Account of Scientific Transmission

Abraham Ibn Ezra

Mid-12th Century

Manuscript page with blocks of Latin script and small decorative elements, and two square diagrams, one drawn in red and labeled, each with the same pattern of a smaller box connected to the corners and an inscribed square.
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This passage comes from the introduction that Abraham Ibn Ezra wrote to his Hebrew translation of an Arabic commentary, written by the tenth-century Muslim Ibn al-Muthannā, on a set of astronomical tables by the ninth-century Muslim al-Khwārizmī. In it, Ibn Ezra describes the transfer of Indian astronomy to the Islamic world. Medieval Jewish rationalists, trying to validate their engagement with “secular” studies like philosophy, sometimes claimed that Jewish sages were the original source of Greek scientific wisdom. Ibn Ezra’s own scientific works played a critical role in the transfer of Arabic knowledge to Latin Europe, and many of his Hebrew texts were translated into Latin.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval History and Travel Writing

8th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Abraham Ibn Ezra

1092–1167

Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was a remarkably productive itinerant intellectual who contributed to an astonishing array of fields, including biblical exegesis, science, mathematics, grammar, astronomy, astrology, piyyut (liturgical poetry), and philosophy. Born in Toledo, in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), in the first part of his life Ibn Ezra moved in elite circles, for the most part writing poetry, and enjoyed a close relationship with the poet and theologian Judah ha-Levi. Around the age of fifty, Ibn Ezra fled Almohad persecutions in his homeland and traveled to Italy, northern France, and England. Most of his scientific writings date to this period, including numerous works on astrology, number theory, and grammar. His biblical commentaries, which were concerned with the straightforward meaning of scripture but also incorporated philosophical and scientific insights, were enormously popular. In later centuries, they attracted many supercommentaries , namely, commentaries on his commentary

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