Ibn-latifor Allatif, Isaac Ben-abraham

Ibn-Latifor Allatif, Isaac ben-Abraham a Jewish philosopher, was born in Southern Spain about 1270. But little is known of his personal history. He devoted much of his time to the study of the Cabala, and became one of its most celebrated exponents in Spain. With greater correctness than Cabalists who preceded him, he advocated the doctrine that the worlds of spirit and of matter are closely allied, and likewise God and his creation. The divine is in everything, and everything in the divine. He also believed in the power of prayer, but that man, in order to be accepted of God, must approach at least perfection; hence the most perfect of men, the prophets, interceded by prayer for the people. The development of the self-revelation of the divinity in the world, of' the spirits, spheres, and bodies, Ibn-Latif explains by mathematical formulas.

He died about 1290. Of his works, which are quite numerous, the following have been printed: Iggereth hat-Toshubah, replies to the questions of Judah ben-Naason (Prague, 1839, 8vo): — a Heb. Commentary on Ecclesiastes (Constantinople, s. a. 8vo). See Gratz, Geschichte d. Juden, 7, 220; Furst, Biblioth. Judaica, 2, 224; Carmoly, Revue Orientale, 1, 61 sq.