Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds

by Joel L. Kraemer

Description

"Maimonides lived in tumultuous times, at the peak of the Reconquista in Spain and the Crusades in Palestine. His monumental compendium of Jewish law, the Mishneh Tarah, became a basis of all subsequent Jewish legal codes and brought him recognition as one of the foremost lawgivers. In Egypt, his training as a physician earned him a place in the entourage of the great Sultan Saladin, and he wrote medical works in Arabic that were translated into Hebrew and Latin and studied for centuries in show more Europe. As a philosopher and scientist, he contributed to 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." "Now, in a dazzling work of scholarship, Joel Kraemer tells the complete story of Maimonides' rich life, Maimonides is at once a portrait of a great historical figure and an excursion into the Mediterranean world of the twelfth century. Kraemer draws on a wealth of original sources to re-create a remarkable period In history when Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions clashed and mingled in a setting alive with intense intellectual exchange and religious conflict."--Jacket. show less

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4 reviews

LilyCowper 169 reviews

Oct 13, 2024

4bonasa 289 reviews

A biography of one of Judaism greatest thinkers. The author concentrates on Maimonides life and not on his writing. An excellent peek into Jewish Medieval life in the Islamic world.

Mar 24, 2010

MedeaMoon 7 reviews

Kind of hard to get into. I'll have to make another effort when I'm more in the mind set.

Feb 10, 2010

lewisw 2 reviews

Read this before Halbertal

Jan 20, 2014