Moses ibn Tibbon
Encyclopedia
Moses ibn Tibbon
(born in Marseille
; flourished between 1240 and 1283) was a Jewish physician, author and translator. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon makes it probable that he reached a great age.
He was son of Samuel ibn Tibbon, and father of the Judah ibn Tibbon
who was prominent in the Maimonidean controversy which took place at Montpellier
. With other Jewish physicians of Provence, he suffered under the order of the Council of Béziers (May, 1246) which prohibited Jewish physicians from treating Gentiles.
For his other translations see Steinschneider, l.c. pp. 177, 231, 362, 363, 416, 542, 544, 553; idem, "Cat. Bodl." cols. 1998 et seq.
Ibn Tibbon
Ibn Tibbon , is a family of Jewish rabbis and translators that lived principally in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries.- Prominent family members :Prominent members of the family include:...
(born in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
; flourished between 1240 and 1283) was a Jewish physician, author and translator. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon makes it probable that he reached a great age.
He was son of Samuel ibn Tibbon, and father of the Judah ibn Tibbon
Ibn Tibbon
Ibn Tibbon , is a family of Jewish rabbis and translators that lived principally in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries.- Prominent family members :Prominent members of the family include:...
who was prominent in the Maimonidean controversy which took place at Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
. With other Jewish physicians of Provence, he suffered under the order of the Council of Béziers (May, 1246) which prohibited Jewish physicians from treating Gentiles.
Works (original)
He wrote the following works:- Commentary on Canticles (Lyck, 1874). Written under the influence of MaimonidesMaimonidesMoses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, it is of a philosophical and allegorical character, and is similar to that by his brother-in-law Abba Mari ben Simson ben Anatoli, whom he quotes repeatedly. - Commentary to the Pentateuch. However, Judah Mosconi (c. 1370), in his supercommentary on the writings of Abraham ibn EzraAbraham ibn EzraRabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....
, expresses some doubt as to the authenticity of this commentary on account of its often very unsatisfactory explanations. According to Steinschneider, it was merely a supercommentary on Abraham ibn Ezra. - Sefer Pe'ah, an allegorical explanation of haggadic passages in the TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and the MidrashMidrashThe Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
(Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 939, 9). - Commentary on the weights and measures of the Bible and the Talmud (Vatican MSS., No. 298, 4; see AssemaniAssemaniAssemani is a family of Lebanese Maronites that included several notable Orientalists:* Giuseppe Simone Assemani * Stefano Evodio Assemani , nephew of Joseph Simon* Giuseppe Luigi Assemani , brother of Joseph Simon...
, "Catal." p. 283; Steinschneider, "Joseph ibn Aḳnin", in Ersch and Gruber, "Encyc." section ii., part 31, p. 50; "Ginze Nistarot", iii. 185 et seq.). - Sefer ha-Tanninim, mentioned by Isaac de Lattes (l.c.), but without indication of its contents.
- Letter on questions raised by his father, Samuel ibn Tibbon, in regard to Maimonides' Moreh Nebukim (Guide for the Perplexed) (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 2218, 2).
Translations
Moses ibn Tibbon's translations are even more important and numerous than his original works. They include versions of Arabic works on philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. The name of the author of the work from which the translation was made precedes, in the following list, the title by which the translation is known. His most important translations are as follows:- AverroesAverroes' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
: Commentaries, etc., on AristotleAristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
: Physica AuscultatioPhysics (Aristotle)The Physics of Aristotle is one of the foundational books of Western science and philosophy...
(about 1250; Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers." p. 109); Kelale ha-Shamayim weha-'Olam (De Cœlo et MundoOn the HeavensOn the Heavens is Aristotle's chief cosmological treatise: it contains his astronomical theory and his ideas on the concrete workings of the terrestrial world...
; l.c. p. 126); Sefer ha-Hawayah weha-Hefsed (1250: De Generatione et Corruptione; l.c. p. 130); Sefer Otot 'Elyonot (MeteoraMeteorology (Aristotle)Meteorology is a treatise by Aristotle which contains his theories about the earth sciences. These include early accounts of water evaporation, weather phenomena, and earthquakes....
; l.c. p. 135); Kelale Sefer ha-Nefesh (1244: De Anima; l.c. p. 147); Bi'ur Sefer ha-Nefesh (1261: The Middle Commentary; l.c. p. 148); Ha-Hush we-ha-Muḥash (1254: Parva NaturaliaParva NaturaliaThe Parva Naturalia are a collection of seven works by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul:* Sense and Sensibilia * On Memory...
