Creator Bio
Jonah ben Gabriel
1772–ca. 1850s
What we know about Jonah ben Gabriel comes largely from his Folktales of the Kurdistani Jews, written around 1843, as the book includes numerous digressions on current events, superstitions, and other phenomena affecting life in his hometown Arbil—the capital of today’s Iraqi Kurdistan. A pious Jew, ben Gabriel played a prominent role in Arbil, including overseeing the building of a synagogue and negotiating the purchase of a town area from the Turkish governor to allow Jews to carry items on the Sabbath.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Folktales of the Kurdistani Jews
The year 5573 (1813) was a leap year (in the Jewish calendar). On the twenty-fourth of Nisan, the Sabbath right after Passover, after midday, the skies became overcast and…