Rif (R. Isaac Al-Fasi)

Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi, one of the greatest of the early codifiers of Jewish Law, whose name is familiar to all stu­dents of the Talmud, was born in Kalat ibn Hamad, a village near Fez, in North Africa, in the Jewish year 4773, or 1013 of the Common Era. ...

Rabbi Isaac Al-Fasi (1013-1103), known by the acronym "Rif," was one of the earliest codifiers of the Talmud. In 1088 he was forced to flee his hometown of Fez, Morocco, to Spain, where he assumed the position of rabbi in Alusina (Lucene).