SUNBAT

SUNBAT (Sambutia), town of Lower egypt . The Jewish community seems to have been very old because one of Abraham b. Sahlan's ancestors is mentioned in his family tree as having lived there in the ninth century. The community is also mentioned in the list of contributions for the redemption of prisoners in the middle of the 12th century. maimonides appealed   to the Jews of Sunbat, in a circular letter addressed to the communities of the eastern region of the Delta, and Anatoli b. Joseph, the dayyan of alexandria at that time, wrote a poem dedicated to Shabbetai, a teacher in Sunbat. It seems that the community existed until the 17th century because joseph b. isaac sambari reports that in 1623 a Sefer Torah was transferred from Sunbat to a synagogue in cairo . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mann, Egypt, 1 (1920), 96, 244; 2 (1922), 290; Mann, Texts, 1 (1931), 412–3; Neustadt (Ayalon), in: Zion, 2 (1936/37), 253; Ashtor, in: JJS, 18 (1967), 34–36. (Eliyahu Ashtor)