awani's poetry chair then occupied by another. finds no mercy at the hands of this rigorous critic, who exhausts his supply of stings upon him. But Al-Harizi's judgment upon Awani has proved to be a most unjust one, being simply the expression of discontent and revenge for insufficient payment of his own poetic efforts, or possibly of merely wounded Of all Awani's poems only one has been vanity. It preserved, which has recently been published. shows, however, sufficiently that the poet deserves a " place among the foremost masters of " muwashshah (popular poetry). With regard to form, Awani His sofaithfully observes all the rules of the art.

which is a poem on friendship, and fully rimed, and it shows the

called "girdle-poem," is strictly

metrical

author's name in acrostic. In contents the poem is likewise of considerable merit. Babylonian though he was, he knew and had a skilful mastery of all the figurative expressions derived by the old Spanish classical writers from the Arabs and adopted into

The language is pure and free from poetry. the connection is well preserved and the whole is permeated by a genuine poetical spirit. Hazardous as it may be to pronounce a final judg-

Hebrew all

harshness