Adhan:

By: Richard Gottheil

A family of northern Africa, several members of which figure in Jewish literature. The family name was originally Aldahhan. In Old Arabic this signifies "an oil merchant"; in the modern Arabic of Morocco it means "a painter" or "decorator" ("Z. D. M. G." xlix. 573; compare Steinschneider, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 130). 1. Moses Adhan is known from a rabbinical decision that he published in Iyyar, 1732 (printed in "Kerem Ḥemed," the "Responsa of Abraham Alnaqua," ii. 40 a , Leghorn, 1869 and 1871). A manuscript in the collection of David Kaufmann contains a "lamentation" for the Ninth Day of Ab, with the acrostic "Moses Adhan." The style of this hymn (Stade's "Zeitschrift," ii. 1, xii. 261, etc.) shows that he was a writer of some merit ("Z.D.M.G." 1. 236). 2. Jacob Adhan was the author of a combined Hebrew and Arabic piyyuṭ , in which the community of Israel (Keneset Yisrael) is represented as pouring out its feelings to God, its beloved, and asking for renewed assistance (J. K. Zenner, "Z.D.M.G." xlix. 573; Kaufmann, ib. l.238). Though evidently written in Morocco, the manuscript in which this piyut is found came from Tampa, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil.