Born in Cordoba in 1138, Maimonides grew up during the rule of the Berberdynasty of the Murabitun (Almoravids). Under their rule the Jewish and the Christian communities were protected according to Muslim law.

During his years in Cordoba, Maimonides studied Jewish law as well as mathematics, astronomy, logic and physics, followed by astrology philosophy and medicine.

In medieval Spain, these sciences were components of a curriculum shared by young Jewish and Muslim scholars of the educated classes who were part of a lively intellectual milieu.  It was during this period that Maimonides mentioned having met the famous Muslim mathematician and astronomer Jabir b. Aflah al-Ishbili.

In these early years he wrote treatises on logic, and on geometry and optics. 

Maimonides was greatly influenced by Muslim philosophers who combined Aristotelian and Neoplatonic philosophy, such as Farabi, Ibn Sina  (Avicenna),  and the Spanish Ibn Bajja (Avempace) (Zaragoza 1095-1138). Maimonides’ writings influenced the great Christian scholastic theologians such as Aquinas and Albertus Magnus, and, in later centuries, Spinoza and Leibnitz.

In 1148, Cordoba was taken over by the intolerant dynasty of the Muwahhidun (Almohads), who by then ruled most of the Maghreb as well. The Almohads deprived the non-Muslim communities of their previous rights and persecuted them with threats of forced conversion or deportation. The Maimonides family, like many others, left Cordoba and began an extended period of wandering.

In 1160, the family settled in Fez, Morocco which was also under the rule of the Almohads as well, where Maimonides witnessed terrible persecutions.

It seems that during this period the family was forced to convert.

This is probably why, sometime between 1160-1165, Maimonides wrote The Letter on Forced Conversions which pardoned fake conversion to Islam in cases of forced conversion.  In Fez, Maimonides continued studying medicine, mainly through apprenticeship.

In 1165, the Maimonides' family left for Palestine, which was under Crusader rule at that time. They visited Acre, Jerusalem and Hebron.

In 1166, the family settled in Fustat (old Cairo), then under Fatimid rule. The Fatimids were tolerant rulers, and their theology encouraged the study of philosophy. Maimonides, protected by Fatimid rule, took to teaching Greek sciences and philosophy. During his first five years in Fustat, Maimonides completed his first major legal treatise, the Commentary on the Mishnah, a work that he began to compose during his long years of travels. 

Maimonides' family made its living from commerce, and Maimonides himself was supported by his brother David who traded with India.

In 1171, Egypt was conquered by the Ayyubid dynasty.  Around the same time, Maimonides' brother David drowned during a commercial trip to India. Maimonides, sick with grief over his brother, was forced to begin work as a court physician for the royal family.

During those years he wrote many important medical treatises, in which he sought to simplify and render more systematic the medical tradition of Galen (2nd cent') transmitted through the Muslim world. His treatises were translated into Latin during the 13^th century and thus influenced medical knowledge in the medieval West.

During this period Maimonides was recognized as the highest spiritual authority of his time and served for some years also as head of the Jewish community in Egypt (Rais al-Yahud). His numerous legal and theological responses to queries from Jews in Egypt, the Middle East, and Europe attest to his local authority and international prestige.

The stability of Maimonides’ later life in Ayyubid Egypt enabled him to compose many treatises, including his two most important works: the Mishneh Torah and the Guide to the Perplexed. 

 

photographs: The Ben Ezra synagogue, the ancient synagogue in old Cairo (Fustat), where Maimonides led the Jewish liturgy, also shown are the works of preservation and construction

Maimonides died in 1204 in Egypt and was buried there. However, early Jewish tradition claims that he had asked to be buried in the Holy Land and that his bones were brought to burial in Tiberias, where his tomb is still shown. On his tomb the following famous saying in Hebrew is inscribed: "From Moses to Moses no one was as great as Moses"- meaning that from the biblical Moses, to Moses son of Maymon (Maimonides), there was no one who equaled them.