ABRAHAM ben DAVID HA-LEVI. - Jewish-Spanish philosopher and historian, b. in Toledo, d. around 1180. A notable figure in the history of medieval Jewish and Arabic philosophy for his philosophical work, written in 1161 in Arabic under the title *al-'Aqīdah ar-rāfi'ah* (*The Elevated Creed*), which is lost in the original Arabic but preserved in two Hebrew translations, one of which is still unpublished and the other published in 1852 in Frankfurt.
A. follows the Aristotelian system; however, he strives—quite originally—to reconcile Greek philosophy with the religious and theological concepts of Judaism. He is to be regarded as a precursor of MAIMONIDES. He also wrote a history of Judaism in an anti-Karaite sense.
BIBL.: I. Husik, *History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy*, New York 1916, pp. 197-235.