Zarzal (Zarzab), Abraham ibn

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ZARZAL (ZARZAB), ABRAHAM IBN

ZARZAL (ZARZAB), ABRAHAM IBN (14th century), Spanish physician and astrologer. Zarzal was favored by Sultan Muhammad iv of Granada. The previous court physician Pharez b. Abraham ibn Zarzal was possibly his father. When the sultan's minister, Reduan, was assassinated, Zarzal, fearing he might be implicated, fled to Castile. Here his reputation as a physician and astrologer, together with the recommendation of the sultan, with whom King Pedro of Castile was on friendly terms, led to Zarzal's appointment to the court of Castile as physician and astrologer. There he worked from 1350 to after 1369.

bibliography:

H. Friedenwald, Jews and Medicine, 2 (19672), 644–6.

[Nathan Koren]