1619 - 1720 (10 Shvat 5470) RABBI SHALOM SHABAZI (Elshabizi) (Yemen)
Poet, talmudist, and community leader. Shabazi was born in Southern Yemen where he worked as a weaver. Shabazi is most famous as a poet, with almost half the poems in the Yemenite diwan being his. Approximately 550 of his poems and hymns are still in existence, written in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic. Although he lived in poverty, he was recognized as a spiritual leader and an astute politician, especially during the expulsion of the Jews from Saana in 1679. The local ruler captured his daughter, Shima, but she preferred death to being forced to live with him.
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