Maimonides

Jewish philosopher from Spain (1135–1204)

For other uses, see Maimonides (disambiguation).

"Moses ben Maimon" redirects here. For the Moroccan kabbalist, see Moses ben Maimon Albas.

For the Haifa hospital, see Rambam Health Care Campus.

Rabbi

* Maimonides
* (Moshe ben Maimon)

Engraving in Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum from which all modern portraits are derived, c. 1744[1]

Born| 30 March[2] or 6 April[3] 1135
Possibly born 28 March or 4 April[4] 1138

Córdoba, Almoravid Empire

Died| 12 December 1204 (66–69 years old)

Fostat, Ayyubid Sultanate

Spouse| (1) daughter of Nathaniel Baruch (2) daughter of Mishael Halevi
Philosophical work
Era| Medieval philosophy

* 12th-century philosophy

Region| Middle Eastern philosophy

* Jewish philosophy

School| Aristotelianism
Language| Judeo-Arabic, Medieval Hebrew
Main interests| Jewish theology, halakha, astronomy, medicine
Notable works|

* Mishneh Torah
* The Guide for the Perplexed

Notable ideas| Maimonides' rule, Golden mean, 13 principles of faith
Signature
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* v
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* e

Moses ben Maimon[a] (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (/maɪˈmɒnɪdiːz/, my-MON-ih-deez)[b] and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (Hebrew: רמב״ם),[c] was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician, serving as the personal physician of Saladin. He was born on Passover eve 1138 or 1135,[d] and lived in Córdoba in al-Andalus (now in Spain) within the Almoravid Empire until his family was expelled for refusing to convert to Islam.[6][7][8] Later, he lived in Morocco and Egypt and worked as a rabbi, physician and philosopher.

During his lifetime, most Jews greeted Maimonides' writings on Jewish law and ethics with acclaim and gratitude, even as far away as Iraq and Yemen. Yet, while Maimonides rose to become the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, his writings also had vociferous critics, particularly in Spain. He died in Fustat, Egypt, and, according to Jewish tradition, was buried in Tiberias. His tomb in Tiberias is a popular pilgrimage and tourist site.

He was posthumously acknowledged as one of the foremost rabbinic decisors and philosophers in Jewish history, and his copious work comprises a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries significant canonical authority as a codification of halakha.[9]

Aside from being revered by Jewish historians, Maimonides also figures very prominently in the history of Islamic and Arab sciences. Influenced by Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and his contemporary Ibn Rushd, he became a prominent philosopher and polymath in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds.

## Name

[edit]

Maimonides referred to himself as "Moses, son of Rabbi Maimon the Spaniard" (Hebrew: משה ברבי מימון הספרדי).[e] In Medieval Hebrew, he was usually called ר״ם, short for "our Rabbi Moshe", but mostly he is called רמב״ם, short for "our Rabbi, Moshe son of Maimon" and pronounced Rambam.

In Arabic, he is sometimes called "Moses 'son of Amram'[f] son of Maimon, of Obadiah,[g] the Cordoban" (أَبُو عَمْرَان مُوسَى بْن مَيْمُون بْن عُبَيْد ٱللّٰه ٱلْقُرْطُبِيّ, Abū ʿImrān Mūsā bin Maimūn bin ʿUbaydallāh al-Qurṭubī), or more often simply "Moses, son of Maimon" (موسى بن ميمون).

In Greek, the Hebrew ben ('son of') becomes the patronymic suffix -ides, forming Μωησής Μαϊμονίδης "Moses Maimonides".

He is sometimes known as "The Great Eagle" (Hebrew: הנשר הגדול, romanized: haNesher haGadol).[10]

## Biography

[edit]

Further information: History of the Jews in Egypt § Arab rule (641 to 1250)

### Early years

[edit]

The dominion of the Almohad Caliphate at its greatest extent, c. 1200

Maimonides was born 1138 (or 1135) in Córdoba in the Muslim-ruled Almoravid Caliphate, at the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula after the first centuries of Muslim rule. His father, Maimon ben Joseph, was a dayyan or rabbinic judge. Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen later wrote that he had traced Maimonides' descent back to Simeon ben Judah ha-Nasi from the Davidic line.[11] His ancestry, going back four generations, is given in his Epistle to Yemen as Moses ben Maimon ben Joseph ben Isaac ben Obadiah.[12] At the end of his commentary on the Mishnah, however, a longer, slightly different genealogy is given: Moses ben Maimon ben Joseph ben Isaac ben Joseph ben Obadiah ben Solomon ben Obadiah.[e]

Maimonides studied Torah under his father, who had in turn studied under Joseph ibn Migash, a student of Isaac Alfasi. At an early age, Maimonides developed an interest in sciences and philosophy. He read ancient Greek philosophy accessible via Arabic translations and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture.[13]

Maimonides, who was revered for his personality as well as for his writings, led a busy life, and wrote many of his works while travelling or in temporary accommodation.[14]

### Exile

[edit]

Maimonides' house in Fez, Morocco, according to local tradition. It is now occupied by the Dar al-Magana.[15]

A Berber dynasty, the Almohads, conquered Córdoba in 1148 and abolished dhimmi status (i.e., state protection of non-Muslims ensured through payment of a tax, the jizya) in some[which?] of their territories. The loss of this status forced the Jewish and Christian communities to choose between conversion to Islam, death, or exile.[14] Many Jews were forced to convert, but due to suspicion by the authorities of fake conversions, the new converts had to wear identifying clothing that set them apart and made them subject to public scrutiny.[16]

Maimonides' family, along with many other Jews,[dubious – discuss] chose exile. For the next ten years, Maimonides moved about in southern Spain and North Africa, eventually settling in Fez, Morocco. Some say that his teacher in Fez was Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Cohen Ibn Susan, until the latter was killed in 1165.[17]

During this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah, during the years 1166–1168.[h]

Following this sojourn in Morocco, he lived in Acre with his father and brother, before settling in Fustat in Fatimid Caliphate-controlled Egypt by 1168.[18] There is mention that Maimonides first settled in Alexandria, and moved to Fustat only in 1171.[19][20] While in Cairo, he studied in a yeshiva attached to a small synagogue, which now bears his name.[21] In Jerusalem, he prayed at the Temple Mount. He wrote that this day of visiting the Temple Mount was a day of holiness for him and his descendants.[22]

Maimonides shortly thereafter was instrumental in helping rescue Jews taken captive during the Christian Amalric of Jerusalem's siege of the southeastern Nile Delta town of Bilbeis. He sent five letters to the Jewish communities of Lower Egypt asking them to pool money together to pay the ransom. The money was collected and then given to two judges sent to Palestine to negotiate with the Crusaders. The captives were eventually released.[23]

### Death of his brother

[edit]

Monument in Córdoba

Following this success, the Maimonides family, hoping to increase their wealth, gave their savings to his brother, the youngest son David ben Maimon, a merchant. Maimonides directed his brother to procure goods only at the Sudanese port of ʿAydhab. After a long, arduous trip through the desert, however, David was unimpressed by the goods on offer there. Against his brother's wishes, David boarded a ship for India, since great wealth was to be found in the East.[i] Before he could reach his destination, David drowned at sea sometime between 1169 and 1177. The death of his brother caused Maimonides to become sick with grief.

In a letter discovered in the Cairo Geniza, he wrote:

> The greatest misfortune that has befallen me during my entire life—worse than anything else—was the demise of the saint, may his memory be blessed, who drowned in the Indian sea, carrying much money belonging to me, to him, and to others, and left with me a little daughter and a widow. On the day I received that terrible news I fell ill and remained in bed for about a year, suffering from a sore boil, fever, and depression, and was almost given up. About eight years have passed, but I am still mourning and unable to accept consolation. And how should I console myself? He grew up on my knees, he was my brother, [and] he was my student.[24]

### Nagid

[edit]

Bas relief of Maimonides in the United States House of Representatives

Around 1171, Maimonides was appointed the Nagid of the Egyptian Jewish community.[21] Arabist Shelomo Dov Goitein believes the leadership he displayed during the ransoming of the Crusader captives led to this appointment.[25] However he was replaced by Sar Shalom ben Moses in 1173. Over the controversial course of Sar Shalom's appointment, during which Sar Shalom was accused of tax farming, Maimonides excommunicated and fought with him for several years until Maimonides was appointed Nagid in 1195. A work known as "Megillat Zutta" was written by Abraham ben Hillel, who writes a scathing description of Sar Shalom while praising Maimonides as "the light of east and west and unique master and marvel of the generation."[26][27]

### Physician

[edit]

Commentary on the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides, 12th century. Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

With the loss of the family funds tied up in David's business venture, Maimonides assumed the vocation of physician, for which he was to become famous. He had trained in medicine in both Spain and in Fez. Gaining widespread recognition, he was appointed court physician to al-Qadi al-Fadil, the chief secretary to Sultan Saladin, then to Saladin himself; after whose death he remained a physician to the Ayyubid dynasty.[28]

An autograph from the Cairo Geniza with words in Arabic and their Romance translations, both written in Hebrew script[29]

In his medical writings, Maimonides described many conditions, including asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia, and he emphasized moderation and a healthy lifestyle.[30] His treatises became influential for generations of physicians. He was knowledgeable about Greek and Arabic medicine, and followed the principles of humorism in the tradition of Galen. He did not blindly accept authority but used his own observation and experience.[30] Julia Bess Frank indicates that Maimonides in his medical writings sought to interpret works of authorities so that they could become acceptable.[28] Maimonides displayed in his interactions with patients attributes that today would be called intercultural awareness and respect for the patient's autonomy.[31] Although he frequently wrote of his longing for solitude in order to come closer to God and to extend his reflections—elements considered essential in his philosophy to the prophetic experience—he gave over most of his time to caring for others.[32] In a famous letter, Maimonides describes his daily routine. After visiting the Sultan's palace, he would arrive home exhausted and hungry, where "I would find the antechambers filled with gentiles and Jews [...] I would go to heal them, and write prescriptions for their illnesses [...] until the evening [...] and I would be extremely weak."[33]

As he goes on to say in this letter, even on Shabbat he would receive members of the community. Still, he managed to write extended treatises, including not only medical and other scientific studies but some of the most systematically thought-through and influential treatises on halakha (rabbinic law) and Jewish philosophy of the Middle Ages.[j]

In 1172–74, Maimonides wrote his famous Epistle to Yemen.[34] It has been suggested that his "incessant travail" undermined his own health and brought about his death at 69 (although this is a normal lifespan).[35]

### Death

[edit]

See also: Tomb of Maimonides

The Tomb of Maimonides in Tiberias

Maimonides died on 12 December 1204 (20th of Tevet 4965) in Fustat. A variety of medieval sources beginning with Al-Qifti maintain that his body was interred near Lake Tiberias, though there is no contemporary evidence for his removal from Egypt. Gedaliah ibn Yahya records that "He was buried in the Upper Galilee with elegies upon his gravestone. In the time of [David] Kimhi, when the sons of Belial rose up to besmirch [Maimonides] . . . they did evil. They altered his gravestone, which previously had been inscribed 'choicest of the human race (מבחר המין האנושי)', so that instead it read 'the excommunicated heretic (מוחרם ומין)'. But later, after the provocateurs had repented of their act, and praised this great man, a student repaired the gravestone to read 'choicest of the Israelites (מבחר המין הישראלי)'".[36] Today, Tiberias hosts the Tomb of Maimonides, on which is inscribed "From Moses to Moses arose none like Moses."[37]

Maimonides and his wife, the daughter of Mishael ben Yeshayahu Halevi, had one child who survived into adulthood,[38] Abraham Maimonides, who became recognized as a great scholar. He succeeded Maimonides as Nagid and as court physician at the age of eighteen. Throughout his career, he defended his father's writings against all critics. The office of Nagid was held by the Maimonides family for four successive generations until the end of the 14th century.

