Not much is known about Rabbi Moshe Faro other than his fame as one of the leading musicians during the reign of Sultan Mahmud I (1730–1754). Faro was a Turkish rabbi whose ancestors were of Portuguese origin. An accomplished tamburi, or player of the tambur, a long-necked lute used in Turkish classical music, he is believed to have been the teacher of Tamburi Isaac (Isak) Fresco (Fresko) Romano. Rabbi Faro was known to Turks as Haham Musi (Rabbi Moses). He was active as a composer in the mid-eighteenth century, a time of great Jewish scholarship and cultural achievement in the…