Letter to Asher ben Meshullam of Lunel

Judah Ibn Tibbon sent this letter to Asher ben Meshullam of Lunel, France, as a preface to his Hebrew translation of the Arabic Improvement of the Moral Qualities (Islāh al-akhlāq) by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Asher served as Judah’s patron in southern France, where Judah had fled, escaping Almohad persecutions in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Judah’s translations made many of the most important Judeo-Arabic works, which had been written in al-Andalus, accessible to the Jews of the Christian world, including Asher and his circle, who usually did not know Arabic. In this letter, Judah reminds his patron of the translation projects that Judah had already completed. He indicates that the translations he provided were open to improvement, as both translator and patron worked to develop a medieval Hebrew vocabulary for philosophical language.