  The exact date of Ibn Daud’s birth is unknown. It is commonly assumed that he was born c. 1110 in one of the major centers of Muslim Spain, perhaps Cordoba. He himself asserts that he received his education from his maternal uncle, an uncle who is known to have been active as both a teacher and a communal leader in Cordoba, where he died in 1126. Although no further data are available, it is evident from his works that this education must have been a combination of “Greek wisdom” and traditional Jewish learning. Greek wisdom in the cultural setting of Andalusia refers to the study of classical science and philosophy as taught by Muslim scholars and philosophers. Indeed, his writings testify to a thorough familiarity with Greek philosophy and science as read by the Muslim philosophers al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, as well as with rabbinic literature, Hebrew poetry, and Jewish philosophy. He also appears to have had some knowledge of the New Testament and Christian and Muslim polemical literature. Later in life, Ibn Daud moved to Toledo, presumably as a result of the Almohad invasion of Andalusia (1147), an event that led many Jews to flee from Southern Spain. In any event it is in Toledo that he wrote his two major works in defense of Judaism (circa 1160/61): the philosophical treatise ER and the historical Sefer ha-Qabbalah (cf. below section 3). Ibn Daud is reported to have died a martyr’s death in Toledo c. 1180. The earliest reference to this was made by the Toledan philosophic author Judah ben Solomon ha-Kohen in his encyclopedia Midrash ha-Hokhmah (first half of the 13th century).