IBN AL-BARQŪLĪ

IBN AL-BARQŪLĪ, family which played an important role in the Babylonian communities in the second half of the 13th century and of which several members served in government positions. The information available from literary sources deals with the members of the Ibn al-Barqūlī family in baghdad and Wāsiṭ. The head of this family was MEVORAKH. Judah al-Ḥarizi dedicated his Sefer Taḥkemoni to the philanthropist, the sar (i.e., holder of government office) R. SAMUEL of Baghdad (beginning of 13th century); he also mentions his two brothers, the sar JOSEPH and the sar EZRA. In his report on the community of Wāsiṭ he mentions the sar R. SAMUEL, who was probably the wealthy Abu Naṣr Samuel; the Hebrew poet eleazar b. jacob ha-bavli praises him in several of his poems (in his Divan, ed. H. Brody (1935) no. 164). In one poem, no. 165, he mentions Samuel's son JOSEPH. The same poet also wrote some poems in honor of Joseph of Wāsiṭ. Numbers 113–7, 121–8, and 213–4 were written in honor of another Ibn al-Barqūlī, a wealthy Baghdad citizen. Eleazar also sent a poem, which has not been preserved, to ABU ALGHANĀʾIM.   -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Alḥarizi, Taḥkemoni, ed. by A. Kaminka (1899), 14–15, 369; Assaf, in: Tarbiẓ, 1:3 (1930), 41, 49, 55–56; A. Ben-Jacob, Yehudei Bavel (1965), 25. (Eliyahu Ashtor)