IBN ʿEZRAʾ, AVRAHAM (c. 1089–c. 1164), was a Jewish biblical commentator and poet. Born in Christian Spain, Ibn ʿEzraʾ was educated both in traditional Jewish literature and in secular subjects. He was a friend of the theologian and poet Yehudah ha-Levi and recorded his answer to Yehudah's question about God in his commentary on Exodus 20:2. After leaving Spain in 1140, Ibn ʿEzraʾ spent the rest of his life traveling through Italy, France, and England. Most of his works were written during this period.

In his travels Ibn ʿEzraʾ carried with him the intellectual achievements of Judeo-Muslim culture in Spain. One of the first to write on secular subjects in Hebrew (rather than Arabic), which required that he develop a technical vocabulary for standard scientific terms, he exposed Jews outside the Iberian Peninsula to the sophisticated study of Hebrew...