Samaw’al al-Maghribī

The son of a rabbi and poet from Fez, Abū Naṣr al-Samaw’al ibn Yaḥyā al-Maghribī was born in Baghdad and became a noted physician and mathematician. Although some of his scientific writings survive, it was largely Samaw’al’s conversion to Islam in 1160 and his anti-Jewish writing, in particular his Arabic polemical treatise, Silencing the Jews (Ifḥām al-yahūd), that brought him attention.