R. Samuel Levy Abenyuly

Samuel Levy Abenyuly was a Jewish scholar, financier, and statesman of Morocco. He was one of the Jewish favorites of the sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (r. 1672 – 1727) and the counselor and then all-powerful secretary of the sultan Abdallah of Morocco (r. 1729 – 1757), who appointed him nagid (leader) of Moroccan Jewry. He added the name Yuly, the initial letters of “they shall come and bow down before Thee,” Ps. 86:9, to his original name. His descendents were prominent merchants and statesmen of Morocco and U.S.