Samuel ibn Tibbon

Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon (* 1160 in Lunel, † 1230 in Marseille ), the son of Judah ibn Tibbon, was a Jewish author and translator of the Middle Ages from the family of Ibn Tibbon.

In his father's will, Samuel was blamed for his unbridled behavior. He later left Lunel and lived in Arles, Beziers and Marseille.

He is best known as a Hebrew translator become the leader of the Perplexed by Maimonides from Arabic into Hebrew. For this task, he asked the author for help and received detailed instructions about the translation work in general as well as an illustration of the difficulties in translating the question works of Maimonides. In his introduction, Samuel explained his method, for example in questions of terminology and syntax. His translation was a great success and established the style of philosophical Hebrew for centuries. He compiled an alphabetically arranged glossary of unusual terms in the Guide of the Perplexed and explained some of the terms in detail.

From Maimonides also he translated the treatise on the resurrection, the "Letter to Yemen " and the commentary on the Ethics of the Fathers.

His translations of medical works include a commentary by Ali ibn Ridwan to Galen's Ars Parva, which was published in Hebrew under the title Perusch Melachah Ketanna ( "Declaration of the small art ").

As an author he has written a comment on Ecclesiastes.