The present volume offers the first critical edition of the Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra s Book of the World, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary. These twin treatises represent the first Hebrew work, unique in medieval Jewish science, to discuss the theories and techniques of historical and meteorological astrology that had accumulated from Antiquity to Ibn Ezra s time, on the basis of Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic sources. This volume also incorporates the first critical edition, translated and annotated, of M sh Þall h s Book on Eclipses, a work dealing with mundane astrology whose Hebrew translation was ascribed to Ibn Ezra, as well as a study of three brief texts in which Ibn Ezra conveyed his own opinion about mundane astrology.

The present volume offers the first critical edition of the Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra’s Book of the World, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary. These twin treatises represent the first Hebrew work, unique in medieval Jewish science, to discuss the theories and techniques of historical and meteorological astrology that had accumulated from Antiquity to Ibn Ezra’s time, on the basis of Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic sources. This volume also incorporates the first critical edition, translated and annotated, of MāshāÞallāh’s Book on Eclipses, a work dealing with mundane astrology whose Hebrew translation was ascribed to Ibn Ezra, as well as a study of three brief texts in which Ibn Ezra conveyed his own opinion about mundane astrology.

From the Middle Ages until the present, the development of astrology among Jews was associated mainly with the name of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). His scientific corpus deals with mathematics, astronomy, scientific instruments and tools, and the Jewish calendar; but especially with astrology. This volume is the first product of a larger enterprise-a scientific edition of all twelve Ibn Ezra's astrological treatises-and offers a critical Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra's "Sefer ha-Te'amim," the Book of Reasons, accompanied by an annotated translation and commentary. The two treatises presented here were designed by Ibn Ezra to offer "reasons," "explanations," or "meanings" of the raw astrological concepts formulated in the introduction to astrology that Ibn Ezra entitled "Reshit Hokhmah" (Beginning of Wisdom).

The six essays in this book explore ibn Ezra's multifaceted work and intellectual legacy. They illuminate his exegetical methodology; the role of astrology in his work; his philological insights into the Hebrew language; the possibility of his influence on the great Jewish philosopher and jurist Maimonides; and modern Jewish perspectives on him.

Ibn Ezra addresses the importance of the knowledge of grammar, stating that one cannot fully understand the text of the Torah without it. He also discusses the study of the Bible and the Talmud, arguing that one cannot properly comprehend the Talmud if one does not know the sciences, for there are many passages in the Pentateuch and the Talmud that are either incomprehensible or given to misinterpretation by one who has no prior knowledge of the sciences.

This volume offers the first critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of seven astrological treatises by Abraham Ibn Ezra: the Book of Elections (3 versions); the Book of Interrogations (3 versions); and the Book of the Luminaries.

A collection of poems by Abraham ibn Ezra, a key scholar, thinker, and poet in twelfth-century Al-Andalus