Solomon ben Judah Ibn Gabirol

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Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol (ca. 1021-ca. 1058) was an outstanding Spanish Hebrew poet and philosopher of the Middle Ages.

Solomon ibn Gabirol was born in Málaga and was orphaned at an early age. He spent his formative years in Saragossa, where he found a generous patron in Yekutiel ibn Hassan. The latter died when Ibn Gabirol was 17, and the youthful poet was forced to resume his wandering. The poetry he wrote during this period reflects his melancholy mood.

In Granada, Ibn Gabirol found a new patron in Samuel he-Nagid, the famous Spanish Jewish statesman, poet, and Talmudist, but when Samuel died, Ibn Gabirol again suffered want and need. It seems that he never married. He died at a young age, some believe before his fortieth birthday (1058), but more probably at the age of 48 (1069).

Ibn Gabirol distinguished himself both in his secular and religious poems. The former were written generally in a light vein, but some of them depict loneliness and despair. About half of his 300 verses that have survived are religious in character. His greatest and longest masterpiece of religious poetry is his Keter Malkhut (Royal Crown), a partly philosophical meditation on struggling man's insignificance before the sublime mystery of the universe and God.

Ibn Gabirol ranks as the first great Spanish Jewish thinker. His chief work, the Mekor Hayyim (Fons vitae, or Fountain of Life), written originally in Arabic, accepts the Neoplatonic ideas of Emanation, expounded primarily by Plotinus. But Ibn Gabirol's view of Emanation differs from that of the Neoplatonists in that his Emanations are the result of the Will of God and not a mere mechanical necessity or flow from the Divine Source. Matter is spiritual and as such streams directly from the Godhead; it becomes corporeal only at a distance from its origin. Perhaps because Ibn Gabirol omitted all biblical allusion in Mekor Hayyim, Jews did not read it; in fact, it was regarded by many as the product either of a Christian scholastic writer or of a Moslem, and "Ibn Gabirol" was frequently corrupted to Avicebron or Avicembril.

Tikkun Middot Ha-nephesh (Improvement of the Moral Qualities), Ibn Gabirol's ethical treatise, despite its many biblical quotations, represented a system of ethics independent of the Jewish tradition. It was based largely on a psychological and physiological approach and urged man to attain harmony in body and soul by disciplining his senses along the lines of Aristotle's golden mean. Although Ibn Gabirol exercised a relatively minor influence on later Jewish thinkers, his Neoplatonic ideas penetrated the medieval Cabala, or Jewish mystic lore.

Further Reading

Israel Davidson, ed. The Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol (1923), contains an informative introduction by the editor and a splendid collection of Ibn Gabirol's poetic works, including his Keter Malkhut, translated by Israel Zangwill. Abraham E. Millgram, ed., The Anthology of Medieval Hebrew Literature (1935), presents a brief sketch of Ibn Gabirol's life and includes a small selection of his secular and religious poems. A good review of Ibn Gabirol's philosophy may be found in Julius Guttman, The Philosophy of Judaism (trans. 1964).

(c.1020-c.1057). Poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life, the main biographical source of information being his poetic works. He indicates that he was born in Malaga, Spain, and was raised in Saragossa. He began to write poetry while still young and became known for both his secular and sacred poems. The former include moving love lyrics, drinking poems, nature poems, and ethical verse. Ibn Gabirol is best known for his sacred poetry and is recognized as one of the most prominent and seminal of the medieval Spanish-Jewish religious poets. His mastery of the Hebrew language, his deep and austere religious feeling, and his familiarity with Arabic prosody combined to produce a body of sacred verse that entered the Jewish liturgy in all rites---Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Karaite. His works are characterized by a deep reverence for God and identification with the tribulations of the Jewish people in exile as well as hope and confidence in the redemption. His most famous poem is the philosophical meditation Keter Malkhut ("Royal Crown"), which is also a prayer written from an awareness of the triviality of man as compared with the greatness of God, Who is called upon for His mercy and forgiveness. It entered the Sephardi ritual for the Day of Atonement.

His major philosophical work, written in Arabic, was Mekor Ḥayyim ("Source of Life"). It is a Neoplatonic metaphysical work, devoted to the relationship of matter and form, which are united in the world by the will of God. The book influenced Jewish thinkers of the time, whose orientation remained Neoplatonic for the next century. However, it had no recognizable Jewish content, and after its translation into Latin (Fons Vitae), its authorship was forgotten. It was attributed to a Christian author believed to have been called Avicebron and was studied by the Christian scholastics. Only when quotations of the original were discovered in the mid-19th century was the author identified.

Ibn Gabirol's ethical work Tikkun Midot ba-Nefesh ("On the Improvement of the Moral Qualities"), also written in Arabic, was translated into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon. It is a popular work, discussing what benefits and what harms the human soul, citing the Bible and Arabic writers.

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Ibn Gabirol, Solomon (c. 1021-1058/70) Also known as Avicebron, the first Spanish Jewish philosopher, and a considerable Hebrew poet, whose mystical ideas play a role in the Kabbala. Ibn Gabirol stood for a Neoplatonism which was subsequently one of the targets of Aquinas. His principal work was the Fountain (or Source) of Life, composed in Arabic but widely known through its 12th-century Latin translation.

Quotes:

"There are four types of men in this world: 1. The man who knows, and knows that he knows; he is wise, so consult him. 2. The man who knows, but doesn't know that he knows; help him not forget what he knows. 3. The man who knows not, and knows that he knows not; teach him. 4. Finally, there is the man who knows not but pretends that he knows; he is a fool, so avoid him."

"My friend is he who will tell me my faults in private."

"Your secret is your prisoner; once you reveal it, you become its slave."

"I am better able to retract what I did not say than what I did."

"The beginning of wisdom is to desire it."

"Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings."

See more famous quotes by Ibn Gabirol