Rabbi Joseph ibn Aknin רבי יוסף אבן עקנין

He was born in Barcelona about 1150, and when the Almohads turned on the Jews of Spain and the Maghreb he went to Fez—and stayed there until his death. The Fez of those years was outwardly Muslim: many families had taken Islam for show and kept their Jewishness at home. Ibn Aknin wrote for them.

His Mevo ha-Talmud is an introduction to how the Talmud is to be learned: twelve chapters on where to begin and in what order to go. The Sefer ha-Mussar is a commentary on Pirkei Avot. The Tibb al-Nufus, "the Healing of Souls", is in Arabic, on character and learning. And there is a commentary on the Song of Songs in which the plain sense, the midrash and the philosophical reading run in three ranks.

Two men were merged, and this must be said plainly. There is another Joseph ben Judah—ibn Shimon of Ceuta, the disciple of Maimonides, the very man for whom the Guide for the Perplexed was written. For centuries he was called "ibn Aknin", and in the older books both go under that one name. They are different men: one lived in Fez and never met Maimonides, the other came to Maimonides in Fustat and moved on from there to Aleppo. We do not merge them.