Jewish merchant

Merchant

A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...

 of the ninth and tenth centuries CE and may have been a Radhanite

Radhanite

The Radhanites were medieval Jewish merchants. Whether the term, which is used by only a limited number of primary sources, refers to a specific guild, or a clan, or is a generic term for Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network is unclear...

. He may or may not be identical with the "Joseph of Spain" who authored numerous mathematical treatises in use in Europe in medieval times.

Abraham ibn Daud

Abraham ibn Daud

Abraham ibn Daud was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher; born at Toledo, Spain about 1110; died, according to common report, a martyr about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I. His mother belonged to a family famed for its learning...

and other sources credit Joseph with bringing the so-called "Arabic numerals" from India to Europe.

• Weissenbron, Zur Gesch. der Jetzigen Ziffern, 1892, pp. 74-78.