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Franciscans, was formed. One of the imprisoned Jews was stretched on the rack he confessed to everything asked of him, and named as partners in the crime all whose names were suggested to him.

Suddenly a wretched creature, the merchant Astruc Sibili, had himself brought before the governor and laid the blame on the whole Jewish community. Palma fell into an uproar. The Jews Uprising fled to the mountains but the infuriin 1435. ated mob dragged them from their hiding-places, and led most of them back to Palma in exultation. After five days' proceedings, the expectant populace was notified of the sentence pronounced on the innocent Jews. Astruc Sibili and three accomplices were to be burned alive, but in case they submitted to baptism they should be pardoned to the extent of dying upon the gallows. Astruc Sibili accepted baptism, and all the others seduced by promises followed his example. On the

representations of the clergy the governor granted

them

A

their lives.

few

faithful Jews succeeded in making their The synagogue had been ruined several years before, and though now and then a Jew settled on the islands, there came to be practically no Jews there. The Inquisition began its horrible

escape.

work.

though

In 1506, twenty-two Jews, condemned, either dead or absent, were burned in effigy

some Jews and Jewesses were publicly burned in effigy and in 1511 sixtytwo Jews who had escaped from the Inquisition were punished in the same way. The secret Jews, in great number on the island of Majorca, were not called " Maranos " or " New Christians," but " people from the Calle " or Chubtas. A number of well-known rabbis and scholars from Catalonia and Provence dwelt on the island of Majorca. Among them were Shem-Tob Falcon, who again, in 1509 and 1510,





number of ritual observances; Aaron ha-Kohen, who wrote his ritual code, "Orhot Hayyim," at Majorca; Joseph Caspi, a wellknown writer; Isaac b. Nathan, diligent translator from the Arabic and the physicians Moses Rimos and Eleazar Ardot, the latter of whom was born on Majorca, as was also Simon ben Zemah Duran. instituted there a



Minorca became an English possession in 1713, and willingly proffered an asylum to a number of Jewish synagogue was soon families from African cities. erected in Mahon. The fact that Jews and Moors were settled there was sufficient reason for Spain to join with France in order to drive the English from the island. When the Duke of Crillon landed on the island (August, 1781), Jews, Greeks, and Moors, three thousand men in all, rose up and threatened the life of the duke. After a short resistance, however, Mahon surrendered and, with the English garrison, the Jews abandoned the city and the island.

A



Bibliography:

und

Balearic Ballads

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Kay9erlingr, Geseh. der JurMn in Svanien 155-177 ; Idem, Bevue Etudes Juives, iv. 1. la Hixtoria de Madrid, 1900, xxxvi. 1-5.
 * Boletin de la Real

Portugal,

31-56, xxxix. 242 et seq., xl. 62 et seq.

Academia de

M. K.

D.

BALI,

ABRAHAM

BEN JACOB:

Karaite

physician and hazan lived at Foli O^ID?) in the second half of the fifteenth century. He was the pupil of Shabbethai ben Melkiel Cohen, and the author of

the following works, for the most part

still in manuMSS. Nos. 621, 648, 659, 695, 696): (1) "Iggeret Issur Ner Shel Shabbat"— on the prohibition against using fire on the Sabbath. The work is divided into three chapters, and was written,

script (St. Petersburg

as the author states in the introduction, at the request of his disciples, Joseph ben Moses Bagi and Joseph ben Caleb. It is especially directed against Elijah Bashyatzi, who,, like his father Menahem, permitted the use of fire (2) " Iggeret ha-Zom be;

Shabbat," on fasting on Saturdays, ed. by Firkowitz; (8) "Iggeret be 'Inyan ha-Kohanim," on the question whether a Rabbinite Cohen on becoming a Karaite can continue to enjoy the privileges of a Cohen (4) " Ma'amar be-Tnyan ha-'Ibbur, " a treatise on the calendar; (5) "Perush 'Inyan Shehitah," a commentary on the laws concerning the slaughtering of animals, as these laws are expounded by Aaron ben Elijah in his " Gan 'Eden " Bali endeavoring in this work to refute the criticisms made against the Karaites by Solomon Sharbit ha-Zahab, Mordecai Comtino, and Moses Capsali (6) " Perush 'al-Hegyonot," a commentary on the first chapter of Gazzali's "Mukasid al-Filasufah," treating of logic. In the preface to this work Bali says that he made use of the translation of Moses Narboni. (7) A commentaiy on Al-Farabi's five chapters on logic. Besides these works, Bali wrote many liturgical poems which are printed in the Karaite prayer-book. Bibliography Steinschneider, Hebr. Btbl. xx. 96 idem, Hebr. Uebers. pp. 45, 321 Neubauer, Aus der Petersburger

—







Biblwthek,

KarUerthums,

63 ; compare, also, Fiirst, Geschichte des ii. 293-294 ; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und

Seiner Secten,

ii.

p.

i

G.

I.

BALI,

Br.

MOSES BEN ABRAHAM:

Karaite physician and hakam at Cairo at the end of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth. He was the author of 224 poems, finished in 1489, on the weekly lessons, entitled "Sefer Zerah." Another selection of 237 poems for Saturdays and feasts was written by him about 1500 under the title " Tahkemoni." Both works are still extant in manuscript in the Firkowitz collection at St. Petersburg. Besides these Bali wrote many liturgical poems which have been wrongly ascribed to Moses Dari, who bears the same Hebrew name, " Moses ben Abraham " (compare Pinsker, "Likhot Kadmoniot," p. 124). Bibliography:

Fiirst, Oesch. des Karderthurns, Geiger, Wissenschaftliche Zeit. iii. 443.

K.

iii.

I.

BALLADS, JEWISH.

294;

BK.

See Folk-Songs.

BALLADS ON JEWISH

SUBJECTS In the folk-poetry of Europe a certain number of ballads deal with Jewish subjects or with Jewish persons. Of these may be mentioned a Neo-Greek ballad on a Jewess given in Fauriel, " Chantes Neohelliniques " but the ballads generally deal with the deeds of Jews corresponding to the anti-Semitic conception Thus the of them current in the popular mind. legend of the death of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln is enshrined in several ballads in French, English, and Scottish, to be found in Child's "English and Scottish Ballads," iii. 233-254, where a full bibliography is

given

(see also

ular ballad

is

accompanying

Hugh op Lincoln).



Another pop-

that of the Jewish boy who, after his Christian playmates to confession,

j