Ibn Shapnrt, Hasdai (Shaprut)

(c. 915-c. 970)

   Spanish statesman and physician. He served at the courts of the caliphs Abder-Rahman III and Hakam II at Cordoba, and was employed on various foreign missions. He supported Jewish scholars and schol-arship and defended Jewish communities. He wrote a well-known letter to the king of the Khazars expressing his joy at their independent Jewish kingdom. His scholarly activities included collabo-ration in translating a work of Dioscorides into Arabic.