Person · 4880–4950 AM · 1120 CE — 1190 CE
Rabbi Judah ibn Tibbon רבי יהודה בן שאול אבן תיבון
the father of the translators: he gave Hebrew its words for philosophy
He left Granada in 1150, fleeing the Almohads, and settled at Lunel. The translations came one after another: Duties of the Heart in 1161, the Kuzari in 1167, Ibn Janah's Sefer ha-Rikmah and Sefer ha-Shorashim in 1171, Rav Saadya's Beliefs and Opinions in 1186. His renderings drove out their rivals and became the received ones.
Of his own there is one work—a testament to his son Shmuel: instruction on how to live, how to study and how to keep books. "I have collected a large library for thy sake so that thou needest never borrow a book of any one." The son became the translator of the Guide of the Perplexed.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- The testament of Judah ibn Tibbon — the charge to his son and the words about the library
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years, the list of translations with their dates, and the testament to his son
Basis: documents and evidence.