page_title: Benveniste
section_title: The beginning - Narbonne, Aragon and Barcelona
hierarchical_section_title: Benveniste / People / The beginning - Narbonne, Aragon and Barcelona
context_page_description: Benveniste, is the surname, byname of an old, noble, rich, and scholarly Jewish family of Narbonne, France and northern Spain from the 11th century. The family was present in the 11th to the 15th centuries in Hachmei Provence, France, Barcelona, Aragon and Castile Spain.
  Family members received honorary titles from the authorities and were members of the administration of the kingdom of Aragon and Castile. They were the Baillie - the Tax Officer and Treasurer, Alfaquim - Senior Advisor to the King and Royal Physician in Barcelona and Aragon in the 12th and 13th centuries. They held the title of "Nasi", since they are considered by the Jewish tradition as descendants of King David and members of the House of David in the Jewish communities and were prominent religious and secular leaders in the 11th to the 14th centuries.
  In the 14th to the 15th century they held the titles of "Benveniste de la Cavalleria"—"of the knights" and Don—a noble person in Aragon and Castile. In the aftermath of the massacres of Jews which began in Spain on 6 June 1391 some such as the de Cartagena family converted to Christianity and became powerful conversos in Burgos.
context_section_description: The first appearance of the name Benveniste was in the 11th century in southern France (Septimania, Provence of our time).
  Earlier, in the 8th century, the region was shaped by Charlemagne from the Frankish Kingdom of the Carolingian. The big Narbonne Jewish center was established, according to Jewish and Christian sources, by prominent Jews from Bagdad at the request of the Carolingian kings. The Babylonian names of Makhir, Hasdai, Sheshet and Shealtiel are the names of chief rabbis and leaders - Nasi (considered by the Jewish tradition as descendants of King David) of the Jewish center.
  The Jewish families assisted the Christian administrations of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona as tax collectors and advisers. In 1150 Aragon and Barcelona were united by the marriage of their rulers. The Jewish families appear together with the name Benveniste in official and Jewish documents of Narbonne, Barcelona and Aragon from the 11th-13th century AD with the title Nasi added to their names. They appear in the travel books of Benjamin of Tudela from the 12th century. 
  Isaac ben Josef iben Benveniste Nasi, was called Iben Barun, (c. 11th century). Hebrew grammarian, lexicographer and a poet. He lived in Saragossa (during the Islamic era) and Málaga and associated with the poets Moses ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi.
  Isaac Benveniste Nasi the physician of the king of Aragon that came to Spain from Narbonne France in the 12th century. The father of Sheshet Benveniste Nasi.
  Sheshet Benveniste Nasi, (c.1131-1209). He was a physician, writer, a political advisor and a diplomate to the kings of Aragon. He came to Spain from Narbonne France with his father in the 12th century. Sheshet received his education at Narbonne, his probable birthplace, afterward he lived at Barcelona, and later at Saragossa, in which city he died. He practiced medicine, and was the author of a medical work, manuscript copies of which are still extant at Oxford and Munich. Such was his reputation as a physician that patients came long distances to consult him.
  Isaac ben Joseph Benveniste Nasi (died 1224), physician of the king of Aragon. He was the leading figure in the representative congresses of the Jewish communities convened at Montpellier and Saint-Gilles in 1214 and 1215 to consider protective measures in view of the approaching Lateran Council . Subsequently, he secured for the Aragonese communities a temporary suspension of the obligation to wear the Jewish badge.
  Vidal Benveniste de Porta (died 1268), Jewish Bailie ("bayle") - the tax officer and treasurer of Barcelona, Girona and Lerida, Spain. His brother was Bonastruc ça (de) Porta, Nahmanides, (in Hebrew Ramban), also known as Rabbi Moses ben Nahman Girondi. (1194–1270). He grew up, studied and lived in Girona. He was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalonia rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. He participated in 1263 in the Disputation of Barcelona before King James I of Aragon.
caption: Kingdom of Aragon, County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Castile (Castilla) in 1037