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Maimonides

Jewish Philosopher, the Great Synthesizer of Medieval Jewish Scholastic Philosophy

Those Who Ground an Idea Into a Whole System · Disciples & School-Builders

Jewish PhilosophyThe Reconciliation of Reason and Jewish LawThe Guide for the Perplexed

Who they are

Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) was a Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician born in Córdoba who settled in Cairo in his later years, moving many times to escape the religious persecution of Andalusia at the time. His chief work, the Guide for the Perplexed, sought to reconcile systematically the tension between Aristotelian rational philosophy and the law and theological tradition of the Jewish Torah, holding that certain anthropomorphic passages describing God in Scripture should be read allegorically rather than literally — a rationalist path of interpretation that stirred considerable controversy within Judaism at the time, some conservative scholars even attempting for a while to burn his works. He at the same time systematically compiled the Jewish legal code the Mishneh Torah, giving the Jewish legal system an unprecedented systematic ordering, and his thought later had an important influence on Christian scholastic philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas.

Primary sourcesMaimonides, The Guide for the PerplexedThe Mishneh Torah

Key stories

Philosophical Writing on the Road of Exile

In his early years Maimonides, driven by the Almohad dynasty’s persecution of non-Muslims in Andalusia, was forced to flee with his family through Morocco and the Land of Israel, at last settling in Cairo, Egypt, where, amid his heavy duties as court physician to the sultan Saladin, he persisted in completing important philosophical works such as the Guide for the Perplexed — this experience of unceasing writing through a life of displacement is itself a vivid image of his scholarly conviction that "the rational pursuit of truth should not be cut off by circumstance."

"From Moses to Moses, None Arose Like Moses"

A saying of praise circulated in the Jewish tradition: "From Moses (the prophet Moses) to Moses (Maimonides), none arose like Moses," placing Maimonides’s intellectual standing alongside the greatest prophet of Judaism — testimony to the lofty esteem he received in the Jewish philosophical and legal tradition.

Relationships

Ally

📚Thomas Aquinas　Both devoted themselves to reconciling rational philosophy with the theological system of their respective religious traditions

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"From Moses to Moses" (a Jewish saying)Placing Maimonides alongside the prophet Moses, testimony to the lofty esteem he received in the Jewish philosophical and legal tradition.

Appears in

The Middle Ages: The Reconciliation of Reason and FaithMaimonides Reconciles Reason and Law, al-Ghazali Criticizes Philosophical Rationalism The Middle Ages: The Reconciliation of Reason and FaithAquinas’s Summa Theologica Synthesizes Scholasticism

⏳ Who lived at the same time as Maimonides? →⛪ Scholasticism →🔗 Who taught whom →

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