Jacob ben Machir Ibn Tibbon (ca. 1236-1307) was a scion of the great Provençal family of Arabic translators whose members for several generations dedicated themselves to translating philosophical and scientific works from Arabic to Hebrew. Jacob's ancestor Judah ben Saul emigrated from Granada to Provence in the late twelfth century. Jacob's grandfather Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon was the translator of several of Maimonides's works, and his father, Moses, translated a number of Aristotelian texts.

Jacob ben Machir was also known as Don Profeit/Profiat Tibbon and Profat…