The first indisputable mentions of the name Encaoua appear in collections of responsa from the twelfth century.
A particularly important responsum, preserved in the collection of the teshuvot of Rav Yossef Ibn Migash (1077–1141), refers to a “Rav Choushan Encaoua.” Rav Yossef Ibn Migash, disciple of Rabbi Isaac Al-Fasi (the Rif) and, according to certain traditions, teacher of Maimonides, headed the yeshiva of Lucena. The fact that an Encaoua corresponded with this supreme authority of Iberian Judaism attests to the family's high rank as early as the twelfth century.
A deed preserved at the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, dated 1289, mentions a “Mossé Encaoua” as rabbi of the Jewish community (aljama) of Huesca. The archives of the Crown of Aragon are among the richest in Europe for documenting the life of medieval Jewish communities. The aljamas (autonomous Jewish communities) held royal charters guaranteeing them their own jurisdiction, and the rabbis there exercised functions that were both spiritual and judicial.
The documented mentions of the Encaoua in several cities of the Iberian Peninsula — Toledo, Séville, Saragossa, Huesca — reveal a geographic mobility characteristic of the medieval rabbinic elites. The great rabbis moved between the aljamas according to appointments and halakhic controversies. The network of Jewish communities of Spain, which at its apogee in the thirteenth century numbered more than 200 aljamas, functioned as a dense intellectual mesh in which ideas, manuscripts, and controversies traveled along with the rabbanim. The fact that Encaoua are attested simultaneously in the kingdoms of Castile (Toledo, Séville) and Aragon (Huesca, Saragossa) testifies to the extent of this family network as early as the thirteenth century.
After 1492, the archives of the Spanish Inquisition paradoxically provide valuable information about the Jewish families of before the expulsion. The trials brought against the conversos (Jews converted to Christianity) frequently contain testimonies mentioning the families of origin of the accused. Several files preserved at the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid refer to “Abencava” or “Encahua” among the families whose descendants' Christian orthodoxy was called into question — proof that the name Encaoua was well known enough to attract the attention of the inquisitors, and that certain members of the family had chosen conversion over exile in 1492.