Avraham b. Yeshaʿyahu Tūrīzī
Description / Bio
Prolific court scribe who served within the Karaite community of Cairo during the sixteenth century. Dated documents currently attest that his career spanned the 1560s–1580s. Avraham b. Yeshaʿyahu Tūrīzī recorded much of Yevr.-Arab. I 328, the largest court register known to have survived from Cairo during the early modern period (it contains ~200 distinct entries). In many cases, Avraham b. Yeshaʿyahu Tūrīzī's documents provide locational clauses stating that he served as a scribe for court sessions that convened in Dār Simḥa Synagogue. Avraham also appears as a witness in one document that was issued at the Dār al-Khāzin Synagogue of Cairo in 1585 CE (Yevr.-Arab. II 1371). His bi-alphabetic scribal signature relied on both Hebrew and Arabic script: a rarity in early modern Cairo.