Giat Surname Origins
“Giat” is written in the Hebrew letters, Gimel-Yod-Alef-Tav. It is translated as Giat, Gayyat, Giath, Ghiyyat, Ghiyath, Gajath, Ghiath, Giyat and Quiat depending on the scribe, translator and the language into which it is translated. Ghiath in Arabic means redeemer, one who helps or aids in the spiritual sense. “Giat, ‘help, aid’ (Arabic), translation of Hebrew name Ieshaishu; family name of Isaac Ibn Ghiat, one of the first great Spanish Jewish scholars, 11th Cent." Guggenheimer, Heinrich, Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary, p. 277
Alexander Beider, author of reference books on the etymology and geographic distribution of Jewish surnames has written that the earliest surnames date from the Middle Ages, confirming that our family acquired its surname in Spain, not in countries from which the ancestors came to the Iberian peninsula.
Our First Known Ancestor -- Rabbi Isaac ben Jehuda ibn Giat (1038-1089)
He was the Chief Rabbi of Lucena, Spain and head of its renowned yeshiva. Hiis descendants were expelled from Catholic Spain. In the last 100 years, most members of the family have left Turkey and Yemen and now reside in Israel, England, France, Italy, South Africa, Canada, United States, Argentina, Peru and Australia.
“The foremost of the scholars of Lucena at that time was R. Isaac b. Judah Ibn Gayyat. He was a member of an old esteemed family in Lucena, as his Arabic name indicates–which he himself sometimes translated into Hebrew, calling himself Ben Moshia. He was a distinguished scholar familiar with the whole Talmud.” Ashtor, Eliyahu,The Jews of Moslem Spain, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973.
Our Roots in Yemen Before Spain
Although our surname was established in Spain, our oral family history predates settling in the Iberian peninsula. Independently, Giat family members from Yemen and Benghiat family members from Turkey have passed down the family history that the family lived in Yemen before Spain. Family elders from Yemen told Sampson Giat, former President of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, that the Giat family lived in Yemen before Spain. Also, a Rabbi in Izmir told his young granddaughter Miriam Benghiat Sen, who was 83 when she told me in 2003, that their ancestors lived in Yemen before they lived in Spain.
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“Giat” is written in the Hebrew letters, Gimel-Yod-Alef-Tav. It is translated as Giat, Gayyat, Giath, Ghiyyat, Ghiyath, Gajath, Ghiath, Giyat and Quiat depending on the scribe, translator and the language into which it is translated. Ghiath in Arabic means redeemer, one who helps or aids in the spiritual sense. “Giat, ‘help, aid’ (Arabic), translation of Hebrew name Ieshaishu; family name of Isaac Ibn Ghiat, one of the first great Spanish Jewish scholars, 11th Cent." Guggenheimer, Heinrich, Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary, p. 277
Alexander Beider, author of reference books on the etymology and geographic distribution of Jewish surnames has written that the earliest surnames date from the Middle Ages, confirming that our family acquired its surname in Spain, not in countries from which the ancestors came to the Iberian peninsula.
Our First Known Ancestor -- Rabbi Isaac ben Jehuda ibn Giat (1038-1089)
He was the Chief Rabbi of Lucena, Spain and head of its renowned yeshiva. Hiis descendants were expelled from Catholic Spain. In the last 100 years, most members of the family have left Turkey and Yemen and now reside in Israel, England, France, Italy, South Africa, Canada, United States, Argentina, Peru and Australia.
“The foremost of the scholars of Lucena at that time was R. Isaac b. Judah Ibn Gayyat. He was a member of an old esteemed family in Lucena, as his Arabic name indicates–which he himself sometimes translated into Hebrew, calling himself Ben Moshia. He was a distinguished scholar familiar with the whole Talmud.” Ashtor, Eliyahu,The Jews of Moslem Spain, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973.
Our Roots in Yemen Before Spain
Although our surname was established in Spain, our oral family history predates settling in the Iberian peninsula. Independently, Giat family members from Yemen and Benghiat family members from Turkey have passed down the family history that the family lived in Yemen before Spain. Family elders from Yemen told Sampson Giat, former President of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, that the Giat family lived in Yemen before Spain. Also, a Rabbi in Izmir told his young granddaughter Miriam Benghiat Sen, who was 83 when she told me in 2003, that their ancestors lived in Yemen before they lived in Spain.
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