Israel Alnaqua

Rabbi Israel ben Joseph Alnaqua (also, "Al-Nakawa", "Al-Nakava", "Ankava", "Ankoa", "Alnucawi", etc., Hebrew: "נקוה", "אלנאקוה", "אנקווה", "אנקאווא") (died 1391) was an ethical writer and martyr who lived in Toledo, Spain. He died at the stake, together with Judah ben Asher, during the massacres in the summer of 1391.

He is the author of an ethical work in twenty chapters, entitled Menorat ha-Maor . The work commences with a long poem, an acrostic on the author's name. Then follows a preface in rimed prose. The introduction to each chapter is headed by a poem, giving the acrostic of his name, Israel. It was printed in 1578. A manuscript of it is in the Bodleian. An abridgment of it was published at Kraków, 1593, under the title Menorat Zahav Kullah (Candelabra Wholly of Gold). It is divided into five sections, which contain observations on laws in general on education on commerce on the behavior of litigants and judges in court on conduct toward one's fellow men.

This is supplemented by a treatise, שפת אליהו רבה, consisting of Talmudic and midrashic sayings and maxims, which has been published in German (Hebrew characters) in Wagenseil's Belehrung der Jüd.-Deutschen Red-und Schreibart, Königsberg, 1699.

Other family members Ephraim Alnaqua

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography Zunz, Z. G. p. 435; Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 337, No. 1436; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 5447; S. Schechter, Monatsschrift, xxxiv. 114, 234.