MINYAT ZIFTA

MINYAT ZIFTA, town in Lower egypt , on the eastern tributary of the Nile. In the Fāṭimid period, there was an important Jewish community in this town. R. Abraham b. Shabbetai , who wrote several works on halakhah, was rabbi (ḥaver) of the community at the beginning of the 12th century, and after him, his son Shabbetai held the same position for many years. In a list of contributions to a collection among the communities of Lower Egypt at the middle of the same century, Minyat Zifta is mentioned as the second largest contributor. From the genizah documents it appears that the social status of the Jews was variegated; among them were craftsmen,   merchants, and government officials. The Jewish population decreased over the generations and in the 19th century, jacob saphir found only five families there: in 1897 there were 84 Jews, in 1907, 54, and in 1927 only 37. By 1924 the synagogue had already been sold, and in 1937 there was only one family living in the town. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Saphir, Even Sappir (1866), 8b; Mann, Egypt, 2 (1922), 257–9, 287, 290; Mann, Texts, 1 (1931), 446ff.; Poznański, in: REJ, 65 (1913), 43; Goitein, in: JQR, 49 (1958/59), 41; J.M. Landau, Ha-Yehudim be-Miẓrayim ba-Me'ah ha-Tesha-Esreh (1967), 51–52. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.M. Landau, Jews in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (1969), 47–8, 172. (Eliyahu Ashtor)