A statue of Maimonides was erected near the Córdoba Synagogue.

Maimonides is sometimes said to be a descendant of King David, although he never made such a claim.[39][40]

## Works

[edit]

### Mishneh Torah

[edit]

Main article: Mishneh Torah

With Mishneh Torah, Maimonides composed a code of Jewish law with the widest-possible scope and depth. The work gathers all the binding laws from the Talmud, and incorporates the positions of the Geonim (post-Talmudic early medieval scholars, mainly from Mesopotamia). It is also known as Yad ha-Chazaka or simply Yad (יד) which has the numerical value 14, representing the 14 books of the work. The Mishneh Torah made following Jewish law easier for the Jews of his time, who were struggling to understand the complex nature of Jewish rules and regulations as they had adapted over the years.

Later codes of Jewish law, e.g. Arba'ah Turim by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher and Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi Yosef Karo, draw heavily on Mishneh Torah: both often quote whole sections verbatim. However, it met initially with much opposition.[41] There were two main reasons for this opposition. First, Maimonides had refrained from adding references to his work for the sake of brevity; second, in the introduction, he gave the impression of wanting to "cut out" study of the Talmud,[42] to arrive at a conclusion in Jewish law, although Maimonides later wrote that this was not his intent. His most forceful opponents were the rabbis of Provence (Southern France), and a running critique by Rabbi Abraham ben David (Raavad III) is printed in virtually all editions of Mishneh Torah. Nevertheless, Mishneh Torah was recognized as a monumental contribution to the systemized writing of halakha. Throughout the centuries, it has been widely studied and its halakhic decisions have weighed heavily in later rulings.

In response to those who would attempt to force followers of Maimonides and his Mishneh Torah to abide by the rulings of his own Shulchan Aruch or other later works, Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote: "Who would dare force communities who follow the Rambam to follow any other decisor [of Jewish law], early or late? [...] The Rambam is the greatest of the decisors, and all the communities of the Land of Israel and the Arabistan and the Maghreb practice according to his word, and accepted him as their rabbi."[43]

An oft-cited legal maxim from his pen is: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." He argued that executing a defendant on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until defendants would be convicted merely according to the judge's caprice.[44]

### Other Judaic and philosophical works

[edit]

An autograph fragment of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed (Judeo-Arabic) Autograph manuscript of Maimonides' Commentary to Tractate Sukkah, written in Judeo-Arabic solitreo

Maimonides composed works of Jewish scholarship, rabbinic law, philosophy, and medical texts. Most of Maimonides' works were written in Judeo-Arabic. However, the Mishneh Torah was written in Hebrew. In addition to Mishneh Torah, his Jewish texts were:

* Commentary on the Mishna (Arabic Kitab al-Siraj, translated into Hebrew as Pirush Hamishnayot), written in Classical Arabic using the Hebrew alphabet. This was the first full commentary ever written on the entire Mishnah, which took Maimonides seven years to complete. It is considered one of the most important Mishnah commentaries, having enjoyed great popularity both in its Arabic original and its medieval Hebrew translation. The commentary includes three philosophical introductions which were also highly influential:
* The Introduction to the Mishnah deals with the nature of the oral law, the distinction between the prophet and the sage, and the organizational structure of the Mishnah.
* The Introduction to Mishnah Sanhedrin, chapter ten (Pereḳ Ḥeleḳ), is an eschatological essay that concludes with Maimonides' famous creed ("the thirteen principles of faith").
* The Introduction to Pirkei Avot, popularly called The Eight Chapters, is an ethical treatise.
* Sefer Hamitzvot (The Book of Commandments). In this work, Maimonides lists all the 613 mitzvot traditionally contained in the Torah (Pentateuch). He describes fourteen shorashim (roots or principles) to guide his selection.
* Sefer Ha'shamad (Letter of Martydom)
* The Guide for the Perplexed, a philosophical work harmonising and differentiating Aristotle's philosophy and Jewish theology. Written in Judeo-Arabic under the title Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn, and completed between 1186 and 1190.[45][better source needed] It has been suggested that the title is derived from the Arabic phrase dalīl al-mutaḥayyirin (guide of the perplexed) a name for God in a work by al-Ghazālī, echoes of whose work can be found elsewhere in Maimonides.[46] The first translation of this work into Hebrew was done by Samuel ibn Tibbon in 1204 just prior to Maimonides' death.[47]
* Teshuvot, collected correspondence and responsa, including a number of public letters (on resurrection and the afterlife, on conversion to other faiths, and Iggereth Teiman—addressed to the oppressed Jewry of Yemen).
* Hilkhot ha-Yerushalmi, a fragment of a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud, identified and published by Saul Lieberman in 1947.
* Commentaries to the Babylonian Talmud, of which fragments survive.[48]

### Medical works

[edit]

Maimonides' achievements in the medical field are well known, and are cited by many medieval authors. One of his more important medical works is his Guide to Good Health (Regimen Sanitatis), which he composed in Arabic for the Sultan al-Afdal, son of Saladin, who suffered from depression.[49] The work was translated into Latin, and published in Florence in 1477, becoming the first medical book to appear in print there.[50] While his prescriptions may have become obsolete, "his ideas about preventive medicine, public hygiene, approach to the suffering patient, and the preservation of the health of the soul have not become obsolete."[51] Maimonides wrote ten known medical works in Arabic that have been translated by the Jewish medical ethicist Fred Rosner into contemporary English.[30][52] Lectures, conferences and research on Maimonides, even recently in the 21st century, have been done at medical universities in Morocco.

* Regimen Sanitatis, Suessmann Muntner (ed.), Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1963 (translated into Hebrew by Moshe Ibn Tibbon) (OCLC 729184001)
* The Art of Cure – Extracts from Galen (Barzel, 1992, Vol. 5)[53] is essentially an extract of Galen's extensive writings.
* Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates (Rosner, 1987, Vol. 2; Hebrew:[54] פירוש לפרקי אבוקראט) is interspersed with his own views.
* Medical Aphorisms[55] of Moses (Rosner, 1989, Vol. 3) titled Fusul Musa in Arabic ("Chapters of Moses", Hebrew:[56] פרקי משה) contains 1500 aphorisms and many medical conditions are described.
* Treatise on Hemorrhoids (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1; Hebrew:[57] ברפואת הטחורים) discusses also digestion and food.
* Treatise on Cohabitation (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1) contains recipes as aphrodisiacs and anti-aphrodisiacs.
* Treatise on Asthma (Rosner, 1994, Vol. 6)[58] discusses climates and diets and their effect on asthma and emphasizes the need for clean air.
* Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1) is an early toxicology textbook that remained popular for centuries.
* Regimen of Health (in Rosner, 1990, Vol. 4; Hebrew:[59] הנהגת הבריאות) is a discourse on healthy living and the mind-body connection.
* Discourse on the Explanation of Fits advocates healthy living and the avoidance of overabundance.
* Glossary of Drug Names (Rosner, 1992, Vol. 7)[60] represents a pharmacopeia with 405 paragraphs with the names of drugs in Arabic, Greek, Syrian, Persian, Berber, and Spanish.

#### The Oath of Maimonides

[edit]

The Oath of Maimonides is a document about the medical calling and recited as a substitute for the Hippocratic Oath. It is not to be confused with a more lengthy Prayer of Maimonides. These documents may not have been written by Maimonides, but later.[28] The Prayer appeared first in print in 1793 and has been attributed to Markus Herz, a German physician, pupil of Immanuel Kant.[61]

### Treatise on logic

[edit]

The Treatise on Logic (Arabic: Maqala Fi-Sinat Al-Mantiq) has been printed 17 times, including editions in Latin (1527), German (1805, 1822, 1833, 1828), French (1936) by Moïse Ventura and in 1996 by Rémi Brague, and English (1938) by Israel Efros, and in an abridged Hebrew form. The work illustrates the essentials of Aristotelian logic to be found in the teachings of the great Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna and, above all, Al-Farabi, "the Second Master," the "First Master" being Aristotle. In his work devoted to the Treatise, Rémi Brague stresses the fact that Al-Farabi is the only philosopher mentioned therein. This indicates a line of conduct for the reader, who must read the text keeping in mind Al-Farabi's works on logic. In the Hebrew versions, the Treatise is called The words of Logic which describes the bulk of the work. The author explains the technical meaning of the words used by logicians. The Treatise duly inventories the terms used by the logician and indicates what they refer to. The work proceeds rationally through a lexicon of philosophical terms to a summary of higher philosophical topics, in 14 chapters corresponding to Maimonides' birthdate of 14 Nissan. The number 14 recurs in many of Maimonides' works. Each chapter offers a cluster of associated notions. The meaning of the words is explained and illustrated with examples. At the end of each chapter, the author carefully draws up the list of words studied.

