Ibn Daud, Abraham ben-David Halevi (Rabad I)

(c. 1110–c. 1180)

   Spanish historian. Ibn Daud grew up in one of the Jewish communities of Arab Spain, probably Cordoba. When the Jews fled to the Christian north of the country in the wake of Andalusia’s capture by the Almohads - a fierce Moslem sect who offered conversion or death - Ibn Daud left Cordoba for Toledo, and stayed there until his death. Two of his works remain: a philosophical treatise called ‘The Sublime Faith’, originally written in Arabic but extant only in a Hebrew version, and a historical treatise written in Hebrew called Sefer ha- Cabbala (‘Book of Tradition’). ‘The Sublime Faith’ is a philosophical defence of Judaism, which contains an attack on the tenets of Christianity and Islam; Sefer ha-Cabbala, which covers Jewish history from the time of Alexander the Great until the Almohad invasion of Spain, is similarly a defence of Judaism. Right down to the scientific study of Jewish history in the 19 century, Sefer ha- Cabbala had a great influence, particularly as a source for the history of the Jews in Spain.