Abraham ibn Ezra

During the last thirty or so years of his life, Rabbi Abraham-ben-Mir ibn Ezra (1092 1167) was a restless, nearly destitute wanderer. Little is nown of his life e!"e#t that he is re$ered as the %ost learned &ewish s"holar of his ti%e. 'orn and edu"ated in (oledo during the )*olden +ge, of -usli% .#ain, he died on a /ourney fro% Ro%e to his nati$e land. (radition has it that ibn 01ra %arried the daughter of his friend and #ro%inent s"holar &udah 2aLe$i. +fter three of his "hildren died and his son 3saa" "on$erted to 3sla%, a se$ere blow, ibn 01ra went into a #eriod of self4e!ile, #erha#s to lo"ate his son and bring hi% ba" to &udais%. 2e tra$eled to 5orth +fri"a, 0gy#t, 3taly, 6ran"e, and 0ngland, staying for e!tended #eriods in so%e of these #la"es, where he wrote %any of his brilliant wor s. 2e wrote %ore than 100 boo s on %edi"ine, astrono%y, astrology, %athe%ati"s, #hiloso#hy, #oetry, linguisti"s, and "o%%entaries on the 'ible and the (al%ud. 2e was a #oet, #hiloso#her, bibli"al e!egist, %athe%ati"ian, astrologer, translator and gra%%arian. (hrough his wanderings ibn 01ra hel#ed #ro#agate the rationalisti" and s"ientifi" #oints of $iew de$elo#ed in .#ain by -usli%s and &ews a%ong the &ewish "o%%unities of 7hristian 0uro#e. 2e translated an astrono%i"al wor fro% +rabi" into 2ebrew, "reating a 2ebrew #rose style for s"ientifi" #ur#oses. 2is wor s showed a strange %i!ture of rationalis% and %ysti"is%, with a dee# interest in %agi" s8uares and the %ysti"al #ro#erties of nu%bers. 2e was the ins#iration for Robert 'rowning9s #oe% )Rabbi 'en 01ra,, whi"h begins with the fa%iliar line )*row old along with %e: (he best is yet to be;,

2is tra$els during the #eriod 11<0 to 1160 too hi% fro% London in the north to 0gy#t in the east with sto#s along the way in Ro%e, .alerno, =erona, Lu""a, '>1iers, and 5arbonne to %ention but a few. +t

ea"h sto#, li e a linguisti" and s"ientifi" &ohnny +##leseed, he s#read nowledge of +rabi" learning in 7hristian 0uro#e where s"holarshi# had been in a dee# slu%ber for so%e ?00 years. 2is 2ebrew translation of al4'irnui9s wor on the astrono%i"al tables of al4@hwari1%i Aonly nown through 3bn 01ra9s $ersion) was the authoritati$e astrono%i"al guide for Roger 'a"on, 5i"holas of 7usa, and Bi"o della -irandola. 3n Book of the World he "autioned that all astrono%i"al tables #redi"ting the ti%es of #lanetary "on/un"tions were erroneous be"ause they assu%ed unifor% %otion of the #lanets. 2e "lai%ed that through ti%e, there had "o%e to be an a""u%ulation of errors and it was unreasonable to e!tra#olate fro% an"ient data. 2e relied only on astrono%i"al obser$ations %ade by "onte%#orary )sages.,

3bn 01ra wrote three treatises on nu%bers, Book of Unity, Book of Number, and the . 3n the Book of Unity, he used the 3ndian sy%bols 1, 2, C, <, ?, 6, 7, D, 9. 3n the Book of Number, he des"ribed a #ositional de"i%al syste% for integers with #la"e $alues, reading fro% left to right. +lthough based on the 2indu arith%eti" he used 2ebrew letters , , , , , , ,, and for the nu%erals 1 4 9, and a 1ero that he "alled galgal, %eaning a wheel or a "ir"le. (o illustrate the %agi"al #ro#erties of the #ositional de"i%al syste% he dis"ussed the e$aluation of the ratio of the "ir"u%feren"e of a "ir"le to its dia%eter, Enot yet denoted by the sy%bol F, whose $alue he ga$e as C.1<2, thuslyG

