ר׳ יוסף בן יעקב אבן צדיק

ר׳ יוסף בן יעקב אבן צדיק (Joseph ben Jacob ibn Zaddik, also Ibn Ṣaddīq; c. 1075–1149), known in Arabic as Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf ibn Ṣaddīq, was an Andalusian dayan, Talmudist, Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher. His early biography is poorly documented. Later reference works commonly place his birth around 1075 or 1080 in Córdoba, while evidence preserved in the literary tradition identifies him as a student of ר׳ יצחק בן יהודה אבן גיאת at Lucena. By 1138 he was serving as a dayan of Córdoba's Jewish community, reportedly alongside ר׳ מימון הדיין, father of ר׳ משה בן מימון, and he retained that office until his death. He participated in the Hebrew poetic network of ר׳ יהודה הלוי and ר׳ משה בן יעקב אבן עזרא; surviving sacred poems entered Sephardic and North African rites, although only a small portion of his verse remains. His principal philosophical work was the Judaeo-Arabic כתאב אלעאלם אלצגיר, preserved only in Hebrew translation as ספר עולם הקטן. It treats the human being as a microcosm through which one can understand the material and spiritual worlds, divine unity, creation, the soul, ethics, free will, reward and punishment. Its synthesis draws on Arabic Aristotelian, Neoplatonic and kalām traditions while pursuing a Jewish theological purpose. A separate Arabic work on logic is lost. ר׳ יוסף died in Córdoba in 1149; neither his exact death date nor burial place is securely known.