Arragel was born in the city of
Guadalajara, Spain in 1400. In 1422, Arragel relocated to
Maqueda. He would become the
rabbi for the community. Shortly after arriving in Maqueda, Grand Master
Luis González de Guzmán of the
Order of Calatrava would reach out to Arragel. Don Guzmán sent a letter to Arragel on April 5, 1422 requesting that the rabbi
"vna biblia en rromançe, glosada e ystoriada," assist him in creating a
Catalan translation of the
Old Testament with
Jewish Commentary. It is unknown what convinced Rabbi Arragel to accept as he initially hesitated in an extensive reply letter to Don Guzmán, but Arragel ultimately agreed to the project that would eventually be known as the
Alba Bible. depicting Rabbi Moses handing over the manuscript to Luis de Guzmán. Arragel worked on the translation and commentary from 1422 to 1430, in Maqueda with the assistance of two
Franciscan monks from
Toledo assigned to him by Don Guzmán to do the
illustrations. He was careful to remain faithful to the
Jewish understanding of the texts and included Midrashic commentary as well. It was completed on June 2, 1430 and presented by Arragel, with much ceremony, to Don Guzmán in Toledo, in the presence of a concourse of prominent and learned men. Arragel died in the year 1493. == References ==