Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra

Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra , c.1089-1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, poems, and other works. Revered in Orthodox Judaism as one of the most important authors of biblical commentary, his interpretations were Neoplatonic and often rationalistic. He was the inspiration for Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra." Aben Ezra is another form of his name.

Bibliography: See R. Levy, The Astrological Works of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1927); M. Friedländer, Essays on the Writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1877, repr. 1963-64).

Ibn Ezra, Abraham (c.1089–1164). Jewish philosopher, poet, and biblical commentator. He wrote both secular and religious poetry, commentaries on all the books of the Bible (those to the early prophets, Chronicles, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, and Nehemiah are no longer in existence), books on Hebrew grammar, and two short works on philosophy.

He may have been the model for R. Browning's ‘Rabbi ben Ezra’.