Abraham Ibn Ezra

Scholar and writer; born 1092-1093; died Jan. 28 (according to Rosin, Reime und Gedichte, p. 82, n. 6, 1167 (see his application of Gen.xii. 4 to himself). His father's name was Meïr and his family was probably a branch of the Ibn Ezra family to which Moses ibn Ezra belonged. Moses in his poems mentions Abraham by his Arabic name, Abu Isḥaḳ (Ibrahim) ibn al-Majid ibn Ezra (Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 1801), together with Judah ha-Levi. Both were, according to Moses, from Toledo, and afterward settled in Cordova. Ibn Ezra himself once—in an acrostic—names Toledo as his native place ("Monatsschrift," xlii. 19) and at another time Cordova (beginning of the Ḥayyuj translation). According to Albrecht ("Studien zu den Dichtungen Abraham ben Ezra," in "Z. D. M. G." l.c. p. 422), it is certain that he was born in Toledo. Through his emigration from Spain his life was divided into two periods. In the first and longer of these, which extended almost to the year 1140, he won for himself in his native land a name as a poet and thinker. Moses ibn Ezra, who was an intimate friend of his, extols him as a religious philosopher ("mutakallim") and as a man of great eloquence; and a younger contemporary, Abraham ibn Daud, at the end of his history ("Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah," ed. Neubauer, p. 81), calls him the last of the great men who formed the pride of Spanish Judaism and who "strengthened the hands of Israel with songs and with words of comfort." In this first period of his life Ibn Ezra's creative activity was chiefly occupied with poetry; and the greater number of his religious and other poems were probably produced during that time. He likes to call himself "the poet" ("ha-shar," introduction to Pentateuch commentary) or "father of poems" (end of the versified calendar regulations); and in a long poem of lamentation (Rosin, "Reime und Gedichte des Abraham ibn Ezra," p. 88) he says: "Once in my youth I used to compose songs with which I decorated the Hebrew scholars as with a necklace." The fact, however, that Ibn Ezra had pursued serious studies in all branches of knowledge during his life in Spain, is shown by the writings of the second period of his life. The wealth and variety of their contents can be explained only by the compass and many-sidedness of his earlier studies.

The most prominent scholars among the Jews of Spain were Ibn Ezra's personal friends: in Cordova itself, which was his permanent residence, Joseph ibn Ẓaddiḳ and especially Judah ha-Levi. The latter was only a few years older than Ibn Ezra; and on one occasion addressed a very witty saying to Ibn Ezra's father-in-law (see Geiger, "Nachgelassene Schriften," iv. 332). In his Bible commentary Ibn Ezra afterward reported many text interpretations from his talks with Judah ha-Levi (see Bacher, "Die Bibelexegese der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophen," etc., pp. 132 et seq.). That he associated and debated with the representatives of Karaism, which was so widely spread in Spain in his time, and that he was well acquainted with their literature, is shown by many passages in his commentary on the Bible.

[ From : The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia]

And below you can see the type of thoughtline he espouses -

In the third part, Ibn Ezra explains how the Song of Solomon depicts the whole history of Israel, from the days of Abraham to those of the Messiah : the trials of Abraham, the exile of the Israelites in Egypt, their deliverance, the giving of the Law on Sinai, the conquest of Canaan, the building of the Temple, the secession of the Ten Tribes, the Babylonian exile, the return of the captives from Babylon to Palestine, the oppression of the Jews by the Syrians, the successes of the Maccabees, the Roman exile, and the future Restoration.

[ From: Essays on the writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra, 1877]