Born in Toledo around 982, Abū Ibrāhīm Isaac ibn Yashūsh died in the same city in 1056. He was a court physician in the service of ʿAlī ibn Mujāhid and his son Iqbāl al-Dawla, governors of the Denia taifa on the eastern coast of al-Andalus. Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, in his biographical compendium on physicians, Ṭabaqātal-Aṭibbāʾ, praised Ibn Yashūsh as a person of acute intelligence and genteel manners, well versed in grammar, philosophy, the Hebrew Bible, and Jewish law, and in addition a confirmed bachelor. Moses ibn Ezra thought it appropriate to name him alongside Ibn Janāḥ as a master of th…