; l.c. p. 154); Mah she-Aḥar ha-Ṭeba' , (1258: Metaphysica; l.c. p. 159); Bi'ur Arguza (commentary on Avicenna's "Arjuzah"; Renan, "Averroes," p. 189; Steinschneider, l.c. p. 699). - AvicennaAvicennaAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
: Ha-Seder ha-Ḳaṭon (1272: "The Small Canon"; l.c. p. 693, comp. p. 285). - Batalyusi: Ha-'Agullot ha-Ra'yoniyyot (Al-Ḥada'iḳ, on the "similarity of the world to an imaginary sphere"; l.c. p. 287), edited by D. Kaufmann ('Die Spuren al-Bataljusi's in der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophie," Leipsic, 1880).
- Al-Hassar: Sefer ha-Ḥeshbon (1271: Treatise on Arithmetic; Steinschneider, l.c. p. 558; "Isr. Letterbode," iii. 8).
- EuclidEuclidEuclid , fl. 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I...
: Shorashim, or Yesodot (1270: ElementsEuclid's ElementsEuclid's Elements is a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria c. 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates , propositions , and mathematical proofs of the propositions...
; Steinschneider, l.c. p. 506, comp. p. 510). - Alfarabi: Hatḥalot ha-Nimẓa'ot ha-Tib'iyyim (1248: Book of the Principles; l.c. p. 291. comp. p. 47), edited by H. Fillpowski, in a Hebrew almanac of 5610 (Leipsic, 1849).
- GeminusGeminusGeminus of Rhodes , was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, who flourished in the 1st century BC. An astronomy work of his, the Introduction to the Phenomena, still survives; it was intended as an introductory astronomy book for students. He also wrote a work on mathematics, of which only...
: Ḥokmat ha-Kokabim, or Ḥokmat Tekunah (1246, Naples: Introduction to the AlmagestAlmagestThe Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...
of PtolemyPtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
; l.c. p. 539). - Ibn Al-JazzarIbn Al-JazzarAhmed Ben Jaafar Ben Brahim Ibn Al Jazzar Al-Qayrawani , was an influential 10th-century Muslim physician who became famous for his writings on Islamic medicine. He was born in Qayrawan in modern-day Tunisia...
: Ẓedat ha-Derakim (1259. Viaticum) - Hunain: Mabo el Meleket ha-Refu'ah (Introduction to Medical Science; l.c. p. 711).
- Razi: Ha-Ḥilluḳ weha-Ḥilluf (Book of the Classifications [of Diseaes]; l.c. p. 730); Al Iḳrabadhin (Antidotarium; l.c. p. 730).
For his other translations see Steinschneider, l.c. pp. 177, 231, 362, 363, 416, 542, 544, 553; idem, "Cat. Bodl." cols. 1998 et seq.
Translations from Maimonides
True to the traditions of his family, Moses ibn Tibbon translated those of Maimonides' Arabic writings which his father had not translated:- "Miktab" or "Ma'amar be-Hanhagat ha-Beri'ut," a treatise on hygiene in the form of a letter to the sultan, printed in Kerem Ḥemed (iii. 9 et seq.), in Jacob ben Moses Zebi's "Dibre Mosheh" (Warsaw, 1886), and by Jacob Saphir ha-Levi (Jerusalem, 1885, from his own manuscript, under the title "Sefer Hanhagat ha-Beri'ut"). This translation (1244) was one of his first, if not the first (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers." pp. 770 et seq.).
- Commentary on the MishnahMishnahThe Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
. A fragment of his translation of Pe'ah, which was published by A. Geiger 1847, makes it at least possible that he translated the whole Seder Mo'ed (l.c. p. 925). - Sefer ha-Mitzvot another of his earliest translations (Constantinople, c. 1516-18, also printed in various editions of Maimonides' "Yad," but without Moses ibn Tibbon's preface); in it he excuses himself for continuing his own translation, though having known of that of Abraham Ḥasdai, on the ground that the latter had obviously used the first edition of the Arabic original, while he himself used a later revision (l.c. p. 927).
- Millot ha-Higgayon, a treatise on logic (Venice, 1552, with two anonymous commentaries). No complete manuscript of the Arabic original is known. The terminology here used by Moses ibn Tibbon has been adopted throughout Hebrew philosophical literature (l.c. p. 434).
- Ha-Ma'amar ha-Nikbad, a treatise on poisons, also called Ha-Ma'amar be-Teri'aḳ (extant in several manuscripts; see Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 1919, iv.; idem, "Hebr. Uebers." p. 764).
- Commentary on HippocratesHippocratesHippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
' "Aphorisms" (1257 or 1267: l.c. p. 769, comp. p. 659).