would ever die. There are many anecdotes and legends about his lack of practicality in
worldly matters on the one hand, and his great wit and wisdom in intellectual matters
on the other.
At a young age he was married and a son, Itz’hak, was born. Tradition main-
tains that his wife was the daughter of the renowned Jewish poet and philosopher
Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi. Years later, Itz’hak accompanied Yehuda HaLevi on his journey
to the Holy Land, but parted ways with him and stayed behind in Baghdad, never to
see his father again. In Baghdad, following his host, Itz’hak converted to Islam, and a
few years later he died there of an illness. When Ibn Ezra received the news, he poured
out his broken heart in a poem, mourning his son’s death and lamenting his own fate
that deprived him of having a son to comfort him at his old age.
Wandering and material poverty was a way of life for Ibn Ezra. He began his
travels going south to the Muslim regions and then proceeded to the Jewish communi-
ties in North Africa, which he visited more than once, each time returning to Spain.
He was also said to have visited Egypt, the Land of Israel (Palestine), and possibly fur-
ther east, but there is no real evidence of that.
In 1140, he left Spain for good and began his travels among the Jewish com-
munities in the Christian world—Italy, France, and England. During those years he
wrote his greatest works, including astrology. The Jews in those communities had no
access to the Islamic sciences, nor did they have sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew
grammar, so they welcomed Ibn Ezra’s stay among them with great enthusiasm.
Ibn Ezra first went to Rome, where the Jews enjoyed relative prosperity and
security under the decrees of the popes. By that time he had become well known, and
wherever he went, he found a place to stay, students to teach, and rabbis with whom
to discourse. He left Rome heading north to other towns in Italy, never staying long,
never settling down, and practicing astrology to make some living.
In 1146, in Lucca, near Rome, he began most of his astrological treatises and
completed them a couple of years later. Some sources say that they were written in
Beziers (Bedersh) in the south of France, where he arrived in 1147 or 1148.
In 1152, Ibn Ezra went from Provençe towards the north of France, arriving at
a town he calls Rodos (Rodez?), where he became very ill at the age of 64. Through
the help of a benevolent patron, Moshe Bar Meir, Ibn Ezra recovered and made a vow,
which he kept soon after, to write his commentary for the Bible all over again in a
long version.
Still restless, at age 70, Ibn Ezra decided to go further north, to London, Eng-
land, and again he was received very well by the Jewish community. Here, too, he
composed important books, dedicated to his benefactors. In 1160, he translated from
Arabic into Hebrew the Explanation of the Tables by Muhammad Al-Matani.His Death
Ibn Ezra died at the age of 75 in the year 1164. In one version, his death took
place in Rome. In another, it was in Calahora, Spain. Yet, according to another
source, found in a book written 50 years after his death, he never left England andIbn Ezra, Avraham
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