Abulafia (Arabic: Ab l-fiya, Abou l-Afiyya or Abu lAfia; Hebrew: Abulafia) is a Sephardi Jewish surname whose etymological origin is

in the Arabic language. The family name, like many other Arabic-origin Sephardic Jewish
surnames, originated in Spain (Sefarad) among Spanish Jews (Sephardim) at a time during
Spain's Islamic history, when it was ruled as Al-Andalus by Arabic-speaking Moors.
To this day, the romanized version of the surname is most commonly Abulafia. Other
variations also exist, mostly in English transliterations, including Aboulafia, Abolafia,
Abouelafia, Aboulafiya, Abulafiya, Aboulafiyya, etc.
Contents
[hide]

1Etymology
2History
3People
3.1Abulafia
4Places
4.1Abulafia/Abuelafia/Abouelafia

Etymology[edit]
Etymologically, the surname is composed of the Arabic words:

Abu or Abou ( ab), literally "father" but also carrying the meaning "owner",

al or el (), or simply l if the preceding word ends with a vowel, to which it attaches
itself, is the definite article equivalent to "the", and

Afiyya or Afia ( fiya), literally "health, wellbeing" but also carrying the meaning
"power".

Together they form Abou l-Afiyya or Abu l-Afia, rendered in Medieval Spanish as a single
word, Abulafia, meaning "Father [of] the Health/Wellbeing" or "Owner [of] the Power".[1]

History[edit]
Moorish rule in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), lasting some 800 years, is
regarded as a tolerant period in its acceptance and co-existence between Christians,
Muslims and Jews. The Jews of Spain were proficient in Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew. Thus,
it was commonplace among Spanish Jews to use the Arabic language for secular names
(including surnames) for use outside of the synagogue.
Among prominent Abulafias in Spain were the kabbalists Todros and Abraham Abulafia, the
powerful Toledo rabbi Meir Abulafia, the poet Todros Abulafia and the royal treasurer Don

Samuel Abulafia, for whom the Transito synagogue was built in Toledo; it remains one of the
city's most beautiful monuments.
After the Catholic Monarchs' successful Reconquista of Spain from the Moors in 1492
(ironically, with financial assistance of Spain's Jews) the Catholic Monarchs then issued
theAlhambra Decree stipulating the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (unless they convert to
Catholicism, or if failing to convert or leave, then to face execution for defying the royal
decree).
With the decree, many Abulafias, and all other non-converted Sephardim left Spain, and
settled mostly in the Ottoman Empire (a Turkic Muslim Sultanate), where the Turkish Muslim
Ottoman Sultan offered the Abulafias and other Sephardic Jews refuge. The surname did not
entirely disappear in Spain itself, and there are still Spanish Catholics named Abolafio. Those
Abulafias who left in 1492 and settled as Jews in Italy often became known as Abolaffio,
Bolaffio and Bolaffi.
The Abulafias, as with most other Sephardi expellees, settled mostly in the European
portions of the Empire, largely in what is today Thessaloniki, in modern Greece,
and Istanbulin modern northwestern Turkey. This area is where the surname was most
concentrated until later immigration to other parts of the Ottoman Empire, such as
modern Tunisia andRhodes. The Ottoman Empire collapsed following World War I with
Turkey becoming its successor state, and after World War II and the establishment of
the State of Israel, almost all the established Sephardic communities of the former Ottoman
Empire moved to Israel, France and the United States. Today, Abulafia is a well known
Sephardic surname in Israel, and it is also present in France, the United
States, Australia and Latin America.
It should be noted that following the expulsion from Spain a branch of the Abulafia family
settled in what is now Israel, first in Safed (Tzefat), where they established a long-lasting
rabbinic dynasty, and then in Tiberias, where the synagogue of Haim Abulafia is still the
principal Sephardic synagogue, and the rabbi's tomb is a place of pilgrimage. Haim Nissim
Abulafia was chief rabbi in Jerusalem in the nineteenth century and had close dealings with
Moses Montefiore. Palestine was also under Ottoman rule at that time. It has been claimed
that some of the Abulafias who settled in the Land of Israel would later convert, adopt Arabic
as their primary language and assume Arab ethnic identities, today identifying as
Palestinians and Arab Israelis. Other Abulafias were closely involved in the foundation of Tel
Aviv at the start of the twentieth century.

People[edit]
The surname may refer to:

Abulafia[edit]
Historic

Todros ben Yosef Abulafia (1225 c.1285) prominent Sephardic Jew

Abraham ben Shmuel Abulafia (1240, Zaragoza, Spain c.1291, Comino), kabbalist

Meir ben Todros HaLevi Abulafia (Ramah), a major 13th-century Sephardic rabbi

Samuel ha-Levi (Samuel ben Meir Ha-Levi Abulafia) (beda ca. 1320
Seville 1360), treasurer of King Pedro I "the Cruel" of Castile and founder of
the Synagogue of El Transito in Toledo, Spain

Hayyim ben Yaaqov Abulafia (16601744)

Modern

David Samuel Harvard Abulafia (born 1949)

Yossi Abulafia, author

Louis Abolafia (19411995), an artist and former candidate for the United States
presidency during the 1960s.

Marilyn Sultana Aboulafia, known as Kathy Barr (19292008), American

singer/vocalist

Places[edit]
Abulafia/Abuelafia/Abouelafia[edit]

Transito Synagogue, Toledo, Spain, built around 1358 for Don Samuel Abulafia,
treasurer of King Pedro the Cruel, and decorated with fine stucco work and a magnificent
wooden ceiling; the El Greco house nearby is thought to be on the site of Abulafia's
palace.

Etz Haim Abulafia, Tiberias, Israel, synagogue by the Sea of Galilee originally built in
the eighteenth century for Rabbi Haim Abulafia as part of a program for the resettlement
of Tiberias.

Agnon House, 2 Rokach Street, Neve Tzedek, Tel AvivJaffa: residence of Solomon
and Rebecca Abulafia, co-founders of Tel Aviv, in which the Israeli writer Agnon lived for
a time.

Abuelafia Bakery, established in 1879, is a prominent Arab Israeli bakery and tourist
destination in Jaffa, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, owned by the Arab Israeli Aboulafia family
(written both as Abuelafia and Abouelafia on the storefront signage), possibly descended
from converted Sephardic Jews of the 15th century. [2]

This page or section lists people with the surname Ab-l-Afiya, Abulafia, Abolafia.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may
wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.