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Moshe b. Yosef Ben Yijū

Metadata

Gender
Male
Dates
Active dates
29 June 1155 CE
Social role
  • Jewish community member
Other name
משה בר יוסף בן יגו

Description / Bio

A nephew of Avraham Ben Yijū, part of the Sicilian branch of the family. Died relatively young. Three letters from him and two to him have survived, all from c. 1155–56. Moshe set out from Mazara, Sicily with his brother Peraḥyā in approx. 1153 to reconnect with their uncle Avraham and determine who would be the best groom for Avraham's daughter Sitt al-Dar (she eventually married Peraḥyā). As of the spring of 1154 Moshe was most probably in Tyre or elsewhere on the Levantine coast on his way back to Sicily, but the ship in which he was traveling was attacked by pirates ("men of the shīnīs," Bodl. MS heb. 11/15, line 18), and Moshe and other Jewish passengers were captured and held for ransom. The pirates were eventually forced to leave the ship, and it arrived safely in Messina (only for the commander of the port to confiscate their cargo). (See Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, docs. III,46–49 and III,58)

Sasha Batz Stern, Alan Elbaum, and Marina Rustow, "Moshe b. Yosef Ben Yijū," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/moshe-b-yosef-ben-yiju/, accessed June 30, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/moshe-b-yosef-ben-yiju/