Until very recently, it was accepted that Maimonides wrote the Treatise on Logic in his twenties or even in his teen years.[62] Herbert Davidson has raised questions about Maimonides' authorship of this short work (and of other short works traditionally attributed to Maimonides). He maintains that Maimonides was not the author at all, based on a report of two Arabic-language manuscripts, unavailable to Western investigators in Asia Minor.[63] Rabbi Yosef Kafih maintained that it is by Maimonides and newly translated it to Hebrew (as Beiur M'lekhet HaHiggayon) from the Judeo-Arabic.[64]

## Philosophy

[edit]

Through The Guide for the Perplexed and the philosophical introductions to sections of his commentaries on the Mishna, Maimonides exerted an important influence on the Scholastic philosophers, especially on Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. He was a Jewish Scholastic. Educated more by reading the works of Arab Muslim philosophers than by personal contact with Arabian teachers, he acquired an intimate acquaintance not only with Arab Muslim philosophy, but with the doctrines of Aristotle. Maimonides strove to reconcile Aristotelianism and science with the teachings of the Torah.[47] In his Guide for the Perplexed, he often explains the function and purpose of the statutory provisions contained in the Torah against the backdrop of the historical conditions. The book was highly controversial in its day, and was banned by French rabbis, who burnt copies of the work in Montpellier.[65]

### Thirteen principles of faith

[edit]

Main article: Jewish principles of faith

Part of a series on

Jews and Judaism

* Etymology
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In his commentary on the Mishnah (Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10), Maimonides formulates his "13 principles of faith"; and that these principles summarized what he viewed as the required beliefs of Judaism:

1. The existence of God.
2. God's unity and indivisibility into elements.
3. God's spirituality and incorporeality.
4. God's eternity.
5. God alone should be the object of worship.
6. Revelation through God's prophets.
7. The preeminence of Moses among the prophets.
8. That the entire Torah (both the Written and Oral law) are of Divine origin and were dictated to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai.
9. The Torah given by Moses is permanent and will not be replaced or changed.
10. God's awareness of all human actions and thoughts.
11. Reward of righteousness and punishment of evil.
12. The coming of the Jewish Messiah.
13. The resurrection of the dead.

Maimonides is said to have compiled the principles from various Talmudic sources. These principles were controversial when first proposed, evoking criticism by Rabbis Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo, and were effectively ignored by much of the Jewish community for the next few centuries.[66] However, these principles have become widely held and are considered to be the cardinal principles of faith for Orthodox Jews.[67] Two poetic restatements of these principles (Ani Ma'amin and Yigdal) eventually became canonized in many editions of the Siddur (Jewish prayer book).[68]

The omission of a list of these principles as such within his later works, the Mishneh Torah and The Guide for the Perplexed, has led some to suggest that either he retracted his earlier position, or that these principles are descriptive rather than prescriptive.[69][70][71][72][73]

### Theology

[edit]

Depiction of Maimonides teaching students about the 'measure of man' in an illuminated manuscript

Maimonides equated the God of Abraham to what philosophers refer to as the Necessary Being. God is unique in the universe, and the Torah commands that one love and fear God (Deut 10:12) on account of that uniqueness. To Maimonides, this meant that one ought to contemplate God's works and to marvel at the order and wisdom that went into their creation. When one does this, one inevitably comes to love God and to sense how insignificant one is in comparison to God. This is the basis of the Torah.[74]

The principle that inspired his philosophical activity was identical to a fundamental tenet of scholasticism: there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy. Maimonides primarily relied upon the science of Aristotle and the teachings of the Talmud, commonly claiming to find a basis for the latter in the former.[75]

Maimonides' admiration for the Neoplatonic commentators led him to doctrines which the later Scholastics did not accept. For instance, Maimonides was an adherent of apophatic theology. In this theology, one attempts to describe God through negative attributes. For example, one should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; it can be said that God is not non-existent. One should not say that "God is wise"; but it can be said that "God is not ignorant," i.e., in some way, God has some properties of knowledge. One should not say that "God is One," but it can be stated that "there is no multiplicity in God's being." In brief, the attempt is to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not, rather than by describing what God "is."[76]

Maimonides argued adamantly that God is not corporeal. This was central to his thinking about the sin of idolatry. Maimonides insisted that all of the anthropomorphic phrases pertaining to God in sacred texts are to be interpreted metaphorically.[76] A related tenet of Maimonidean theology is the notion that the commandments, especially those pertaining to sacrifices, are intended to help wean the Israelites away from idolatry.[77]

Maimonides also argued that God embodied reason, intellect, science, and nature, and was omnipotent and indescribable.[78] He said that science, the growth of scientific fields, and discovery of the unknown by comprehension of nature was a way to appreciate God.[78]

### Character development

[edit]

See also: Golden mean (Judaism)

Part of a series on

Jewish philosophy

Hellenistic

* Positions:

* Hasmonean
* Sadducean
* Pharisee
* Boethusian

* People:

* Aristobulus of Alexandria
* Philo of Alexandria

Medieval

* Influenced by:

* Brethren of Purity
* ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
* Ismaili philosophy
* Jewish Kalam
* Kabbalah
* Rabbinic Judaism

* Spanish and European:

* Hasdai ibn Shaprut
* Ibn Gabirol
* Abraham bar Hiyya
* Bahya ibn Paquda
* Judah Halevi
* Abraham ibn Daud
* Joseph ibn Tzaddik
* Abraham ibn Ezra
* Maimonides
* Nachmanides
* Samuel ibn Tibbon
* Joseph ben Judah
* Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera
* Gersonides
* Moses of Narbonne
* Isaac ben Sheshet
* Hasdai Crescas
* Joseph Albo
* Elia del Medigo
* Judah Minz
* Isaac Abarbanel
* Judah Leon Abravanel

* Yemenite:

* Natan'el al-Fayyumi
* Mansur ibn Sulayman al-Ghamari

* Other:

* Isaac Israeli
* Saadia Gaon
* al-Muqqamaṣ
* Hibatullah ibn Malka
* Ibn Kammuna

* Positions:

* Maimonidean / Anti-Maimonidean
* Kabbalist
* Karaism
* Talmudic
* Tosafist

Modern

* Positions:

* Orthodox
* Sephardic
* Chabad
* Chassidic
* Conservative
* Reform
* Existentialist
* Reconstructionist
* Holocaust
* Renewal
* Neo-Hasidic
* Mussar
* Rambamist

* People:

* Francisco Sanches
* Uriel da Costa
* Baruch Spinoza
* Salomon Maimon
* Joseph Solomon Delmedigo
* Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm
* Eliezer ben Elijah Ashkenazi
* Tzvi Ashkenazi
* Jacob Emden
* Samuel Hirsch
* Shneur Zalman of Liadi
* Simcha Bunim of Peshischa
* Samson Raphael Hirsch
* Jacob Abendana
* Isaac Cardoso
* David Nieto
* Isaac Orobio de Castro
* Moses Mendelssohn
* Samuel David Luzzatto
* Elijah Benamozegh
* Moses Hess
* Eliezer Berkovits
* Eliyahu Dessler
* Monsieur Chouchani
* Emmanuel Levinas
* Martin Buber
* Gershom Scholem
* Abraham Isaac Kook
* Joseph Soloveitchik
* Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Topics

*     * Anger
* Chosen people
* Cosmology
* Eschatology
* Ethics
* Faith
* God
* Happiness
* Holiness
* Holocaust
* Messiah
* Microcosm–macrocosm
* Righteousness

* v
* t
* e

Maimonides taught about the developing of one's moral character. Although his life predated the modern concept of a personality, Maimonides believed that each person has an innate disposition along an ethical and emotional spectrum. Although one's disposition is often determined by factors outside of one's control, human beings have free will to choose to behave in ways that build character.[79] He wrote, "One is obligated to conduct his affairs with others in a gentle and pleasing manner."[80] Maimonides advised that those with antisocial character traits should identify those traits and then make a conscious effort to behave in the opposite way. For example, an arrogant person should practice humility.[81] If the circumstances of one's environment are such that it is impossible to behave ethically, one must move to a new location.[82]

### Prophecy

[edit]

Maimonides agreed with "the Philosopher" (Aristotle) that the use of logic is the "right" way of thinking. He claimed that in order to understand how to know God, every human being must, by study, and meditation attain the degree of perfection required to reach the prophetic state. Despite his rationalistic approach, he does not explicitly reject the previous ideas (as portrayed, for example, by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi in his Kuzari) that in order to become a prophet, God must intervene. Maimonides teaches that prophecy is the highest purpose of the most learned and refined individuals.

### The problem of evil

[edit]

Maimonides wrote on theodicy (the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil). He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists.[83][84][85][86] In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides writes that all the evil that exists within human beings stems from their individual attributes, while all good comes from a universally shared humanity (Guide 3:8). He says that there are people who are guided by higher purpose, and there are those who are guided by physicality and must strive to find the higher purpose with which to guide their actions.

To justify the existence of evil, assuming God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, Maimonides postulates that one who created something by causing its opposite not to exist is not the same as creating something that exists; so evil is merely the absence of good. God did not create evil, rather God created good, and evil exists where good is absent (Guide 3:10). Therefore, all good is divine invention, and evil both is not and comes secondarily.

Maimonides contests the common view that evil outweighs good in the world. He says that if one were to examine existence only in terms of humanity, then that person may observe evil to dominate good, but if one looks at the whole of the universe, then he sees good is significantly more common than evil (Guide 3:12). Man, he reasons, is too insignificant a figure in God's myriad works to be their primary characterizing force, and so when people see mostly evil in their lives, they are not taking into account the extent of positive Creation outside of themselves.

Maimonides believes that there are three types of evil in the world: evil caused by nature, evil that people bring upon others, and evil man brings upon himself (Guide 3:12). The first type of evil Maimonides states is the rarest form, but arguably of the most necessary—the balance of life and death in both the human and animal worlds itself, he recognizes, is essential to God's plan. Maimonides writes that the second type of evil is relatively rare, and that humanity brings it upon itself. The third type of evil humans bring upon themselves and is the source of most of the ills of the world. These are the result of people's falling victim to their physical desires. To prevent the majority of evil which stems from harm one does to oneself, one must learn how to respond to one's bodily urges.

### Skepticism of astrology

[edit]

Further information: Jewish views on astrology

Maimonides answered an inquiry concerning astrology, addressed to him from Marseille.[87] He responded that man should believe only what can be supported either by rational proof, by the evidence of the senses, or by trustworthy authority. He affirms that he had studied astrology, and that it does not deserve to be described as a science. He ridicules the concept that the fate of a man could be dependent upon the constellations; he argues that such a theory would rob life of purpose, and would make man a slave of destiny.[88]

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Maimonides did not believe that Greek knowledge had originated with the Jews originally, but he does believe that the sages and Solomon knew science and philosophy, however he does not believe those books have survived down to his time. He notes that rabbinical knowledge of mathematics was imperfect because it was learned from contemporary men of science, and not divinely inspired prophecy.[89]

### True beliefs versus necessary beliefs

[edit]

In The Guide for the Perplexed Book III, Chapter 28,[90] Maimonides draws a distinction between "true beliefs," which were beliefs about God that produced intellectual perfection, and "necessary beliefs," which were conducive to improving social order. Maimonides places anthropomorphic personification statements about God in the latter class. He uses as an example the notion that God becomes "angry" with people who do wrong. In the view of Maimonides (taken from Avicenna), God does not become angry with people, as God has no human passions; but it is important for them to believe God does, so that they desist from doing wrong.

