...Abraham ibn Daud (Hebrew: Avraham ben David ha-Levi; Arabic: ابراهيم ابن داود) 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. His chronicle, a work written in 1161 under the title of Sefer ha-Kabbalah (Book of Tradition), in which he fiercely attacked the contentions of Karaism and justified rabbinical Judaism by the establishment of a chain of traditions from Moses to his own time, is replete with valuable general information, especially relating to the time of the Geonim and to the history of the Jews in Spain. An astronomical work written by him in 1180 is favorably noticed by Isaac Israeli the Younger ("Yesod 'Olam," iv. 18). His philosophical work, Al-'akidah al-Rafiyah (The Sublime Faith), written in 1168, in Arabic, has been preserved in two Hebrew translations: one by Solomon ben Labi, with the title Emunah Ramah; the other by Samuel Motot. Labi's translation was retranslated into German and published by Simshon Weil. Read full entry

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