The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (117 page)

 
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(15th cent. CE).
Spanish Jewish preacher and philosopher. Albo was the author of
Sefer ha-‘Ikkarim
(Book of Principles), a reasoned presentation of the articles of the Jewish
faith
, explained in the light of contemporary ideas. He was familiar with Islamic philosophy and Christian
scholasticism
and was greatly influenced by the teaching of Hasdai
Crescas
. He formulated three principles of Judaism—the existence of God, divine
revelation
, and reward and punishment (though he added eight further derivative principles). Subordinate to the principles are six dogmas, namely the creation of the world
ex nihilo
, the status of
Moses
as supreme
prophet
, the validity of Mosaic law, the possibility of attaining human perfection, the
resurrection
of the dead and the coming of the
messiah
. The work achieved great popularity and went through many edns.

 
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(810–70 (AH 194–256)).
Compiler of one of the main collections of
ad
th
, known as
a
(‘sound’, ‘genuine’). He travelled extensively in search of
ad
th, which he subjected to careful scrutiny—much needed, since spurious
ad
th were circulating. The
a
contains over 7,000 narratives, though because some are repeated, the total is under 3,000. Together with the
a