Giv‘at lôṭ, non Colle «di Lot» ma «delle querce»: rilettura del toponimo nella ketubbah di Caltabellotta

Abstract

Giv‘at lôṭ: not Hill «of Lot», but «Hill of Oaks»: A New Reading of the Toponym in the Ketubbah of Caltabellotta

The Hebrew name of the town of Giv‘at lôṭ, reported in a Sicilian Jewish prenuptial agreement dated in the mid-15^th century and known as Ketubbah of Caltabellotta, has been so far understood by scholars as “Lot’s Hill”, as in the first complete edition of the document, published by the author of this article in 2005. As is well-known, the name Caltabellotta actually originates from Arabic Qal‘at al-ballûṭ, meaning “Fortress of the Oaks”. The rare Biblical Hebrew word loṭ received many different meanings by medieval commentators. The Jewish Eastern and Sephardic exegetical tradition adopted the term to render the Arabic word ballûṭ. This is also documented in Italy, where an early Hebrew version of Avicenna’s Canon Medicinae regularly uses loṭ for the Arabic word ballûṭ. In the light of the above, this article offers a new interpretation of the name Giv‘at lôṭ, which the author believes to be, not a simple assonance, but the exact Hebrew rendering of the Arabic toponym