nals. Jewish patrons encouraged
the translators by material and moral support. Thus, Meshullam of Lunel
(twelfth century) was both learned and wealthy, and his eager
encouragement of Judah Ibn Tibbon, "the father of Jewish translators,"
gave a strong impetus to the translating activity of the Jews.

Judah Ibn Tibbon (about 1120-1190) was of Spanish origin, but he
emigrated from Granada to Provence during the same persecution that
drove Maimonides from his native land. Judah settled in Lunel, and his
skill as a physician won him such renown that his medical services were
sought by knights and bishops even from across the sea. Judah Ibn Tibbon
was a student of science and philosophy. He early qualified himself as a
translator by careful attention to philological niceties. Under the
inspiration of Meshullam, he spent the years 1161 to 1186 in making a
series of translations from Arabic into Hebrew. His translations were
difficult and forced in style, but he had no ready-made language at his
command. He had to create a new Hebrew. Classical Hebrew was naturally
destitute of the technical terms of philosophy, and Ibn Tibbon invented
expressions modelled on the Greek and the Arabic. He made Hebrew once
more a living language by extending its vocabulary and adapting its
idioms to the requirements of medieval culture.

His son Samuel (1160-1230) and his grandson Moses continued the line of
faithful but inelegant translators. Judah had turned into Hebrew the
works of Bachya, Ibn Gebirol, Jehuda Halevi, Ibn Janach, and Saadiah.
Samuel was the translator of Maimonides, and bore a brave part in the
defence of his master in the bitter controversies which arose as to the
lawfulness and profit of studying philosophy. The translations of the
Tibbon family were in the first instance intended for Jewish readers
only, but later on the Tibbonite versions were turned into Latin by
Buxtorf and others. Another Latin translation of Maimonides existed as
early as the thirteenth century.

Of the successors of the Tibbons, Jacob Anatoli (1238) was the first to
translate any portion of Averroes into any language. Averroes was an
Arab thinker of supreme importance in the Middle Ages, for through his
writings Europe was acquainted with Aristotle. Renan asserts that all
the early students of Averroes were Jews. Anatoli, a son-in-law of
Samuel Ibn Tibbon, was invited by Emperor Frederick II to leave Provence
and settle in Naples. To allow Anatoli fu