Maimonides- The Man of Many Names
The Muslim, Jewish and Christian history has an enigmatic character named Maimonides.
Maimonides was born in Cordoba in Muslim ruled Spain in 1138 and spent most of his time in the company of Fatimid caliphs in Egypt. He lived in the most interesting times of history when Spain got reconquered. The crusades, the trials and tribulations of the Fatimids and the rise and rise of Saladin were all witnessed by him. He started as a physician in Egypt and later joined Saladin’s entourage.
Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon and Ms bin Maymn were his names. People mistook him for a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian. Al-Farabi, Avicenna-Ibn e Sina, and Averroes-Ibn e Rushd, mentored Maimonides.
They tried to convert him to Islam in Spain, the reason why he landed in a more tolerant place of his time, Egypt. He was an all-in-one physician, philosopher and judge. All his life he lived with Muslims and yet he compiled the Jewish law Mishnah Torah, which became a cornerstone for all the later Jewish legal codes.
He saw the power eclipse from Muslims’ downfall in Spain to Fatimids losing their lustre in Cairo. Maimonides was the front-line spectator in the power politics from the house of Almohad in Spain to Fatimids, the rise of Saladin and the fall of his Ayyubid dynasty. He truly lived in the interesting times.
He wrote about mathematics and astronomy, logic and ethics, politics, and theology. His Guide of the Perplexed, a masterful interweaving of religious tradition and scientific and philosophic thought, influenced generations of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers.
Maimonides had a thought-provoking take on Islam. Tormented by Muslim rulers in Spain and yet he spent his most illustrious intellectual time in the company of Muslim rulers of Egypt and Damascus. He forwarded the idea of Taqqiya- a concept to hide one’s beliefs if threatened because of any political or religious peril.
Although his accounts are scarce in the middle eastern, north African and European literature like people fondly do for Avicenna or Averroes.
The famous quotes attributed to him are the one about fish and the second about treating the patients.
- If you give a person a fish, you feed him for one time while teaching a person how to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime
- The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering.
My personal favourite quote that is attributed to Maimonides is “Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen”.
Maimonides was less of a poster boy as compared to the scholars of his time. Yet he left indelible marks on the canvas of history for his works, practice, and observation.
Moin Uddin is an occasional writer who dabbles in culture, economy, and psychology. He publishes on moinhunzai.medium.com and tweets @moinhunzai
