Abzardiel

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ABZARDIEL

ABZARDIEL (Abazardiel, Abenzardel, Azardel ), MOSES (d. c. 1354), secretary to King Alfonso xi of Castile. A learned rabbinical scholar, Moses served for some time as dayyan in *Toledo. His signature appears in Latin characters in royal documents dealing with finance and taxes between 1331 and 1339. Its absence from later royal records may be related to the anti-Jewish reaction in Castile. Presumably he is the "R. Moses, the chief scribe of the king" mentioned by Ibn Verga in his Shevet Yehudah (ed. by Shochat (1947), 53 ff.). He is probably identical with the Moses b. Joseph Abi Zardil commemorated on an elaborate tombstone in Toledo.

bibliography:

Baer, Urkunden, 1, pt. 2 (1963), 142–4, 159; Baer, Spain, 1 (1961), 327, 356, 358 ff.; Cantera-Millás, Inscripciones, 54–58; Zelson, in: jqr, 19 (1928/29), 145 ff.