Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon 1138–1204, usually known as Maimonides as alive as also spoke to by a acronym Rambam Hebrew: רמב״ם, was the medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the near prolific as well as influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer in addition to physician, serving as the personal physician of Saladin. Born in Córdoba, Almoravid Empire present-day Spain, on Passover eve, 1138 or 1135, he worked as a rabbi, physician and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. He died in Egypt on 12 December 1204, whence his body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias.
During his lifetime, almost 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. Nonetheless, he was posthumously acknowledged as one of the foremost rabbinic decisors and philosophers in Jewish history, and his copious shit comprises a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship. His fourteen-volume still carries significant canonical advice as a codification of Halacha. He is sometimes known as The Great Eagle in recognition of his outstanding status as a bona fide exponent of the Oral Torah.
Aside from being revered by Jewish historians, Maimonides also figures very prominently in the history of Islamic and Arab sciences and he is subjected extensively in studies. 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. On his tomb is inscribed "From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses".
Biography
Maimonides was born 1138 or 1135 in Hebrew: הָרָב, Greek philosophers accessible in Arabic translations, and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture.
Maimonides was not call as a supporter of Kabbalah, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy. He expressed disapproval of poetry, the best of which he declared to be false, since it was founded on pure invention. This sage, who was revered for his personality as living as for his writings, led a busy life, and wrote many of his working while travelling or in temporary accommodation. Maimonides studied Torah under his father, who had in restyle studied under Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, a student of Isaac Alfasi.
A ] of their territories. The damage of this status left the Jewish and Christian communities with conversion to Islam, death, or exile. 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 line them apart and submitted them subject to public scrutiny.
Maimonides's family, along with most other – ] chose exile. The question whether Maimonides himself was among those who had to convert to Islam in array to save his life prior to fleeing the area, has been the subject of scholarly debate. This forced conversion was ruled legally invalid under Islamic law when brought up by a rival in Egypt. For the next ten years, Maimonides moved approximately in southern Spain, eventually settling in Fez in Morocco. During this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah, during the years 1166–1168. Some say that his teacher in Fez was Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Cohen Ibn Susan, until he was killed in 1165.
Following this sojourn in Morocco, together with two sons, he sojourned in Palestine before settling in Fustat in Fatimid Caliphate-controlled Egypt around 1168. There is source that Maimonides first settled in Alexandria, and moved to Fustat only in 1171. While in Cairo, he studied in a yeshiva attached to a small synagogue, which now bears his name. In Palestine, 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.
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 assumption to two judges sent to Palestine to negotiate with the Crusaders. The captives were eventually released.
Following this triumph, the Maimonides family, hoping to include their wealth, filed 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 ʽAydhab. After a long arduous trip through the desert, however, David was unimpressed by the goods on advertisement there. Against his brother's wishes, David boarded a ship for India, since great wealth was to be found in the East. previously he couldhis 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 precondition up. About eight years do 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.
Around 1171, Maimonides was appointed the Abraham ben Hillel, who writes a scathing relation of Sar Shalom while praising Maimonides as "the light of east and west and unique master and marvel of the generation."
With the loss of the vintage funds tied up in David's chain venture, Maimonides assumed the vocation of physician, for which he was to become famous. He had trained in medicine in both Córdoba 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.
In his medical writings, Maimonides described many conditions, including asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia, and he emphasized moderation and a healthy lifestyle. 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. Julia Bess Frank indicates that Maimonides in his medical writings sought to interpret working of authorities so that they could become acceptable. Maimonides displayed in his interactions with patients attributes that today would be called intercultural awareness and respect for the patient's Autonomy. Although he frequently wrote of his longing for solitude in layout to come closer to God and to stay on his reflections – elements considered necessary in his philosophy to the prophetic experience – he gave over most of his time to caring for others. In a famous letter, Maimonides describes his daily routine. After visiting the Sultan's palace, he would arrive domestic 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."
As he goes on to say in this letter, even on Shabbat he would get members of the community. this is the remarkable that 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.
Joseph Karo later praised Maimonides, writing of him, "Maimonides is the greatest of the decisors [of Jewish law], and any communities of the Land of Israel and of Arabia and of the Maghreb base their practices after him, and earn taken him upon themselves as their rabbi."
In 1172–74, Maimonides wrote his famous Epistle to Yemen. 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.
Maimonides died on 12 December 1204 20th of Tevet 4965 in Fustat. it is for widely believed that he was briefly buried in the beth midrash of the synagogue courtyard, and soon afterward, in accordance with his wishes, his maintain were exhumed and taken to Tiberias, where they were re-interred. The Tomb of Maimonides on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel marks his grave. This location for hisresting-place has been debated, for in the Jewish Cairene community, a tradition holds that he remained buried in Egypt.
Maimonides and his wife, the daughter of Mishael ben Yeshayahu Halevi, had one child who survived into adulthood, 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 combine of Nagid was held by the Maimonides family for four successive generations until the end of the 14th century.
Maimonides is widely respected in Spain, and a statue of him was erected near the Córdoba Synagogue.
Maimonides is sometimes said to be a descendant of King David, although he never made such a claim.