Meaning of sheik al-Yahud | Babel Free

Definitions

An official representative of a Jewish community under an Islamic government.

historical

Examples

“In addition to his post⟳ as rav, he had been selected by the kadi to serve⟳ as the Sheik al-Yehud — the Jewish elder who officially represented the community to the Ottoman authorities.”

“It is during the ensuing decade that Gedaliah's name⟳, and perhaps lineage, precede him: he is appointed Chief Arbitrator (ראש בית דין) and later assumes the prominent position Sheik al Yahud [Head to the Jews] in Jerusalem.”

“In Sefrou, a single wealthy family, popularly regarded as “stubborn but not intelligent” provided the sheikh al-Yahud for several generations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries until an excess of stubbornness at the expense of intelligence led the sultan to inform⟳ Sefrou’s Jews that he did not much care whom they had for their sheikh so long as he did not come⟳ from that family.”

CEFR level