Abudarham—Rabbi David ben Yosef רבי דוד אבודרהם
he explained the prayers word by word
Rabbi David ben Yosef Abudarham lived in Seville and finished his book in 1340. He was a student of the Baal haTurim and undertook what no one before him had done whole: to explain the entire order of the prayers—weekday, Sabbath, festival—naming for every blessing its source in Tanakh and Talmud and setting out why the words stand in this order.
The Sefer Abudarham became the principal code of the laws of prayer for the whole Jewish world: the Beit Yosef rests on it, and Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike cite it. A century and a half after him Spain was expelled, and the book became also a memory of how they had prayed in Seville before the expulsion.
The sources give no exact years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman and the lists of Seder haDorot.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Sefer Abudarham, Seville 1340 — the explanation of the whole order of prayer with its sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shem ha-Gedolim of Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai — the compendium of the authors of sefarim: who wrote a book and what is known of him
Basis: documents and evidence.