Abraham ibn Daud
Also known as Raavad I
1110 CE–1180 CE · Rishonim · Cordoba
Abraham ibn Daud (c. 1110–1180), known as Raavad I, was a Spanish historian, astronomer and the first Jewish philosopher to systematically draw on Aristotle—a generation before Maimonides. His Sefer HaKabbalah ('Book of Tradition,' 1161) traced the unbroken chain of rabbinic transmission to defend Rabbinic Judaism, and his philosophical Emunah Ramah sought to reconcile reason and faith. He is said to have died a martyr in Toledo.
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CordobaקורדובהAl-Andalus, Spain
What they did here
Born in Córdoba, in Muslim Spain, around 1110; grandson of the scholar Isaac Albalia.
Cordoba in this era
Cordoba in the eleventh century stood as the jewel of al-Andalus, ruled by the fractured Umayyad caliphate before fragmenting into taifas, though the city itself remained a center of Muslim learning and power. The Jewish community flourished in this cosmopolitan atmosphere, enjoying remarkable freedom and prosperity under Islamic rule—a period that would later be romanticized as the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. Scholars debated philosophy, grammar, and biblical interpretation with the same intensity their Muslim and Christian counterparts brought to theology and medicine; Hebrew poetry reached new heights of sophistication, blending Arabic forms with Jewish themes. The great lexicographer and grammarian Ibn Janah worked here, and the city's markets thronged with traders, students, and courtiers of all faiths moving between the magnificent mosque and the synagogues. Yet this calm proved temporary: by the twelfth century, as Christian kingdoms pressed southward and stricter Islamic sects arrived from North Africa, Cordoba's Jews faced increasing pressure, many fleeing eastward or northward—a diaspora that would reshape Jewish life across the Mediterranean for centuries to come.
About Cordoba
The Rambam's birthplace (1138). Medieval Cordoba was a leading center of Sephardi philosophy and Talmud under the Caliphate of Cordoba.
In Cordoba at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Abraham ibn Daud’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Abraham ibn Daud’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- Bachya ben Yosef ibn Pakuda (Chovot HaLevavot)· 1050 CE–1120 CE
- Yehuda HaLevi (Kuzari)· 1075 CE–1141 CE
- Yosef ibn Migash (Rambam's teacher's teacher)· 1077 CE–1141 CE
- Shmuel ben Meir (Rashbam)· 1085 CE–1158 CE
- Avraham Ibn Ezra· 1089 CE–1167 CE
- Yaakov ben Meir (Rabbeinu Tam)· 1100 CE–1171 CE
- R. Eliezer ben Shmuel of Metz (Re'em)· 1115 CE–1198 CE
- Ra'avad· 1125 CE–1198 CE
- Moses Kimchi· 1127 CE–1190 CE
- Benjamin of Tudela· 1130 CE–1175 CE
- Zerachiah HaLevi of Gerona· 1130 CE–1186 CE
- R. Yosef ben Yitzchak Bekhor Shor· 1140 CE–1190 CE
- Anonymous (Sefer HaBahir circle)· 1140 CE–1200 CE
- R. Baruch ben Yitzchak of Worms· 1140 CE–1211 CE
- Eliezer ben Yoel HaLevi· 1140 CE–1225 CE
- Yehuda HeChasid· 1150 CE–1217 CE
- Samuel ibn Tibbon· 1150 CE–1230 CE
- R. Yitzchak Sagi Nahor (Isaac the Blind)· 1160 CE–1235 CE
- R. David Kimchi (Radak)· 1160 CE–1235 CE
- Azriel of Gerona· 1160 CE–1238 CE
- R. Eleazar ben Yehuda of Worms· 1176 CE–1238 CE
- Yitzchak ben Moshe of Vienna· 1180 CE–1250 CE
Christian world
Islamic world
Scientists
Buddhist world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Graeco-Roman world
Rulers world
- Nur ad-Din· 1118 CE–1174 CE
- Emperor Gaozong of Song· 1107 CE–1187 CE
- Andrey Bogolyubsky· 1111 CE–1174 CE
- Manuel I Komnenos· 1118 CE–1180 CE
- Kilij Arslan II· 1113 CE–1192 CE
- Frederick I Barbarossa· 1122 CE–1190 CE
- al-Adid· 1151 CE–1171 CE
- Lord Four Wind 'Fire Serpent'· 1092 CE–
- Saladin· 1137 CE–1193 CE
- Ahmad Sanjar· 1086 CE–1157 CE
- Jayavarman VII· 1122 CE–1218 CE
- Ghiyath ad-Din Muhammad· 1140 CE–1203 CE
- Minamoto no Yoritomo· 1147 CE–1199 CE
- John II Komnenos· 1087 CE–1143 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.