IBN GEI3IROL or GABIROL, SOLOMON B. JEMIDAII, also called by the Jews Solomon the -Spaniard, %limn nthv, the hymnologist 51.t2 1:0-i'Ll7M, and Rashbag .1"1771, from the initials of erl131 rithr, -1, by the Arabians Abu d4jub Su leiman 1bn yachja, and by the Christian school men Avicebral, Avicebron, etc., a distinguished Jewish philosopher, commentator, grammarian, and a most celebrated hymnologist, born in Malaga about A.D. 1021, and died in 1070. To this sweet singer of Israel versification in the sacred language was so easy that he wrote a Hebrew grammar in rhyme when nineteen years of age (iO40), and by his charming style imparted life to the otherwise dry rules. This grammar, entitled pm which originally consisted of 400 verses, has not yet been published entire. Part of it is given by Par chon in his IIcbrew lexicon, Ponsonii 1844, p. xxiii., and, with some corrections, by Leopold Dukes, Shire Shlonzo, Hanover 1858, part ii. p. 56. At the age of twenty-four (1045), he wrote in Arabic an ethico-philosophical work, entitled liti5yN pt..45N, which was translated into Hebrew by Jehudah Ibn Tibbon, and printed under the name trzn rnin ppri in 1550, and frequently since. Ibn Gebirol propounds in this work a peculiar theory of the human temperament and passions, enumerates twenty propensities corresponding to the four dispositions multiplied by the five senses, and shows how the leaning of the soul to the one side may be brought to the moral equipoise by observing the declarations of Scripture, and ethical sayings of the Talmud, which he largely quotes, and which he intersperses with the chief sayings of the divine' Socrates, his pupil Plato, Aristotle, the Arabic philosophers, and especially with the maxims of a Jewish moral philosopher, called Chefez Al-linte, who is the author of an Arabic paraphrase of the Psalms in rhyme (comp. Stein schneider, Yezvish Literature, Longman 1857, p. ior). In consequence of some personal allusions
which he made in this work, Ibn Gebirol was obliged to quit Saragossa in 1(46, and for some time to wander about Spain, till he was taken up by the celebrated Jewish prime minister and gram marian, Samuel Ha-Nagid, when be wrote in Arabic his grand philosophical work, called in Hebrew t,,nri -11pn, the fountain of life, and in Latin, De Materia Universali. Fragments of a Hebrew translation, and an entire Latin version, of it have only lately been published by the indefati gable and learned Munk in his Melanges de Philo sophi t juive et arabe, Paris 1857-1850. Ibn Gebi rol's works form an important part in the history of Jewish philosophy [PHILosorktvl, inasmuch as he was the first philosopher of the middle ages in Europe, and as his philosophical treatises were used by the schoolmen, William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris (died 1248), Albert the Great (died- x280), Thomas Aquinas (died 1274), and Duns Scotas (died 1308). From Ibn Ezra's quotations (comp. commentaries on Gen. iii. ; Exod. xxviii. 37 ; Is. xliii. 7 ; Ps. xvi. 2 ; Cxliii. 10 ; cL 6 ; Dan. xi. 30), it appears that Ibn Gebirol also wrote expo sitions of the Scriptures. It must also be added that his hymn entitled 11.6n NI:, the royal diadem, which is a beautiful and pathetic poetical composition of profound philosophical sentiments and great devotion, forms an important part of the divine service on the evening preceding the great Day of Atonement (-rim or$ rranz with the devout Jews to the present day. Comp. Sachs, Die religiose Pavie der judo: in Sfianien, Berlin 1845, pp. 3-3o ; 213, &C. ; hIllnk, Maange Philosophi e juive et arabe, Paris 1857-50 ; Stein schneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 2313-2338 ; Graetz, Geschichte der yule's, Leipzig 186x, vi. 31-49.—C. D. G.