The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1052 page)

see
S
F
S
;
OMAR KHAYYAM
.

 
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(Rabad;
c.
1110–80). Jewish philosopher, historian, and physician. Ibn Daud worked for most of his life in Toledo where he eventually died as a martyr. His most important books were
Sefer ha-Kabbalah
(The Book of
Kabbalah
, G. D. Cohen, 1967), which defends Judaism throughout history against the
Karaite
heresy, and
Al-‘Aqida al Rafi‘a
, tr. into Heb. as
Ha-Emunah ha-Ramah
(The Sublime Faith), which defends the doctrines of Judaism using Aristotelian modes of thinking. Both books have remained influential down to modern times.

 
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(
c.
1089–1164).
Jewish philosopher, poet, and biblical commentator. He wrote both secular and religious poetry, commentaries on all the books of the Bible (those to the early prophets, Chronicles, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, and Nehemiah are no longer in existence), books on Hebrew grammar, and two short works on philosophy.
He may have been the model for R. Browning's ‘Rabbi ben Ezra’.

 
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Ibn Gabirol
(Jewish Spanish poet)
:

see
GABIROL, SOLOMON
.

 
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(780–855 (AH 164–241)).
The founder of a school of
shar
‘a
of a highly conservative nature. His most famous work was the
Musnad
, a vast collection of traditions edited from his lectures by his son. He did not formally establish a school of
fiqh
, but laid the foundations built on by others. Rigorous against
bid‘a
(innovation), his conservative theology made even fewer concessions than
al-‘Ashar
(see also
HANBALITES
); yet on many matters of law, he held two opinions, giving to his school a degree of flexibility, albeit within bounds.