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Yosef b. Meʾīr Somekh ha-Kohen

מטא-דאטא

Gender
Male
מסמכים
Active dates
1500–1600 CE
Social roles
  • Jewish communal official
  • Jewish community member

Description / Bio

Court scribe who served within the Rabbanite community of Cairo during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Yosef's son Shemuʾel and grandson Shelomo also went on to serve as scribes within the community during the seventeenth century and it is possible his father Meʾīr served in this role. Beyond his paper trail in the Cairo Geniza, Yosef's scribal career is referenced in a variety of contemporary rabbinic responsa: Rabbi Meʿīr Gāviṣōn, responsum 9; Rabbi Beṣalel Ashkenazi, reponsum 33; Rabbi Yaʿacov Castro, responsum 18; Rabbi Ḥayīm Kapūsī, responsum 33, cited in Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky, "The Community and its Institutions / הקהילה ומוסדותיה", in The Jews of Ottoman Egypt 1517-1914, ed., Jacob Landau (Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1988), 177.

Matthew Dudley, "Yosef b. Meʾīr Somekh ha-Kohen," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yosef-b-meir-somekh-ha-kohen/, accessed June 2, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/yosef-b-meir-somekh-ha-kohen/