(Scroll of Esther)

MEGILATH ESTHER.

(Azores)

19th-century

Manuscript written in Sephardic Hebrew script on vellum. Each column within attractively designed architectural arch. Inscribed in opening panel, "E(ved) H(ashem) David Sabach [i.e. Sabath], Y(ishmerehu) Tz(uro) Ve(go'alo).” Brown ink on two vellum membranes. Set on wooden roller

David, son of Abraham Sabath, born before 1847, probably in Sao Miguel, Azores, died in 1915 in Faro, Portugal. He was eulogized as a man of great Torah knowledge. In 1873, he married Tamo d'Abeasis, daughter of Salom Abeasis and Esther Benamu. See Genealogia Hebraica, p. 640 This megillah provides a window into the history of the tiny Jewish community of the Azores Islands, a Portuguese possession in the North Atlantic, approximately 950 miles in distance from Lisbon. Though Marranos settled the islands in the 16th and 17th centuries, they left no written record and recorded Jewish settlement begins only in 1818 with the arrival of Jews from Morocco. By 1848, the Jewish population of the Azores had reached 250, of which the majority resided in Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island. See EJ, Vol. III, col. 1012