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Profiat Duran

Profiat Duran

Also known as Efodi

1350 CE–1414 CE · Rishonim · Perpignan

Profiat Duran (c. 1350–1414), known as the Efodi, was a Catalan philosopher, grammarian and physician based in Perpignan. Forcibly baptized in the anti-Jewish riots of 1391, he later escaped to openly practice Judaism. His Ma'aseh Efod (1403) became a celebrated work of Hebrew grammar, and his satirical epistle Al Tehi ka-Avotekha a classic of medieval Jewish polemic.

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Stop 1 of 11350–1414Wrote

PerpignanRoussillon (France)

What they did here

A philosopher, grammarian and physician based in Perpignan, Catalonia. Forcibly baptized in 1391, he escaped to live openly as a Jew, writing the grammar Ma'aseh Efod (1403) and influential anti-Christian polemics. Died around 1414.

About Perpignan

Perpignan, the chief town of Roussillon (today in southern France, then part of the Crown of Aragon/Principality of Catalonia), had a significant medieval Jewish community attested from the late twelfth century. It was the birthplace of Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri (1249-1306), author of the Beit HaBechirah, one of the great medieval Talmud commentaries, and a notable center of Catalan-Provençal Jewish scholarship.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Profiat Duran’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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