Aśu
Description / Bio
Tuḷuva woman (i.e., native of Tulunad, the region around Mangaluru). Avraham Ben Yijū bought her as an enslaved woman, had two children with her, Surūr and Sitt al-Dār, and manumitted her. He considered her his wife, and refers to her brother, Nāyar, as his brother-in-law (ṣihrī). Upon her manumission, she converted to Judaism and took them name Berakha. However, she appears not to have accompanied Ben Yijū to Aden when he left Malabar. (Information from PGP and Craig Perry, Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt, Appendix 1, no. 13)