Ibn Shoshan, David
IBN SHOSHAN, DAVID
IBN SHOSHAN, DAVID (late 16th century), scholar and talmudist of Salonika, descended from a family expelled from Spain. David *Conforte states in his Kore ha-Dorot that David was blind and very wealthy and praises him as a rabbi of comprehensive wisdom, learned also in astronomy, philosophy, and geometry. He was known not only for his great talmudic erudition but also for his considerable knowledge of Muslim religious books, and Muslim scholars and judges studied books of their religion with him. He later moved from Salonika to Constantinople, where he died. He is mentioned in the responsa of contemporary scholars, *Solomon b. Abraham ha-Kohen (Maharshakh), Samuel b. Moses de *Medina (Rashdam), and *Elijah b. Ḥayyim (Ranaḥ). He is to be distinguished from another David ibn Shoshan who lived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 16th century.
Conforte, Kore, 336, 399, 409, 459; Rosanes, Togarmah, 2 (1938), 32; Frumkin-Rivlin, 1 (1929), 80 n. 2.