Moses ibn Tibbon was a Jewish physician, author and translator in Provence. The number of works written by Moses ibn Tibbon suggest that he reached a great age. He was the son of Samuel ibn Tibbon, a Jewish scholar and doctor who translated Maimonides into Hebrew. Moses married and was the father of Judah ibn Tibbon, who was prominent in the Maimonidean controversy which took place at Montpellier, southern France. With other Jewish physicians of Provence, Moses was restricted by the order of the Council of Béziers, which prohibited Jewish physicians from treating Gentiles.
Sefer ha-Tanninim, mentioned by Isaac de Lattes, but without indication of its contents.
Letter on questions raised by his father, Samuel ibn Tibbon, in regard to Maimonides' Moreh Nebukim .
Translations
Moses ibn Tibbon's translations are considered more important than and outnumber his original works. They include versions of works written in Arabic by Arabs and Jews on philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. In the following list, the name of the author of the original work precedes the title by which the translation is known. Moses' most important translations are as follows:
Averroes: Commentaries, etc., on Aristotle: Physica Auscultatio ; Kelale ha-Shamayim weha-'Olam ; Sefer ha-Hawayah weha-Hefsed ; Sefer Otot 'Elyonot ; Kelale Sefer ha-Nefesh ; Bi'ur Sefer ha-Nefesh ; Ha-Hush we-ha-Muḥash ; Mah she-Aḥar ha-Ṭeba' , ; Bi'ur Arguza.
Avicenna: Ha-Seder ha-Ḳaṭon.
Batalyusi: Ha-'Agullot ha-Ra'yoniyyot, edited by D. Kaufmann.
Al-Hassar: Sefer ha-Ḥeshbon.
Euclid: Shorashim, or Yesodot.
Alfarabi: Hatḥalot ha-Nimẓa'ot ha-Tib'iyyim, edited by H. Fillpowski, in a Hebrew almanac of 5610.
Geminus: Ḥokmat ha-Kokabim, or Ḥokmat Tekunah.
Ibn Al-Jazzar: Ẓedat ha-Derakim
Hunain: Mabo el Meleket ha-Refu'ah.
Razi: Ha-Ḥilluḳ weha-Ḥilluf ; Al Iḳrabadhin.
For his other translations see Steinschneider, l.c. pp. 177, 231, 362, 363, 416, 542, 544, 553; idem, "Cat. Bodl." cols. 1998 et seq.
Translations from Maimonides
True to the traditions of his family, Moses ibn Tibbon translated Arabic writings by Maimonides which his father had not addressed:
"Miktab" or "Ma'amar be-Hanhagat ha-Beri'ut," a treatise on hygiene in the form of a letter to the sultan, printed in Kerem Ḥemed, in Jacob ben Moses Zebi's "Dibre Mosheh", and by Jacob Saphir ha-Levi. This translation was one of his first, if not the first.
Commentary on the Mishnah. A fragment of his translation of Pe'ah, which was published by A. Geiger 1847, suggests that he may have translated the whole Seder Mo'ed.
Sefer ha-Mitzvot another of his earliest translations. In his preface he justifies continuing his own translation, though having known of that of Abraham Ḥasdai, on the grounds that the latter had obviously used the first edition of the Arabic original, while he used a later revision.
Millot ha-Higgayon, a treatise on logic. No complete manuscript of the Arabic original is known. The terminology used by Moses ibn Tibbon has been adopted throughout Hebrew philosophical literature. This is among collected works of Maimonides held by the National Library of Israel, and images of the manuscript are online.
Ha-Ma'amar ha-Nikbad, a treatise on poisons, also called Ha-Ma'amar be-Teri'aḳ.
