Narbonne נרבונה

Narbonne was the oldest and most learned community of Languedoc. In the eleventh century its school was held by Rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan, whose expositions Rashi copied out; in the twelfth the court of Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak, author of the Sefer ha-Eshkol, sat here; in the thirteenth Rabbi Meir ha-Meili and Rabbi Manoach spoke from here.

Of itself Narbonne told a tradition: that the kings of the Franks recognised the title of nasi in the Jewish house here and gave it a third of the town, and that this line descended from the house of David. This is a tradition, not a charter: so the community spoke of itself, and so the account should be passed on. What is firm is other things—that the Jews of Narbonne held land and houses, and that their scholars signed ordinances for the whole region.

It ended as everywhere in France: in expulsion. In 1306 by the king's word the Jewish communities of Languedoc were driven out, and the Provençal school scattered—to Spain, to Italy, and to the county of Provence, which the expulsion did not reach.