### Righteousness and charity

[edit]

Maimonides conceived of an eight-level hierarchy of tzedakah, where the highest form is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. In his view, the lowest form of tzedakah is to give begrudgingly.[91] The eight levels are:[92]

1. Giving begrudgingly
2. Giving less than you should, but giving it cheerfully
3. Giving after being asked
4. Giving before being asked
5. Giving when you do not know the recipient's identity, but the recipient knows your identity
6. Giving when you know the recipient's identity, but the recipient doesn't know your identity
7. Giving when neither party knows the other's identity
8. Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant

### Eschatology

[edit]

See also: Jewish eschatology

#### The Messianic era

[edit]

Perhaps one of Maimonides' most highly acclaimed and renowned writings is his treatise on the Messianic era, written originally in Judeo-Arabic and which he elaborates on in great detail in his Commentary on the Mishnah (Introduction to the 10th chapter of tractate Sanhedrin, also known as Pereḳ Ḥeleḳ).

#### Resurrection

[edit]

Religious Jews believed in immortality in a spiritual sense, and most believed that the future would include a messianic era and a resurrection of the dead. This is the subject of Jewish eschatology. Maimonides wrote much on this topic, but in most cases he wrote about the immortality of the soul for people of perfected intellect; his writings were usually not about the resurrection of dead bodies. Rabbis of his day were critical of this aspect of this thought, and there was controversy over his true views.[k]

Eventually, Maimonides felt pressured to write a treatise on the subject, known as "The Treatise on Resurrection." In it, he wrote that those who claimed that he believed the verses of the Hebrew Bible referring to the resurrection were only allegorical were spreading falsehoods. Maimonides asserts that belief in resurrection is a fundamental truth of Judaism about which there is no disagreement.[93]

While his position on the World to Come (non-corporeal eternal life as described above) may be seen as being in contradiction with his position on bodily resurrection, Maimonides resolved them with a then unique solution: Maimonides believed that the resurrection was not permanent or general. In his view, God never violates the laws of nature. Rather, divine interaction is by way of angels, whom Maimonides often regards to be metaphors for the laws of nature, the principles by which the physical universe operates, or Platonic eternal forms.[l] Thus, if a unique event actually occurs, even if it is perceived as a miracle, it is not a violation of the world's order.[94]

In this view, any dead who are resurrected must eventually die again. In his discussion of the 13 principles of faith, the first five deal with knowledge of God, the next four deal with prophecy and the Torah, while the last four deal with reward, punishment and the ultimate redemption. In this discussion Maimonides says nothing of a universal resurrection. All he says it is that whatever resurrection does take place, it will occur at an indeterminate time before the world to come, which he repeatedly states will be purely spiritual.

#### The World to Come

[edit]

Maimonides distinguishes two kinds of intelligence in man, the one material in the sense of being dependent on, and influenced by, the body, and the other immaterial, that is, independent of the bodily organism. The latter is a direct emanation from the universal active intellect; this is his interpretation of the noûs poietikós of Aristotelian philosophy. It is acquired as the result of the efforts of the soul to attain a correct knowledge of the absolute, pure intelligence of God.[citation needed]

The knowledge of God is a form of knowledge which develops in us the immaterial intelligence, and thus confers on man an immaterial, spiritual nature. This confers on the soul that perfection in which human happiness consists, and endows the soul with immortality. One who has attained a correct knowledge of God has reached a condition of existence, which renders him immune from all the accidents of fortune, from all the allurements of sin, and from death itself. Man is in a position to work out his own salvation and his immortality.[citation needed]

Baruch Spinoza's doctrine of immortality was strikingly similar. However, Spinoza teaches that the way to attain the knowledge which confers immortality is the progress from sense-knowledge through scientific knowledge to philosophical intuition of all things sub specie æternitatis, while Maimonides holds that the road to perfection and immortality is the path of duty as described in the Torah and the rabbinic understanding of the oral law.[citation needed]

Maimonides describes the world to come as the stage after a person lives their life in this world as well as the final state of existence after the Messianic Era. Some time after the resurrection of the dead, souls will live forever without bodies. They will enjoy the radiance of the Divine Presence without the need for food, drink or sexual pleasures.[95]

### Maimonides and Kabbalah

[edit]

Maimonides was not known as a supporter of Kabbalah, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy.[96] In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides declares his intention to conceal from the average reader his explanations of Sod[m] esoteric meanings of Torah. The nature of these "secrets" is debated. Religious Jewish rationalists, and the mainstream academic view, read Maimonides' Aristotelianism as a mutually-exclusive alternative metaphysics to Kabbalah.[97] Some academics hold that Maimonides' project fought against the Proto-Kabbalah of his time.[98]

Maimonides employed rationalism to defend Judaism rather than limit inquiry of Sod only to rationalism. His rationalism, if not taken as an opposition,[n] also assisted the Kabbalists, purifying their transmitted teaching from mistaken corporeal interpretations that could have been made from Hekhalot literature,[o] though Kabbalists held that their theosophy alone allowed human access to Divine mysteries.[99]

## Influence and legacy

[edit]

The title page of The Guide for the Perplexed

Maimonides' Mishneh Torah is considered by Jews even today as one of the chief authoritative codifications of Jewish law and ethics. It is exceptional for its logical construction, concise and clear expression and extraordinary learning, so that it became a standard against which other later codifications were often measured.[100] It is still closely studied in rabbinic yeshivot (seminaries). The first to compile a comprehensive lexicon containing an alphabetically arranged list of difficult words found in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah was Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi (1220–1291).[101] A popular medieval saying that also served as his epitaph states, "From Mosheh [of the Torah] to Mosheh [Maimonides] there was none like Mosheh." It chiefly referred to his rabbinic writings.

However, Maimonides was also one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy. His adaptation of Aristotelian thought to Biblical faith deeply impressed later Jewish thinkers, and had an unexpected immediate historical impact.[102] Some more acculturated Jews in the century that followed his death, particularly in Spain, sought to apply Maimonides' Aristotelianism in ways that undercut traditionalist belief and observance, giving rise to an intellectual controversy in Spanish and southern French Jewish circles.[103] The intensity of debate spurred Catholic Church interventions against "heresy" and a general confiscation of rabbinic texts.

In reaction, the more radical interpretations of Maimonides were defeated. At least amongst Ashkenazi Jews, there was a tendency to ignore his specifically philosophical writings and to stress instead the rabbinic and halakhic writings. These writings often included considerable philosophical chapters or discussions in support of halakhic observance; David Hartman observes that Maimonides clearly expressed "the traditional support for a philosophical understanding of God both in the Aggadah of Talmud and in the behavior of the hasid [the pious Jew]."[104] Maimonidean thought continues to influence traditionally observant Jews.[105][106]

The most rigorous medieval critique of Maimonides is Hasdai Crescas' Or Adonai. Crescas bucked the eclectic trend, by demolishing the certainty of the Aristotelian world-view, not only in religious matters but also in the most basic areas of medieval science (such as physics and geometry). Crescas' critique provoked a number of 15th-century scholars to write defenses of Maimonides.

Because of his path-finding synthesis of Aristotle and Biblical faith, Maimonides had an influence on Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas who refers to Maimonides in several of his works, including the Commentary on the Sentences.[107]

Maimonides' combined abilities in the fields of theology, philosophy and medicine make his work attractive today as a source during discussions of evolving norms in these fields, particularly medicine. An example is the modern citation of his method of determining death of the body in the controversy regarding declaration of death to permit organ donation for transplantation.[108]

### Maimonides and the Modernists

[edit]

Plaque of Maimonides at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa

Maimonides remains one of the most widely debated Jewish thinkers among modern scholars. He has been adopted as a symbol and an intellectual hero by almost all major movements in modern Judaism, and has proven important to philosophers such as Leo Strauss; and his views on the importance of humility have been taken up by modern humanist philosophers. In academia, particularly within the area of Jewish Studies, the teaching of Maimonides has been dominated by traditional scholars, generally Orthodox, who place a very strong emphasis on Maimonides as a rationalist; one result is that certain sides of Maimonides' thought, including his opposition to anthropocentrism, have been obviated.[citation needed] There are movements in some postmodern circles to claim Maimonides for other purposes, as within the discourse of ecotheology.[109] Maimonides' reconciliation of the philosophical and the traditional has given his legacy an extremely diverse and dynamic quality.

### Tributes and memorials

[edit]

Maimonides used to be on the 1 ILS banknote.

Maimonides has been memorialized in numerous ways. For example, one of the Learning Communities at the Tufts University School of Medicine bears his name. There is also Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, Maimonides Academy School in Los Angeles, California, Lycée Maïmonide in Casablanca, the Brauser Maimonides Academy in Hollywood, Florida,[110] and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Beit Harambam Congregation, a Sephardi synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is named after him.[111]

Issued from 8 May 1986 to 1995,[112] the Series A of the Israeli New Shekel featured an illustration of Maimonides on the obverse and the place of his burial in Tiberias on the reverse on its 1-shekel bill.[113]

In 2004, conferences were held at Yale University, Florida International University, Penn State, and Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel, which is named after him. To commemorate the 800th anniversary of his death, Harvard University issued a memorial volume.[114] In 1953, the Israel Postal Authority issued a postage stamp of Maimonides, pictured.