)+nd when you add the s8uare of 1 to the s8uare of the first Enon oneF odd nu%ber, ;, and then you draw a "ir"le with the for%er as dia%eter, and then draw a #er#endi"ular E"hordF at Ea distan"e of aF third Efro% the endF, the isos"eles triangle that is for%ed Ewhose base is the "hord and whose height is the longer seg%ent of the dia%eterF has an area e8ual to the #eri%eter of the "ir"le.,

(he Tahbula "ontained )(he &ose#hus Broble%,, of whi"h there are %any $ersionsH with the goal of

ensuring those who are )good, sur$i$e a %ass sui"ide or slaughter and the )e$il, do not. De#ending on when and by who% the #roble% is related, the good and the e$il "an be any grou# and those they "onsider ene%ies. (he original $ersion is the legendary story of fa%ous &ewish historian &ose#hus 6la$ius who finds hi%self and <0 other &ews tra##ed in a "a$e at the fortress of -asada surrounded by Ro%an soldiers. Rather than surrender they #lan to ill the%sel$es. &ose#hus isn9t een on the idea and "o%es u# with a %athe%ati"al #lan to sa$e hi%self. 0$eryone is arranged in a "ir"le and all agree that ea"h third #erson, "ounting around and around, should be illed. Iisely &ose#hus #la"es hi%self and a friend in the 16th and the C1st #osition of the "ir"le of <1. 3n this arrange%ent, these two are the last ali$e after the "ounting and illing is "on"luded, and &ose#hus "on$in"es his "o%#anion to a$oid %artyrdo%.

+ stri"tly %athe%ati"al $ersion of the #roble% is to "onsider a grou# of n #eo#le standing in a "ir"le, nu%bered "onse"uti$ely "lo" wise fro% 1 to n. .tarting with #erson nu%ber 2, and %o$ing "lo" wise, e$ery other #erson is re%o$ed, until only one re%ains. 6or instan"e, if n J 10, the #eo#le are arranged around a "ir"le in the order +'7D06*23&. (hey are re%o$ed in the order ', D, 6, 2, &, 7, *, + and ( with 0 the last re%aining. 3n general, the #roble% is to find so%e si%#le way to "o%#ute &An), whi"h re#resents the last #erson re%aining in the "ase of n #eo#le arranged in a "ir"le. (he solution of the #roble% "an be obtained using binary digits, as ea"h #erson in the "ir"le, as they are "ounting around, will be re%o$ed or allowed to re%ain. (he #roble% "an be %odified by "hanging the beginning #oint and the nu%ber of #la"es %o$ed "ounter"lo" wise before re%o$ing so%eone.

3bn 01ra9s %ost fa%ous wor s were his "o%%entary on the 'ible and the (orah. ."holars sus#e"t that he didn9t belie$e that -oses wrote the (orah, finding "lues that it had been written o$er a #eriod of ti%e. 2e "ouldn9t #ubli"ly #ro"lai% this belief, for it would ha$e %eant his death. Ihene$er he treads u#on "ontro$ersial ground he "arefully #refa"ed his re%ar s with the #hrase, )+nd the intelligent will

understand., 3bn 01ra suggested that the for% and %atter of the intelligible world e%anated fro% *od, whereas the terrestrial was #re4e!istent and un"reated.

Quotation of the Day: ) @nown that e$ery "al"ulation that adds fro% one to any nu%ber that one
wills, you "an obtain by its $alue E%ulti#liedF by its half together with half of one;we "an start to now how %any "o%binations Ein$ol$ingF two ser$ants Ehe "alled #lanets )ser$ants, #erha#s ser$ants of *odF. +nd it is nown that the nu%ber of ser$ants is se$en. +nd .aturn "an "o%bine with si! other ser$ants. +nd si! by its half and the half of one is one and twenty. +nd thus is the nu%ber of "o%binations of twos. 5ow we wanted to now the nu%ber of "o%binations of threes. 2ere we #ut .aturn and &u#iter and one of the others, their nu%ber is fi$e. Ie %ulti#ly fi$e by two and a half and a half, and get fifteen;. +braha% 3bn 01ra