Rashbaz
Rashbaz (רשבוֹ), the initials of RABBI SIMON BEN-ZEMACH Duran, who belonged to a family which, originally of Provence, was then settled in Spain, and ultimately emigrated to Algiers. In the persecution that took place in 1391, Simon Duran, with a number of his coreligionists, emigrated to Algiers, where, from his profound learning, he obtained the title of the Great. Here he succeeded Ribash (q.v.), who had also fled from Spain, as the head of all the Jewish congregations which position he occupied until his death, in 1444. He wrote various works, some so violent against Christianity and Moslemism that they have very properly been suppressed by his coreligionists. Of his works we mention אוהב משפט, The Lover of the Just, a commentary on Job, with an introduction on the principles upon which it should be expounded; edited by Jos. Malcho (Venice, 1590), and reprinted in Frankfurter's Rabbinic Bible: — מגן אבות, Shield of the Fathers, a great theological work, in three parts, treating of different subjects, especially of the fundamental articles of religion; to be found in the Bodleian and in Oppenheimerianac; one part is a commentary on the treatise Aboth (Livorno, 1762: Leipsic, 1855), while the second part, which is very severe against Christians and Turks, has been published by his son under the title of קשת ומגן, Bow and Shield. He was also famed for his medical abilities, and practiced with great reputation in Aragon. His profound erudition in Rabbinical lore, philosophy, and medicine procured for him the esteem of the learned Israelites of his time. His learned solutions of upwards of 700 points of law are consulted at the present day. See First, Bibl. Jud. i, 216 sq.; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico deqli Autori Ebrei (Germ. transl.), p. 92; id. Bibliotheca Antichristianla, p. 109, 111; Lindo, Hist. of the Jews in Spain, p. 194; Finn, Sephardim, p. 387; Basnage, Hist. des Juifs (Taylor's transl.), p. 657; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p 128; Etheridge, Introd. to Hebrew Literature, p. 289; Gritz, Gesch. d. Juden (1875), 8:101, 154, 170 sq.; Jost. Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Secten. 3:87; Zunz, Literaturgesch. d. synasqog. Poesie (Berl. 1865), p. 251; Cassel, Leitfaden der jid. Gesch. u. Literatur, p. 13; but especially Jaulus, R. Simeon ben-Zemach Duran, in Frankel's Monatsschrift, 1874, p. 241 sq. (B. P.)