In March 2008, during the Euromed Conference of Ministers of Tourism, The Tourism Ministries of Israel, Morocco and Spain agreed to work together on a joint project that will trace the footsteps of the Rambam and thus boost religious tourism in the cities of Córdoba, Fez and Tiberias.[115]

Between December 2018 and January 2019 the Israel Museum held a special exhibit dedicated to the writings of Maimonides.[116]

## Burial place

[edit]

Burial marker at the tomb of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon in Tiberias

He is buried in HaRambam compound in Tiberias. Other notable rabbis also buried in HaRambam compound / complex are:

* Shelah HaKadosh
* Eliezer ben Hurcanus
* Yohanan ben Zakkai
* Joshua ben Hananiah

## See also

[edit]

* Averroes
* Iggeret Teman (Epistle to Yemen)
* Maimonides Foundation
* Mimouna

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־מַיְמוֹן, romanized: Mōše ben-Maymōn; Arabic: موسى بن ميمون, romanized: Mūsā bin Maymūn, both meaning "Moses, son of Maimon"
2. ^ Ancient Greek: Μωυσής Μαϊμωνίδης, romanized: Mōusḗs Maïmōnídēs; Latin: Moses Maimonides
3. ^ /ˌrɑːmˈbɑːm/, for Rabbēnu Mōše ben Maymōn, "Our Rabbi Moses, son of Maimon"
4. ^ The date of 1138 of the Common Era is the date of birth given by Maimonides himself, in the very last chapter and comment made by Maimonides in his Commentary of the Mishnah,[5] and where he writes: "I began to write this composition when I was twenty-three years old, and I completed it in Egypt while I was aged thirty, which year is the 1,479th year of the Seleucid era (1168 CE)."
5. ^ a b He usually left off "the Spaniard" and he sometimes added זצ"ל, short for "[let] mention of the righteous one bring a blessing." At the end of his commentary to the Mishna he gives a fuller lineage: אני משה ברבי מימון הדיין ברבי יוסף החכם ברבי יצחק הדיין ברבי יוסף הדיין ברבי עובדיהו הדיין ברבי שלמה הרב ברבי עובדיהו הדיין זכר קדושים לברכה, "I am Moshe son of Rabbi Maimon the Judge, son of Rabbi Joseph the Wise, son of Rabbi Isaac the Judge, son of Rabbi Joseph the Judge, son of Rabbi Obadiah the Judge, son of Rabbi Solomon the Teacher, son of Rabbi Obadiah the Judge; [let] mention of the holy ones bring a blessing."
6. ^ Medieval Jews named Moses received the Arabic nickname abu Imran, in which the word abu has been inverted from its original sense of "father" to reference the biblical Moses' father Amram. Similarly, Jews named Isaac were known as abu Ibrahim, meaning: "son of Abraham". For more on the Jewish system of biblical nicknames, see Kunya.
7. ^ Ubaydallah is to be treated as Maimonides' surname; his grandfather was named Joseph. It is not always included in either Arabic or Hebrew versions of Maimonides' name. Various Hebrew manuscripts render ben Ovadyahu and ben Eved-Elohim ("descended/son of Obadiah"), but also Eved-Elohim, implying only "Moses son of Maimon, the servant of God" (cf. Josh. 1:13–15) and Latin versions follow, rendering servus dei. See: Bar-Sela A, Hoff HE, Faris E, Maimonides M (1964). "Moses Maimonides' Two Treatises on the Regimen of Health: Fi Tadbir al-Sihhah and Maqalah fi Bayan Ba'd al-A'rad wa-al-Jawab 'anha". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 54 (4). JSTOR: 3. doi:10.2307/1005935. ISSN 0065-9746. JSTOR 1005935.
8. ^ Seder HaDoroth (year 4927) quotes Maimonides as saying that he began writing his commentary on the Mishna when he was 23 years old, and published it when he was 30. Because of the dispute about the date of Maimonides' birth, it is not clear which year the work was published.
9. ^ The "India Trade" (a term devised by the Arabist S.D. Goitein) was a highly lucrative business venture in which Jewish merchants from Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East imported and exported goods ranging from pepper to brass from various ports along the Malabar Coast between the 11th–13th centuries. For more info, see the "India Traders" chapter in Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, 1973 or Goitein, India Traders of the Middle Ages, 2008.
10. ^ Such views of his works are found in almost all scholarly studies of the man and his significance. See, for example, the "Introduction" sub-chapter by Howard Kreisel to his overview article "Moses Maimonides", in History of Jewish Philosophy, edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman, Second Edition (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 245–246.
11. ^ According to Maimonides, certain Jews in Yemen had sent to him a letter in the year 1189, evidently irritated as to why he had not mentioned the physical resurrection of the dead in his Hil. Teshuvah, chapter 8, and how that some persons in Yemen had begun to instruct, based on Maimonides' teaching, that when the body dies it will disintegrate and the soul will never return to such bodies after death. Maimonides denied that he ever insinuated such things, and reiterated that the body would indeed resurrect, but that the "world to come" was something different in nature. See: Maimonides' Ma'amar Teḥayyath Hamethim (Treatise on the Resurrection of the Dead), published in Book of Letters and Responsa (ספר אגרות ותשובות), Jerusalem 1978, p. 9 (Hebrew).
12. ^ This view is not always consistent throughout Maimonides' work; in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, chapters 2–4, Maimonides describes angels that are actually created beings.
13. ^ "Within [the Torah] there is also another part which is called 'hidden' (mutsnaʿ), and this [concerns] the secrets (sodot) which the human intellect cannot attain, like the meanings of the statutes (ḥukim) and other hidden secrets. They can neither be attained through the intellect nor through sheer volition, but they are revealed before Him who created [the Torah]". (Rabbi Abraham ben Asher, The Or ha-Sekhel)
14. ^ Contemporary academic views in the study of Jewish mysticism, hold that 12–13th century Kabbalists wrote down and systemised their transmitted oral doctrines in oppositional response to Maimonidean rationalism. See e.g. Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives
15. ^ The first comprehensive systemiser of Kabbalah, Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, for example, was influenced by Maimonides. One example is his instruction to undercut any conception of a Kabbalistic idea after grasping it in the mind. One's intellect runs to God in learning the idea, then returns in qualified rejection of false spatial/temporal conceptions of the idea's truth, as the human mind can only think in material references. Cited in Louis Jacobs, The Jewish Religion: A Companion, Oxford University Press, 1995, entry on Cordovero.

## References

[edit]

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5. ^ Commentary of the Mishnah, Maimonides (1967), s.v. Uktzin 3:12 (end)
6. ^ Joel E. Kramer, "Moses Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait", p. 47 note 1. In Kenneth Seeskin, ed. (September 2005). The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52578-7.
7. ^ 1138 in Stroumsa, Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 8
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18. ^ Davidson, p. 28.
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20. ^ Kraemer JL (1 January 1991). Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-909821-43-9.
21. ^ a b Goitein, S.D. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, Princeton University Press, 1973 (ISBN 0-691-05212-3), p. 208
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24. ^ Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, p. 207
25. ^ Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, p. 115
26. ^ Baron SW (1952). A Social and Religious History of the Jews: High Middle Ages, 500–1200. Columbia University Press. p. 215\. ISBN 978-0-231-08843-5. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2020. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
27. ^ Rustow M (1 October 2010). "Sar Shalom ben Moses ha-Levi". Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
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32. ^ Abraham Heschel, Maimonides (New York: Farrar Straus, 1982), Chapter 15, "Meditation on God," pp. 157–162, and also pp. 178–180, 184–185, 204, etc. Isadore Twersky, editor, A Maimonides Reader (New York: Behrman House, 1972), commences his "Introduction" with the following remarks, p. 1: "Maimonides' biography immediately suggests a profound paradox. A philosopher by temperament and ideology, a zealous devotee of the contemplative life who eloquently portrayed and yearned for the serenity of solitude and the spiritual exuberance of meditation, he nevertheless led a relentlessly active life that regularly brought him to the brink of exhaustion."
33. ^ Responsa Pe'er HaDor, 143.
34. ^ Click to see full English translation of Maimonides' "Epistle to Yemen"
35. ^ The comment on the effect of his "incessant travail" on his health is by Salo Baron, "Moses Maimonides", in Great Jewish Personalities in Ancient and Medieval Time, edited by Simon Noveck (B'nai B'rith Department of Adult Jewish Education, 1959), p. 227, where Baron also quotes from Maimonides' letter to Ibn Tibbon regarding his daily regime.
36. ^ Shalshelet haQabbalah (Venice, 1587) f. 33b, MS Guenzberg 652 f. 76a.
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42. ^ Last section of Maimonides' Introduction to Mishneh Torah
43. ^ Karo J. Questions & Responsa Avqat Rokhel אבקת רוכל (in Hebrew). responsum # 32. Retrieved 31 August 2023. (first printed in Saloniki 1791)
44. ^ Moses Maimonides, The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290, at 269–71 (Charles B. Chavel trans., 1967).
45. ^ Kehot Publication Society, Chabad.org.
46. ^ Sarah Stroumsa, Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker, Princeton University Press 2011 ISBN 978-0-691-15252-3 p.25
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48. ^ Published here; see discussion here.
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50. ^ Maimonides (1963), Preface, p. VI
51. ^ Maimonides (1963), Preface, p. VII
52. ^ Volume 5 translated by Barzel (foreword by Rosner).
53. ^ Title page, TOC.
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58. ^ Title page, TOC.
59. ^ "כתבים רפואיים – א (הנהגת הבריאות) / משה בן מימון (רמב"ם) / ת"ש-תש"ב – אוצר החכמה". Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
60. ^ Title page, TOC.
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63. ^ Davidson, pp. 313 ff.
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66. ^ Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought, Menachem Kellner
67. ^ See, for example: Marc B. Shapiro. The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (2011). pp. 1–14.
68. ^ e.g. "Siddur Edot HaMizrach 2C, Additions for Shacharit: Thirteen Principles of Faith". sefaria.org. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
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71. ^ Shapiro MB (1993). "Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?". The Torah U-Madda Journal. 4 (1993). Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University: 187–242\. JSTOR 40914883. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
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73. ^ Brown J (2013). New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754793.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975479-3.
74. ^ Kraemer, 326-8
75. ^ Kraemer, 66
76. ^ a b Robinson, George. "Maimonides' Conception of God/" Archived 1 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine My Jewish Learning. 30 April 2018.
77. ^ Reuven Chaim Klein, "Weaning Away from Idolatry: Maimonides on the Purpose of Ritual Sacrifices Archived 2021-10-29 at the Wayback Machine", Religions 12(5), 363.
78. ^ a b Falcon T, Blatner D (2019). Judaism for Dummies (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 25, 27, 30–31\. ISBN 978-1-119-64307-4. OCLC 1120116712.
79. ^ Telushkin, 29
80. ^ Commentary on The Ethics of the Fathers 1:15. Qtd. in Telushkin, 115
81. ^ Kraemer, 332-4
82. ^ MT De'ot 6:1
83. ^ Moses Maimonides (2007). The Guide to the Perplexed. BN Publishers.
84. ^ Joseph Jacobs. "Moses Ben Maimon". Jewish Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
85. ^ Shlomo Pines (2006). "Maimonides (1135–1204)". Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 5: 647–654.
86. ^ Isadore Twersky (2005). "Maimonides, Moses". Encyclopedia of Religion. 8: 5613–5618.
87. ^ Joel E. Kramer, "Moses Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait," p. 45. In Kenneth Seeskin, ed. (September 2005). The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52578-7.
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93. ^ Kraemer, 422
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96. ^ Abraham Heschel, Maimonides (New York: Farrar Straus, 1982), Chapter 15, "Meditation on God," pp. 157–162.
97. ^ Such as the first (religious) criticism of Kabbalah, Ari Nohem, by Leon Modena from 1639. In it, Modena urges a return to Maimonidean Aristotelianism. The Scandal of Kabbalah: Leon Modena, Jewish Mysticism, Early Modern Venice, Yaacob Dweck, Princeton University Press, 2011.
98. ^ Menachem Kellner, Maimonides' Confrontation With Mysticism, Littman Library, 2006
99. ^ Norman Lamm, The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary, Ktav Pub, 1999: Introduction to chapter on Faith/Reason has historical overview of religious reasons for opposition to Jewish philosophy, including the Ontological reason, one Medieval Kabbalist holding that "we begin where they end".
100. ^ Isidore Twersky, Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), Yale Judaica Series, vol. XII (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980), passim, and especially Chapter VII, "Epilogue," pp. 515–38.
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102. ^ This is covered in all histories of the Jews. E.g., including such a brief overview as Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews, Revised Edition (New York: Schocken, 1970), pp. 175–179.
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* Maimonides (1963). Suessmann Muntner (ed.). Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides) Medical Works (in Hebrew). Translated by Moshe Ibn Tibbon. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. OCLC 729184001.
* Maimonides (1967). Mishnah, with Maimonides' Commentary (in Hebrew). Vol. 3\. Translated by Yosef Qafih. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. OCLC 741081810.
* Rosner F (1984–1994). Maimonides' Medical Writings. Vol. 7 Vols. Maimonides Research Institute. (Volume 5 translated by Uriel Barzel; foreword by Fred Rosner.)
* Seidenberg D (2005). "Maimonides – His Thought Related to Ecology". The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
* Shapiro MB (1993). "Maimonides Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?". The Torah U-Maddah Journal. 4.
* Shapiro MB (2008). Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters. Scranton (PA): University of Scranton Press.
* Sirat C (1985). A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. See chapters 5 through 8.
* Strauss L (1974). Shlomo Pines (ed.). How to Begin to Study the Guide: The Guide of the Perplexed – Maimonides (in Arabic). Vol. 1\. University of Chicago Press.
* Strauss L (1988). Persecution and the Art of Writing. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-77711-5. reprint
* Stroumsa S (2009). Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13763-6. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
* Telushkin J (2006). A Code of Jewish Ethics. Vol. 1 (You Shall Be Holy). New York: Bell Tower. OCLC 460444264.
* Twersky I (1972). I Twersky (ed.). A Maimonides Reader. New York: Behrman House.
* Twersky I (1980). "Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)". Yale Judaica Series. XII. New Haven and London.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Maimonides: Abū ʿImrān Mūsā [Moses] ibn ʿUbayd Allāh [Maymūn] al‐Qurṭubī www.islamsci.mcgill.ca Archived 27 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
* "History of Medicine". AIME. Archived from the original on 24 May 2013.
* S. R. Simon (1999). "Moses Maimonides: medieval physician and scholar". Arch Intern Med. 159 (16): 1841–5\. doi:10.1001/archinte.159.16.1841. PMID 10493314.
* Athar Yawar (2008). "Maimonides's medicine". The Lancet. 371 (9615): 804. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60365-7. S2CID 54415482.
* "Moses Maimonides | biography – Jewish philosopher, scholar, and physician". Archived from the original on 30 April 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
* Dov Schwartz, The Many Faces of Maimonides, Boston: Academic Studies Press 2018. ISBN 978-1618119063

