Crown rabbi (Iberia)

In the Iberian peninsula, the crown rabbi (Spanish: rabino mayor or Portuguese: arrabi mor (chief rabbi) ) was a secular, administrative post occupied by a member of the Jewish community for the benefit of the governing state, and existed in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal as far back as the 13th century, and is referred to as crown rabbi by historians in English, as well as by court rabbi and other terms.

In Spanish this position was known as or rab de la corte, which can be translated literally as "chief rabbi" or "court rabbi", respectively, and which is referred to in some English sources as "crown rabbi" and in others as "court rabbi". In Sicily (part of Aragon) the position was known locally as the dayyan kalali and in Portuguese as arrabi-mor. The derivation of arrabi mor is through a very unusual, three-language merger of parts in Judaeo-Portuguese, from Hebrew rabi (noun, "rabbi") preceded by Arabic definite article ar ("the", from al + initial r- consonsant), and Portuguese mor (adj., "chief", in normal postposition).

The concept of an official rabbi performing administrative duties and acting as an intermediary existed as far back as the 13th century in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal and elsewhere in the Iberian peninsula.

The crown rabbi was one of the chief ways for the kingdoms in the peninsula to exert power over their Jewish communities. Those officials fulfilling this position often acquired significant secular power over their communities, and sometimes over provinces or even kingdoms.

In Castile, the Court Rabbinate extended as an institution from 1255 until Expulsion in 1492. They were often laymen, not rabbis, and had near dictatorial authority of their flock. They presided in appeals cases and international synods, and might also be a court physician, as well as tax collector over both the Jewish as well as the Christian community. The last one to hold the office of crown rabbi of Castile was Abraham Seneor who became a converso rather than be expelled.

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