Maimonides biography
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Rabbi Samuel ibn Naghrillah was an Andalusian Jew born in Mérida in 993. He studied Jewish law and became a Talmudic scholar who was fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic.
He started his life as a shopkeeper and merchant in Córdoba. However, civil war broke out in 1009 against the Amirid Kingdom and Berbers took the city in 1013, forcing him to flee from Córdoba. In Málaga, he started a spice shop. His relations with the Granada royal court, and his eventual promotion to the position of vizier, happened in a coincidental manner. Jacobs, pulled from the Sefer Seder ha-kabbalah this interesting account. The shop he set up was near the palace of the vizier of Granada, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. The vizier met Samuel ibn Naghrillah when his maid servant began to ask Naghrillah to write letters for her. Eventually Naghrillah was given the job of a tax collector, then a secretary, and finally an assistant vizier of state to the Berber king Habbus al-Muzaffar.
When Habbus died in 1038, Samuel ibn Naghrillah made certain that King Habbus’ second son, Badis, s
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The Hebrew medieval poet known as Samuel ha-Nagid was an extremely influential man who lived in the part of southern Spain, which is now known as Andalusia, that was occupied by the Moors in the 11th century. Apart from being a well-known writer he was a philologist, politician and soldier who acted as patron to other poets and artists. History records him as being possibly THE most politically influential Jew living in Muslim-ruled Spain at the time.
He was born Samuel ibn Naghrillah sometime during the year 993 in Mérida. Although he would eventually study Jewish law and become a Talmudic scholar, equally adept at speaking Arabic and Hebrew, his beginnings were relatively humble. He ran a shop in Cordoba until the Berbers overran the city during the civil war which began in 1009. He migrated along the southern coast towards Malaga, again setting up a shop, this time selling spices. He, almost accidentally, got involved with the royal court at Granada when one of the vizier’s servants asked Naghrillah to write some letters for her, and thus he came to the vizier’s attention. T
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Samuel ibn Naghrillah
Spanish poet and polymath (993–c. 1055)
Shmuel ibn Naghrillah[1] (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל הַלֵּוִי בֶּן יוֹסֵף, Šəmuʿēl HalLēvi ben Yosēf; Arabic: أبو إسحاق إسماعيل بن النغريلةʾAbū ʾIsḥāq ʾIsmāʿīl bin an-Naġrīlah), mainly known as Shmuel Hanagid which means Samuel the Prince (Hebrew: שמואל הנגיד, romanized: Šəmūʿel HanNāgid) and Isma’il ibn Naghrilla[2] (born 993; died 1056), was a medieval Sephardic JewishTalmudic scholar, grammarian, philologist, soldier, merchant, politician, and an influential poet who lived in Iberia at the time of the Moorish rule.[3] He held the position of Prime Minister of the Taifa of Granada and served as the battlefield commander of the Granadan army,[4] making him arguably the most politically influential Jew in Islamic Spain.[5]
Life
Shmuel was a Jew of al-Andalus born in Mérida to a wealthy family in 993. He studied Jewish law and became a Talmudic scholar who was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and one of the Berber languages.[3][6&#
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