## External links

[edit]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moshe ben Maimon.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Maimonides.

English Wikisource has original works by or about:

Maimonides

About Maimonides

* Maimonides entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
* Maimonides entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica
* Maimonides entry in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition (2007)
* Seeskin K. "Maimonides". In Zalta EN (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
* "Maimonides entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy"
* Video lecture on Maimonides by Dr. Henry Abramson
* Maimonides, a biography — book by David Yellin and Israel Abrahams
* Maimonides as a Philosopher
* The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides
* "The Moses of Cairo," Article from Policy Review
* Rambam and the Earth: Maimonides as a Proto-Ecological Thinker – reprint on neohasid.org from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ecology
* Anti-Maimonidean Demons Archived 20 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Jose Faur, describing the controversy surrounding Maimonides' works
* David Yellin and Israel Abrahams, Maimonides (1903) (full text of a biography)
* Y. Tzvi Langermann (2007). "Maimonides: Abū ʿImrān Mūsā [Moses] ibn ʿUbayd Allāh [Maymūn] al-Qurṭubī". In Thomas Hockey, et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 726–7\. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
* Maimonides at intellectualencounters.org Archived 20 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine
* Kriesel H (2015). Judaism as Philosophy: Studies in Maimonides and the Medieval Jewish Philosophers of Provence. Boston: Academic Studies Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt21h4xpc. ISBN 978-1-61811-789-2. JSTOR j.ctt21h4xpc.
* Friedberg A (2013). Crafting the 613 Commandments: Maimonides on the Enumeration, Classification, and Formulation of the Scriptural Commandments. Boston: Academic Studies Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt21h4wf8. ISBN 978-1-61811-848-6. JSTOR j.ctt21h4wf8.
* The Guide: An Explanatory Commentary on Each Chapter of Maimonides' Guide of The Perplexed by Scott Michael Alexander (covers all of Book I, currently)

Maimonides' works

* Steinberg The Rambam Mishneh Torah Codex on Amazon
* Steinberg The Rambam Chumash on Amazon
* Complete Mishneh Torah online, halakhic work of Maimonides
* Sefer Hamitzvot, English translation
* Oral Readings of Mishne Torah Archived 13 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine — Free listening and Download, site also had classes in Maimonides' Iggereth Teiman
* Maimonides 13 Principles Archived 31 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine
* Intellectual Encounters – Main Thinkers – Moses Maimonides, in intellectualencounters.org
* Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Autograph Draft Archived 29 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Egypt, c. 1180
* British Library – Autograph responsum of Moses Maimonides, pre-eminent Jewish polymath and spiritual leader, Ilana Tahan
* Digitized works by Maimonides at the Leo Baeck Institute

Texts by Maimonides

* Siddur Mesorath Moshe, a prayerbook based on the early Jewish liturgy as found in Maimonides' Mishne Tora
* Rambam's introduction to the Mishneh Torah (English translation Archived 26 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine)
* Rambam's introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah (Hebrew-language full text)
* The Guide For the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides translated into English by Michael Friedländer
* Writings of Maimonides; manuscripts and early print editions. Jewish National and University Library
* Facsimile edition of Moreh Nevukhim/The Guide for the Perplexed (illuminated Hebrew manuscript, Barcelona, 1347–48). The Royal Library, Copenhagen Archived 11 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
* University of Cambridge Library collection Archived 29 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine of Judeo-Arabic letters and manuscripts written by or to Maimonides. It includes the last letter his brother David sent him before drowning at sea.
* A. Ashur, A newly discovered medical recipe written by Maimonides Archived 3 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine
* M.A Friedman and A. Ashur, A newly-discovered autograph responsum of Maimonides Archived 1 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine
* Works by Maimonides at Post-Reformation Digital Library
* Works by Maimonides at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Links to related articles

* v
* t
* e

Medieval philosophers

Christian|

| Early|

* "Church Fathers"
* Augustine of Hippo
* Boethius
* Cassiodorus
* Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
* Isidore of Seville
* John Scotus Eriugena
* Alcuin

|

11–12th
century|

* "Scholasticism"
* Anselm of Canterbury
* Peter Abelard
* Anselm of Laon
* Hugh of Saint Victor
* Richard of Saint Victor
* Roscelin
* Peter Lombard
* Alexander of Hales
* Bernard of Chartres
* Dominicus Gundissalinus
* Gilbert de la Porrée
* Alain de Lille

13–14th
century|

* Robert Grosseteste
* Michael Scot
* Albertus Magnus
* Henry of Ghent
* Roger Bacon
* Bonaventure
* Thomas Aquinas
* Vitello
* John Peckham
* Ramon Llull
* Siger of Brabant
* Boetius of Dacia
* Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt
* Meister Eckhart
* Giles of Rome
* Godfrey of Fontaines
* Duns Scotus
* Durandus
* Petrus Aureolus
* William of Ockham

Late|

* Jean Buridan
* Marsilius of Inghen
* Nicole Oresme
* Albert of Saxony
* Francesc Eiximenis
* Nicholas of Cusa
* Vincent Ferrer
* Paul of Venice
* Lambertus de Monte
* John Hennon

Jewish|

| Medieval|

* Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
* Saadia Gaon
* Solomon ibn Gabirol
* Judah Halevi
* Abraham ibn Daud
* Maimonides
* Nachmanides
* Gersonides
* Hasdai Crescas
* Joseph Albo

|

Islamic|

| Early|

* Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber)
* al-Nazzam
* Al-Kindi (Alkindus)
* Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes)
* Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity)
* Matta ibn Yunus
* Al-Farabi (Alpharabius)
* Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani
* Ibn Masarra
* Abd al-Jabbar
* Al-Amiri
* Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani
* Miskawayh
* Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)
* al-Biruni
* al-Kirmani

|

High|

* Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
* Ibn Hazm
* Al-Ghazali (Algazel)
* Abu l-Barakat al-Baghdadi
* Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
* Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani
* Ibn Tufayl
* Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Late|

* Ibn Sab'in
* Shahab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi
* Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
* Rashid al-Din
* Ibn Arabi
* al-Qazwini
* Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
* Athir al-Din al-Abhari
* Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
* Ibn al-Nafis
* Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
* Ibn Taymiyya
* Ibn Khaldun

See also Renaissance philosophy

* v
* t
* e

Philosophy of religion

Conceptions of God|

* Brahman
* Demiurge
* Divine simplicity
* Egoism
* God Speaks
* Holy Spirit
* Misotheism
* Pandeism
* Personal god
* Process theology
* Supreme Being
* Unmoved mover

God in|

* Abrahamic religions
* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Hinduism
* Islam
* Jainism
* Judaism
* Mormonism
* Sikhism
* Baháʼí Faith
* Wicca

Existence of God|

| For|

* Beauty
* Christological
* Trilemma
* Resurrection
* Consciousness
* Cosmological
* Kalam cosmological
* Contingency
* Metaphysical
* Degree
* Desire
* Experience
* Existential choice
* Fine-tuned universe
* Knowledge
* Love
* Mathematics
* Miracles
* Morality
* Mystical idealism
* Natural-law
* Necessary existent
* Seddiqin
* Nyayakusumanjali
* Ontological
* Anselm
* Gödel
* Meinongian
* Modal
* Mulla Sadra
* Pascal's wager
* Reason
* Proper basis and Reformed epistemology
* Responses to the problem of evil
* Teleological
* Natural law
* Watchmaker
* Testimony
* Historical events
* Historical personages
* Trademark
* Transcendental

|

Against|

* 747 gambit
* Atheist's Wager
* Evil
* Free will
* Hell
* Inconsistent revelations
* Nonbelief
* Noncognitivism
* Occam's razor
* Omnipotence
* Poor design
* Russell's teapot

