ABU AL-FAḌL HASDAY

ABU AL-FAḌL HASDAY (late tenth century), Spanish scholar. According to the 13th-century Arab biographer Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, Abu al-Faḍl, who lived in Saragossa, was a member of a distinguished Andalusian Jewish family of priestly descent. He was competent in medicine, philosophy, arithmetic, and music. He had a good knowledge of both Arabic and Hebrew. Moses ibn Ezra refers to Abu al-Faḍl as one who "acquired knowledge in all branches of science, was accomplished   in philosophy, and well versed in Hebrew and Arabic poetry and prose." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H.G. Farmer, History of Arabian Music to the 13th Century (1929), 221; M. Ibn Ezra, Shirat Yisrael, ed. by B. Halper (1924), 69; Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, ʿUyūn al-Anbāʾ fi Ṭabaqāt al-Aṭibbāʾ, ed. by A. Mueller, 2 (Ar., 1884), 50. (Amnon Shiloah)