Isaac ben Baruch Albalia (, ''Yiṣḥaq ben Barukh Albalia'') (1035, Cordova – 1094,

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

) was an

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and Talmudist.

Biography

First educated by a Jew from Perigord, Albalia went on to the academy in

Lucena Lucena, officially the City of Lucena ( fil, Lungsod ng Lucena), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines. It is the capital city of the province of Quezon where it is geographically situated but, in t ...

, where he struck up a close friendship with Me'ir ibn Migash, father of

Joseph ibn Migash Joseph ibn Migash or Joseph ben Meir HaLevi ibn Migash or Yosef Ibn Meir Ha-Levi Ibn Megas or José ben Meir ibn Megas (early 1077 – c. 1141) ( he, יוסף בן מאיר הלוי אבן מיגאש) was a Rabbi, Posek, and Rosh Yeshiva in Lucena ...

, and then settled in Granada. When barely thirty years old Albalia began to write ''Kupat ha-Rokhlim'' ("The Peddler's Basket"), a commentary on the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

. He was a close friend of

Samuel ha-Nagid Samuel ibn Naghrillah (, ''Sh'muel HaLevi ben Yosef HaNagid''; ''ʾAbū ʾIsḥāq ʾIsmāʿīl bin an-Naghrīlah''), also known as Samuel HaNagid (, ''Shmuel HaNagid'', lit. ''Samuel the Prince'') and Isma’il ibn Naghrilla (born 993; died 1056 ...

, whose son Jehoseph ha-Nagid became Albalia's patron, to whom he dedicated his 1065 astronomical work ''Maḥberet Sod ha-Ibbur'' ("The Secret of Intercalation"), on the principles of the Jewish calendar. According to

Moses ibn Ezra Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as Ha-Sallaḥ ("writer of penitential prayers") ( ar, أَبُو هَارُون مُوسَى بِن يَعْقُوب اِبْن عَزْرَا, ''Abu Harun Musa bin Ya'qub ibn 'Azra'', he, מֹשֶׁה ב ...

, Albalia was also a poet and rhetorician. After the murder of Jehoseph ha-Nagid in the

1066 Granada massacre The 1066 Granada massacre took place on 30 December 1066 (9 Tevet 4827; 10 Safar 459 AH) when a Muslim mob stormed the royal palace in Granada, in the Taifa of Granada, killed and crucified the Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela, and massacred m ...

, Albalia fled to Cordova, where he became acquainted with then-prince

Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad Al-Mu'tamid Muhammad ibn Abbad al-Lakhmi ( ar, المعتمد محمد ابن عباد بن اسماعيل اللخمي; reigned c. 1069–1091, lived 1040–1095), also known as Abbad III, was the third and last ruler of the Taifa of Sevi ...

. When he ascended the throne of Seville in May 1069, Al-Mu'tamid appointed Albalia court astronomer and astrologer. At the age of thirty-one, just three years after he arrived in Seville, he was appointed leader (''

nasi Nasi may refer to: Food Dishes Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes *Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi'' *Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes: **Nasi ...

'') of the kingdom's Jewish community. Continuing as a palace official for twenty years, Albalia used his influence at court to improve the status of the Jews of the kingdom. When in 1089 the recently arrived

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...

imposed a purge of Jewish civil servants at the court of Seville, Albalia moved to Granada, where he spent the last five years of his life. Although he had strong disagreements with

Isaac Alfasi Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi ha-Cohen (1013–1103) ( ar, إسحاق الفاسي, he, ר' יצחק אלפסי) - also known as the Alfasi or by his Hebrew acronym Rif (Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi), was a Maghrebi Talmudist and posek (decider in matters of hal ...

, before his death he asked his son Baruch to go to Lucena and study with him. Alfasi adopted Baruch who eventually became a well-known scholar. Isaac Albalia was also the maternal grandfather of

Abraham ibn Daud Abraham ibn Daud ( he, אַבְרָהָם בֵּן דָּוִד הַלֵּוִי אִבְּן דָּאוּד; ar, ابراهيم بن داود) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher; born at Córdoba, Spain about 1110; di ...

References

* {{JewishEncyclopedia, article=Albalia, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1070-albalia, first1=Meyer, last1=Kayserling 1035 births 1094 deaths 11th-century rabbis in al-Andalus Medieval Jewish astrologers Medieval Jewish astronomers Medieval Jewish philosophers Medieval Jewish scholars Rabbis from Córdoba, Spain Talmudists