Theology|

* Acosmism
* Agnosticism
* Animism
* Antireligion
* Atheism
* Creationism
* Dharmism
* Deism
* Demonology
* Divine command theory
* Dualism
* Esotericism
* Exclusivism
* Existentialism
* Christian
* Atheistic
* Feminist theology
* Thealogy
* Womanist theology
* Fideism
* Fundamentalism
* Gnosticism
* Henotheism
* Humanism
* Religious
* Secular
* Christian
* Inclusivism
* Theories about religions
* Monism
* Monotheism
* Mysticism
* Naturalism
* Metaphysical
* Religious
* Humanistic
* New Age
* Nondualism
* Nontheism
* Pandeism
* Panentheism
* Pantheism
* Perennialism
* Polytheism
* Possibilianism
* Process theology
* Religious skepticism
* Spiritualism
* Shamanism
* Taoic
* Theism
* Transcendentalism

Philosophers
of religion

(by date active)|

| Ancient and
medieval|

* Anselm of Canterbury
* Augustine of Hippo
* Avicenna
* Averroes
* Boethius
* Gaudapada
* Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
* Pico della Mirandola
* Heraclitus
* King James VI and I
* Marcion of Sinope
* Maimonides
* Adi Shankara
* Thomas Aquinas
* William of Ockham

|

Early modern|

* Augustin Calmet
* René Descartes
* Blaise Pascal
* Desiderius Erasmus
* Baruch Spinoza
* Nicolas Malebranche
* Gottfried W Leibniz
* William Wollaston
* Thomas Chubb
* David Hume
* Baron d'Holbach
* Immanuel Kant
* Johann G Herder

1800
1850|

* Friedrich Schleiermacher
* Karl C F Krause
* Georg W F Hegel

* Thomas Carlyle
* William Whewell
* Ludwig Feuerbach
* Søren Kierkegaard
* Karl Marx
* Albrecht Ritschl
* Afrikan Spir

1880
1900|

* Ernst Haeckel
* W K Clifford
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* Harald Høffding
* William James

* Vladimir Solovyov
* Ernst Troeltsch
* Rudolf Otto
* Lev Shestov
* Sergei Bulgakov
* Pavel Florensky
* Ernst Cassirer
* Joseph Maréchal

1920
postwar|

* George Santayana
* Bertrand Russell
* Martin Buber
* René Guénon
* Paul Tillich
* Karl Barth
* Emil Brunner
* Rudolf Bultmann
* Gabriel Marcel
* Reinhold Niebuhr

* Charles Hartshorne
* Mircea Eliade
* Frithjof Schuon
* J L Mackie
* Walter Kaufmann
* Martin Lings
* Peter Geach
* George I Mavrodes
* William Alston
* Antony Flew

1970
1990
2010|

* William L Rowe
* Dewi Z Phillips
* Alvin Plantinga
* Anthony Kenny
* Nicholas Wolterstorff
* Richard Swinburne
* Robert Merrihew Adams
* Ravi Zacharias
* Peter van Inwagen
* Daniel Dennett
* Loyal Rue
* Jean-Luc Marion
* William Lane Craig
* Ali Akbar Rashad

* Alexander Pruss

Related topics|

* Criticism of religion
* Desacralization of knowledge
* Ethics in religion
* Exegesis
* History of religion
* Religion
* Religious language
* Religious philosophy
* Relationship between religion and science
* Faith and rationality

* Portal
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Social philosophy

Concepts|

* Agency
* Anomie
* Convention
* Cosmopolitanism
* Customs
* Cultural heritage
* Culturalism
* Inter
* Mono
* Multi
* Culture
* Counter
* Familialism
* History
* Honour
* Human nature
* Identity
* Formation
* Ideology
* Institutions
* Invisible hand
* Loyalty
* Modernity
* Morality
* Public
* Mores
* National character
* Natural law
* Personhood
* Reification
* Ressentiment
* Rights
* Sittlichkeit
* Social alienation
* Social norms
* Spontaneous order
* Stewardship
* Traditions
* Values
* Family
* Volksgeist
* Worldview

Schools|

* Budapest School
* Catholic social teaching
* Distributism
* Communitarianism
* Confucianism
* Conservatism
* Social
* Frankfurt School
* Personalism

Philosophers|

| Ancient|

* Confucius
* Laozi
* Mencius
* Mozi
* Xunzi

|

Medieval|

* Alpharabius
* Aquinas
* Avempace
* Bruni
* Ibn Khaldun
* Maimonides
* Ibn Tufayl

Early modern|

* Calvin
* Erasmus
* Guicciardini
* Locke
* Luther
* Milton
* Montaigne
* Müntzer

18th and 19th
centuries|

* Arnold
* Bentham
* Bonald
* Burke
* Carlyle
* Comte
* Condorcet
* Emerson
* Engels
* Fichte
* Fourier
* Franklin
* Hegel
* Helvétius
* Herder
* Hume
* Jefferson
* Kant
* Kierkegaard
* Le Bon
* Le Play
* Marx
* Mill
* Nietzsche
* Owen
* Renan
* Rousseau
* Royce
* Ruskin
* Smith
* Spencer
* de Staël
* Stirner
* Taine
* Thoreau
* Tocqueville
* Vico
* Vivekananda
* Voltaire

20th and 21st
centuries|

* Adorno
* Agamben
* Arendt
* Aron
* Badiou
* Baudrillard
* Bauman
* Benoist
* Berlin
* Butler
* Camus
* de Beauvoir
* Debord
* Deleuze
* Dewey
* Du Bois
* Durkheim
* Eco
* Evola
* Foucault
* Fromm
* Gandhi
* Gehlen
* Gentile
* Gramsci
* Guénon
* Habermas
* Han
* Heidegger
* Hoppe
* Irigaray
* Kirk
* Kołakowski
* Kropotkin
* Land
* Lasch
* MacIntyre
* Marcuse
* Maritain
* Negri
* Niebuhr
* Nussbaum
* Oakeshott
* Ortega
* Pareto
* Polanyi
* Radhakrishnan
* Röpke
* Santayana
* Scruton
* Shariati
* Simmel
* Skinner
* Sombart
* Sowell
* Spengler
* Strauss
* Taylor
* Voegelin
* Walzer
* Weber
* Weil
* Zinn
* Žižek

Works|

* De Officiis (44 BC)
* Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)
* A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
* Democracy in America (1835–1840)
* Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
* The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935)
* The Second Sex (1949)
* One-Dimensional Man (1964)
* The Society of the Spectacle (1967)
* The History of Sexuality (1976)
* The Culture of Narcissism (1979)
* A Conflict of Visions (1987)
* The Closing of the American Mind (1987)
* Gender Trouble (1990)
* The Malaise of Modernity (1991)
* Intellectuals and Society (2010)

See also|

* Agnotology
* Axiology
* Critical theory
* Cultural criticism
* Cultural pessimism
* Ethics
* Historism
* Historicism
* Humanities
* Philosophy of culture
* Philosophy of education
* Philosophy of history
* Political philosophy
* Social criticism
* Social science
* Social theory
* Sociology

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Islamic medicine

Physicians|

| 7th century|

* Abu Hafsa Yazid
* Al-Harith ibn Kalada
* Bukhtishu
* Ibn Abi Ramtha al-Tamimi
* Ibn Uthal
* Masarjawaih
* Nafi ibn al-Harith
* Rufaida Al-Aslamia
* Zaynab al-Awadiya

|

8th century|

* Bukhtishu
* Ja'ar al-Sadiq

9th century|

* Al-Kindi
* Al-Ruhawi
* Albubather
* Ali al-Ridha
* Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari
* Bukhtishu
* Hunayn ibn Ishaq
* Ishaq ibn Hunayn
* Jabir ibn Hayyan
* Jabril ibn Bukhtishu
* Masawaiyh
* Salmawaih ibn Bunan
* Shapur ibn Sahl
* Yahya ibn Sarafyun
* Yuhanna ibn Bukhtishu
* Yusuf al-Khuri

10th century|

* 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi
* Aayon Ibn Aayon
* Abu Bakr Rabee Ibn Ahmad Al-Akhawyni Bokhari
* Abu Bakr al-Razi
* Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi
* Abu Zayd al-Balkhi
* Abu al-Hasan al-Tabari
* Abu al-Qasim Muqane'i
* Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi
* Abu ul-Ala Shirazi
* Al-Kaŝkarī
* Al-Natili
* Al-Tamimi, the physician
* Eutychius of Alexandria
* Ibn Abi al-Ashʿath
* Ibn Juljul
* Ibn al-Jazzar
* Ibrahim ibn Baks
* Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
* Mohammed ibn Abdun al-Jabali
* Muvaffak
* Qumri
* Qusta ibn Luqa

11th century|

* Abdollah ibn Bukhtishu
* Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani
* Abu al-Hakam al-Kirmani
* Al-Biruni
* Ali ibn Isa al-Kahhal
* Ali ibn Ridwan
* Ali ibn Yusuf al-Ilaqi
* Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili
* Avicenna
* Badi' al-Asturlabi
* Ibn Abi Sadiq
* Ibn Al-Thahabi
* Ibn Butlan
* Ibn Hindu
* Ibn Jazla
* Ibn al-Haytham
* Ibn al-Kattani
* Ibn al-Wafid
* Jonah ibn Janah
* Masawaih

12th century|

* Abu Jafar ibn Harun al-Turjali
* Abu al-Bayan ibn al-Mudawwar
* Abu al-Majd ibn Abi al-Hakam
* Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī
* Ahmad ibn Farrokh
* Al-Samawal al-Maghribi
* Avempace
* Averroes
* Ibn Habal
* Ibn Jumay‘
* Ibn Tufayl
* Ibn Zuhr
* Ibn al-Tilmīdh
* Moshe ben Maimon
* Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi
* Serapion the Younger
* Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Israili
* Zayn al-Din Gorgani

13th century|

* Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
* Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon
* Al-Dakhwar
* Al-Shahrazuri
* Amin al-Din Rashid al-Din Vatvat
* As-Suwaydi
* Da'ud Abu al-Fadl
* Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi
* Ibn Abi Usaibia
* Ibn Tumlus
* Ibn al-Baitar
* Ibn al-Nafis
* Ibn al-Quff
* Ibn al‐Raqqam
* Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta
* Najib ad-Din Samarqandi
* Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
* Rashidun al-Suri
* Sa'ad al-Dawla
* Zakariya al-Qazwini

14th century|

* Al-Nagawri
* Aqsara'i
* Ibn Shuayb
* Ibn al-Akfani
* Ibn al-Khatib
* Jaghmini
* Mansur ibn Ilyas
* Mas‘ud ibn Muhammad Sijzi
* Muhammad ibn Mahmud Amuli
* Najm al-Din Mahmud ibn Ilyas al-Shirazi
* Nakhshabi
* Rashid-al-Din Hamadani
* Sadid al-Din al-Kazaruni
* Yusuf ibn Ismail al-Kutubi
* Zayn-e-Attar

