The family has produced several notable rabbis, scholars, physicians, and merchants - especially achieving prominence in Amsterdam, Venice and Hamburg.

Some have suggested that Aboab is a spelling of the Arabic "Abdelwahab", which means "the benefactor’s servant", while others have stated that it derives from the town of Umm al-Abohav in Tunisia.

He is best known for his work Menorat haMaor "Lamp of Illumination",[4] which is a collection of midrashic sermons.

Following the Alhambra Decree of 1492, he with thirty others of the most respected Jews of the land went to Lisbon in order to negotiate with King John II of Portugal for the reception of his banished coreligionists.

However, his son Abraham Aboab IV was the victim of forced conversion in 1497 and thus he and all his descendants became Crypto-Jews.