אבא מרי בן יצחק

Rabbi Abba Mari ben Yitzchak of Saint-Gilles (Abba Mari ben Isaac, אבא מרי בן יצחק) was a rishon of Provence in the twelfth century, nasi (head) of the Jewish community of his town and an official of the count of Toulouse. Saint-Gilles lies near Lunel, in Languedoc. Nothing is known of the course of his life beyond what Benjamin of Tudela wrote after visiting the town, around 1160 by one account and about 1165 by another: he found there a fine community of about a hundred chachamim, and named as its nasi Rabbi Abba bar Mari bar Rabbi Yitzchak, who held a government post.

That post was the office of bailli, a magistrate, to which he was appointed by Raymond V, count of Toulouse, who made Saint-Gilles the second capital of his lands. The Jews of Provence in his day called Raymond “Raymond the Good” for his treatment of them, and he appointed a number of Jews as ministers and officials of the county; Abba Mari was one. That a Jew was chosen for so high an office says a good deal about the standing of the Jews of southern France before the Albigensian war, which lasted until 1229.

Abba Mari is identified as the father of Rabbi Yitzchak ben Abba Mari, the baal HaIttur, who in that work speaks of his father as an important Talmudist. Early sources such as the Sefer HaManhig speak of “the relatives of Rabbi Yitzchak ben HaRav Abba Mari,” a phrase that has been brought in support of the father-and-son link.

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