15th century|

* Abu Sa'id al-Afif
* Burhan-ud-din Kermani
* Husayni Isfahani
* Muhammad Ali Astarabadi
* Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Harawi
* Nurbakhshi
* Shaykh Muhammad ibn Thaleb
* Şerafeddin Kadir

16th century|

* Rostam Gorgani
* ʽImad Shirazi
* Abul Qasim ibn Mohammed al-Ghassani
* Dawud al-Antaki
* Hakim-e-Gilani
* Sultan Ali Khorasani
* Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf

17th century|

* Qiwam al-Din Muhammad al-Hasani
* Abd El Razzaq Al-Jazaïri
* Qurayshi al-Shirazi
* Tunakabuni
* Maqsud-Ali Tabrizi

18th century|

* Al-Khurasani al-Shirazi

Concepts|

* Ophthalmology
* Psychology

Works|

* Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah
* The Canon of Medicine
* Tacuinum Sanitatis
* Anatomy Charts of the Arabs
* The Book of Healing
* Book of the Ten Treatises of the Eye
* De Gradibus
* Al-Tasrif
* Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi
* Adab al-Tabib
* Kamel al-Sanaat al-Tibbyya
* Al-Hawi
* Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon
* Lives of the Physicians

Centers|

* Al-'Adudi Hospital
* Bimarestan
* Nur al-Din Bimaristan

Influences|

* Ancient Greek medicine
* Ancient Iranian medicine
* Ayurveda

Influenced|

* Ibn Sina Academy
* Learned medicine
* Medical Renaissance
* Medieval medicine

* v
* t
* e

Aristotelianism

Overview|

* Aristotle
* Works
* Lyceum

Ideas and interests|

| Logic|

* Apodicticity
* Category of being
* Future contingents
* Genus–differentia
* Irrelevant conclusion
* Syllogism

|

Physics|

* accident
* Active intellect
* Antiperistasis
* Essence
* Eternity of the world
* Four causes
* Hexis
* Horror vacui
* Hylomorphism
* Hypokeimenon
* Minima naturalia
* Ousia
* Passive intellect
* Potentiality and actuality
* Substance theory
* Substantial form
* Sublunary sphere
* Theory of universals
* Unmoved mover

Biology|

* Rational animal

Ethics|

* Akrasia
* Arete
* Eudaimonia
* Eutrapelia
* Golden mean
* Magnanimity
* Nemesis
* Philia
* Phronesis
* Pleonexia
* Practical syllogism

Politics|

* Mixed government
* Natural slavery

Rhetoric|

* Lexis
* Paradeigma

Poetics|

* Anagnorisis
* Catharsis
* Classical unities
* Diegesis
* Hamartia
* Mimesis
* Mythos
* Opsis
* Peripeteia
* Telos
* Tragic hero

Works|

| Organon|

* Categories
* On Interpretation
* Prior Analytics
* Posterior Analytics
* Topics
* Sophistical Refutations

|

Physics|

* Physics
* On the Heavens
* On Generation and Corruption
* Meteorology
* On the Soul

On Animals|

* History
* Parts
* Movement
* Progression
* Generation

Metaphysics|

* Metaphysics

Ethics and politics|

* Nicomachean Ethics
* Eudemian Ethics
* Politics
* Constitution of the Athenians

Rhetoric and poetics|

* Rhetoric
* Poetics

Parva Naturalia|

* Sense and Sensibilia
* On Memory
* On Sleep
* On Dreams
* On Divination in Sleep
* On Length and Shortness of Life
* On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration

Lost|

* Protrepticus

Pseudepigrapha|

* On Breath
* On Colors
* On Plants
* On Indivisible Lines
* On Melissus, Xenophanes, and Gorgias
* On the Universe
* On Things Heard
* Physiognomonics
* On Marvellous Things Heard
* Mechanics
* Problems
* The Situations and Names of Winds
* On Virtues and Vices
* Economics
* Rhetoric to Alexander
* Magna Moralia

Related topics|

* Transmission of the Greek Classics
* Commentaries on Aristotle
* Conimbricenses
* Metabasis paradox
* Views on women
* Wheel paradox
* Mathematical realism
* List of writers influenced by Aristotle

* Category
* Philosophy portal

* v
* t
* e

Rishonim

North Africa|

* Isaac Alfasi (Rif)
* Chananel ben Chushiel
* Dunash ben Labrat
* Zechariah Aghmati
* Nissim ben Jacob
* Samuel ben Jacob ibn Jam
* Shemariah ben Elhanan

Spain (except Catalonia)|

* Maimonides
* Judah Halevi
* Abraham ibn Ezra
* Yom Tov Asevilli (Ritva)
* Joseph ibn Migash (Ri Migash)
* Meir Abulafia (Ramah)
* Bahya ibn Paquda
* Bahya ben Asher
* David Abudirham
* Joseph Albo
* Isaac ben Moses Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak)
* Rabbenu Yerucham
* Shem Tov ben Abraham ibn Gaon (Migdal Oz)
* Meir ben Solomon Abi-Sahula
* Isaac ibn Ghiyyat
* Maimon ben Joseph
* Isaac Aboab I
* Abraham ibn Daud
* Moses ibn Ezra
* Jonah ibn Janah
* Abraham Saba

Catalonia|

* Nachmanides
* Menachem HaMeiri
* Nissim of Gerona (Ran)
* Shlomo ibn Aderet (Rashba)
* Yonah Gerondi (Rabbeinu Yonah)
* Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona (Baal HaMaor)
* Hasdai Crescas
* Aharon HaLevi (Ra'ah)
* Isaac ben Sheshet (Rivash)
* Simeon ben Zemah Duran (Tashbatz)
* Vidal of Tolosa (Maggid Mishneh)
* Joseph ibn Habib (Nimmukei Yosef)
* Azriel of Gerona
* Judah ben Yakar
* Judah ben Barzillai

Provence|

* Hachmei Provence
* Abraham ben David (Raavad)
* Gersonides (Ralbag)
* David Kimhi (Radak)
* Abba Mari
* Isaac ben Abba Mari (HaIttur)
* Abraham ben Nathan (HaManhig)
* David ben Levi of Narbonne (HaMichtam)
* Moses ben Joseph (Rambi)
* Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne (Raavad II, HaEshkol)
* Levi ben Abraham ben Hayyim
* Moshe ha-Darshan
* Meshullam ben Jacob
* Asher ben Meshullam
* Abraham of Montpellier
* Joseph Caspi
* Isaac the Blind
* Samuel ibn Tibbon
* Isaac of Narbonne
* Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen
* Jonathan of Lunel

France (except Provence)|

* Rabbi Abin ha-Gadol
* Rashi
* List of Tosafists
* Rabbeinu Tam
* Rashbam
* Solomon ben Meir
* Samson ben Joseph of Falaise
* Yom Tov of Falaise
* Eliezer ben Samuel (Yereim)
* Isaac ben Samuel (Ri HaZaken)
* Moses ben Jacob of Coucy (Semag)
* Judah ben Nathan (Rivan)
* Bechor Shor
* Abraham ben Joseph of Orleans
* Elijah of Paris
* Judah ben Yom Tov
* Haim ben Hananel HaCohen
* Yechiel of Paris
* Rivam
* Peretz ben Elijah
* Eliezer of Toul
* Chaim Paltiel
* Jacob of Orléans
* Samson of Chinon
* Jacob of Chinon
* Eliezer of Touques
* Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre
* Elhanan ben Isaac of Dampierre
* Baruch ben Isaac
* Samson ben Abraham of Sens
* Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi
* Meir ben Samuel
* Moses of Évreux
* Samuel of Évreux
* Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise
* Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon
* Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils
* Menahem ben Helbo
* Simeon Kara
* Shemaiah of Soissons
* Elijah ben Menahem HaZaken
* Ephraim ben Samson

Germany|

* Meshullam ben Kalonymus
* Gershom ben Judah (Rabbeinu Gershom)
* Simeon bar Isaac of Mainz
* Asher ben Jehiel (Rosh)
* Jacob ben Asher (Baal HaTurim)
* Mordechai ben Hillel (Mordechai)
* Meir of Rothenburg (Maharam MeRotenberg)
* Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin (Maharil)
* Eliezer ben Nathan (Ra'aven)
* Eliezer ben Joel HaLevi (Raavyah)
* Eleazar of Worms (Rokeach)
* Meir HaKohen (Hagahot Maimuniot)
* Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (Yehudah haHasid)
* Yaakov ben Yakar
* Isaac ben Mordecai of Regensburg
* Ephraim ben Isaac of Regensburg
* Samson ben Eliezer
* Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol
* Judah ben Kalonymus
* Yehuda HaKohen ben Meir
* Meir ben Baruch Halevi
* Israel Bruna
* Israel of Bamberg
* Ephraim of Bonn
* Judah ben Asher
* Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi
* Jacob ben Judah Landau
* Samuel ben Natronai
* Alexander Suslin
* Jacob Weil
* Isaac ben Asher ha-Levi
* Simha of Speyer
* Isaac Asir HaTikvah

England|

* Aaron of Canterbury
* Aaron of York
* Elias of London
* Eliyahu Menachem of London
* Hagin Deulacres
* Jacob ben Judah of London
* Josce of London
* Moses ben Isaac ben ha-Nessiah
* Moses of London
* Yom Tov of Joigny
* Berechiah de Nicole

Austria|

* Israel Isserlein (Terumat HaDeshen)
* Isaac of Vienna (Or Zarua)
* Avigdor Cohen of Vienna
* Isaac Tyrnau

Italy|

* Nathan ben Jehiel (the Aruch)
* Isaiah di Trani (Rid)
* Isaiah di Trani the Younger (Riaz)
* Obadiah of Bertinoro
* Menahem Recanati
* Zedekiah Anaw (Shibbolei HaLeket)
* Benjamin Anaw
* Judah Anav
* Moses ben Meir of Ferrara
* Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona
* Hillel ben Samuel
* Joseph Colon Trabotto
* Isaac ben Melchizedek
* Judah Messer Leon

Elsewhere|

* Isaac Abarbanel
* Elijah Mizrachi
* Tobiah ben Eliezer (Lekach Tov)
* Zerahiah the Greek
* Isaac ben Dorbolo
* Isaac ben Samuel of Acre
* Moses Taku
* Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan
* Nathan ben Abraham I
* Hillel ben Eliakim
* Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi
* Nethanel ben Isaiah‎

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Italy
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Russia
* Spain
* Portugal
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Latvia
* Croatia
* Chile
* Greece
* Sweden
* Poland
* Vatican
* Israel
* Catalonia
* Belgium

Academics|

* CiNii
* zbMATH

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

People|

* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie
* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
* SNAC
* İslâm Ansiklopedisi
* 2
* Yale LUX

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