ABRAHAM EL-BARCHILON

ABRAHAM EL-BARCHILON, fiscal agent of Sancho IV of Castile, 1284–95. Abraham was born in Toledo. His close connection with Don Lope de Haro, a grandee of Sancho's court, helped to augment his influence. After holding various fiscal offices, Sancho leased him his principal state revenues, including the prerogative to mint gold coins, the collection of the debts of Jewish creditors, receipts from fines and penalties imposed for fiscal offenses, export duties, and the arrears of all the taxes farmed during the reign of Sancho's father, Alfonso X. Abraham was also authorized to regain for the Crown all alienated estates. A series of documents of 1287–88 dealing with this matter bears his signature in Hebrew. Abraham continued in office even after Lope de Haro's execution in 1289, now working in partnership with the poet Todros Halevi. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Spain, 1 (1961), 131–3; Baer, Urkunden, 1, pt. 2 (1936), 72–77, 89 ff.; Neuman, Spain, 2 (1942), 245 ff., 338.