Abraham Saba

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Abraham Saba (1440–1508) was a rabbi in Castile who became a pupil of Isaac de Leon. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain he took refuge in Portugal, where he met with further misfortune; for scarcely had he settled in Porto when King Manuel I of Portugal ordered all Jews to be expelled from Portugal, all Jewish children to become Christians, and all Hebrew books to be burned (December 24, 1496). Saba's two sons were forcibly taken from him, and he fled from Porto, abandoning his entire library and succeeding only at the risk of his life in saving his own works in manuscript. He fled to Lisbon, but before reaching there was told of a new order of the king decreeing the death of any Jew with whom a Hebrew book or tefillin (phylacteries) were found. He hid his manuscripts and tefillin under an olive-tree and entered the city. Upon leaving Lisbon he attempted to recover his hidden treasure, but being discovered by the king's guards, he was thrown into prison, and after a six months' confinement was sent across the frontier. He went to Fez, Morocco, where he resided for ten years. Soon after his arrival he fell ill; his great privations and terrible sufferings having undermined his health.