Solomon Ma'tuk

Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk was a descendant of Rabbi Ma'tuk, the Nasi or Prince of the Jewish community of 'Ana, in Iraq. Iraqi Jewish tradition places in ‘Ana the ancient city of Nehardea and the centre of learning instrumental to the development of the Talmud and Rabbinic Judaism, the Nehardea Academy. The Talmud cites the Jewish community of Nehardea was known to be one of the oldest in Mesopotamia, dating from the first Babylonian exile. It was to become the first seat of the Exilarch and his Beth Din. The Ma'tuk family are recorded as having lived in 'Ana for centuries. During the 17th and 18th century the head of the Ma'tuk family, as leaders of the Jewish community held the post of Sarraf-Bashi, or treasurer to the governor of Anah. The community held ties with the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel, especially Safed and with Aleppo, Damascus and Baghdad. The Ma'tuk family fled from 'Ana to Baghdad under threats and suffering from the persecution of a tyrannical Ottoman governor in the first quarter of the 17th century. This was during the period when the Jewish community of Baghdad was reemerging after ceasing to exist after the Mongol sacking of the city in the 14th century. The 19th century German ethnographer H. Petermann observed that the oldest Jewish families of Baghdad hailed from ‘Ana, amongst them being the Ma’tuk family. In Baghdad the 18th and 19th century the family gained considerable renown and importance amongst Iraqi Jews. The family produced several notable scribes and poets and had in its possession an important library of both Jewish literary and religious works, some of which were produced in Spain prior to the Edict of Expulsion.

Sulayman ben David Ma'tuk was famed in Baghdad for having the largest library in the city. He was reputed to have been the possessor of a library of over seven thousand volumes, both manuscripts and printed books. In his lifetime he was known across the Jewish communities of the Middle East as a great collector of Hebrew manuscripts. This included Arabic translations of the Pentateuch, Song of Songs, the Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Book of Lamentations and the Book of Daniel. Also in the library was the Kabbalistic work Ha Kanah, the poem Mi Khamokhah and miscellany written by Abraham ben Hayyeem ha-Sefaradi in the 15th century that had previously belonged to Simeon Mizrahi. Present was also a Talmud methodology of Jeshua ben Joseph of Tlemcen, written in the hand of his paternal uncle Joseph ben Sulayman Ma'tuk in the year 1680. He excelled as a scholar, poet and communal leader. Many of his surviving poems tell of the suffering of the Jews of Baghdad at the hands of a tyrannical governor. One of his most famous poems, recounts how he was forced to hide in a hammam (Turkish bathhouse), to escape persecution, after which he left Baghdad with his family for Basra. From his work as an astronomer several geometrical manuscripts, including one combined with a commentary and a treatise on the astrolabe have survived. He was eulogized by Saleh ben Joseph Masliah, a Jewish poet from Baghdad. The recorded contents of the famed Ma'tuk library offer an insight into how the Jews of Baghdad were linked into a Mediterranean community of Sephardic rabbis and of the place of scientific learning in the culture of 18th century Iraqi Jewry.