1021 - 1069 SOLOMON IBN GABIROL (Avicebron) (Malaga)
Messianic poet and philosopher whose "Naale" and other works are included in the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) liturgy. His book of philosophy, Fountain of Life (Arabic), conceived of the universe as the embodiment of divine will. The famous medieval theological philosophers John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) and Albertus Magnus (1206-1280), not knowing he was Jewish, used his texts. Most Jewish scholars rejected his theories of neo-Platonism and some, including
Maimonides, considered them almost Pantheic. His personal life was harsh: orphaned at an early age, he suffered bitter poverty and deprivation.
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