Samuel ben Meir Ha-Levi Abulafia (

Úbeda Úbeda () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the Province of Jaén (Spain), province of Jaén, Andalusia. The town lies on the southern ridge of the so-called Loma de Úbeda, a Table (landform), table sandwiched in bet ...

, approx. 1320 – 1360 in

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), was the treasurer of king Pedro I "the Cruel" of Castile and founder of the Synagogue of El Transito in

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Biography

He was a member of the powerful Abulafia family, which had provided leadership to the Jewish community of Toledo and Castile more generally since around 1200. His parents died of plague shortly after arriving in Toledo. First he worked as administrator to the Portuguese knight Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque and became recognized enough to achieve employment at the court of Pedro I of Castile, first as ''camarero mayor'' (chamberlain) and later as ''almojarife'' (treasurer) and as ''oídor'' (judge). His employment ended when the enemies of Pedro I led by Henry of Trastámara organized a pogrom against the Toledan Jewry, which enabled them to assume possession of the royal treasures. The king marched to

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to demand the return of his belongings, and Samuel Ha-Levi accompanied him, and later supported the King in reclaiming Toledo for the crown, and in the establishment of a peace treaty with the Portuguese at

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in 1358.Clara Estow. 1995. Pedro the Cruel of Castile: 1350-1369. BRILL, 1995 - History In Toledo, he lived in the palace that is today the El Greco Museum, and with the considerable riches bestowed upon him by his employer he founded the Synagogue of El Transito between 1355 and 1357. The building was one of ten synagogues serving Toledo's large Jewish population, and still survives; it is architecturally exquisite and has features in common with the

Moorish architecture Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture that developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). Scholarly references on Is ...

of King Pedro's palace in

and the

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palaces in

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, even including inscriptions in

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as well as

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. Its construction was opposed vociferously by the

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, but King Pedro permitted it. Constantly criticized by his rivals for his permissive stance towards Jews, eventually the King turned against Samuel and had him incarcerated and tortured on suspicion of

embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

in 1360. David Biale. 2012. Cultures of the Jews: A New History. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group p. 411 He died under duress of torture. The prominence of Samuel Ha-Levi Abulafia at Pedro's court has often been cited as evidence of his supposed pro-Jewish sentiment, but Don Samuel's success did not necessarily reflect the general experience of the Spanish Jewry in this period which was often marked by discrimination and pogroms. And even Samuel's career shows that the opportunities for Jews were restricted to certain offices and positions whereas other forms of advancement were denied to them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:HaLevi, Samuel 1320s births 1360 deaths 14th-century Castilian Jews People from Toledo, Spain People from Úbeda