Ibn Ezra, Abraham Ben Meir

Related Category: Judaism: Biographies

(mâr), c.1089–1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, poems, and other works. Revered in Orthodox Judaism as one of the most important authors of biblical commentary, his interpretations were Neoplatonic and often rationalistic. He was the inspiration for Robert Browning's “Rabbi Ben Ezra.” Aben Ezra is another form of his name.

See R. Levy, The Astrological Works of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1927); M. Friedländer, Essays on the Writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1877, repr. 1963–64).