AVERROËS

MAIMONIDES

A time to live . . .

47 Spain

The water tribunal

The Huerta de Valencia, one of Europe's mostproductive agricultural areas, has a long his¬tory reaching back to the Arabs of al-Andalus(Muslim Spain), who introduced into it a var¬iety of crops including the orange. Water isscarce, and its distribution, today as in the pasta key to the region's prosperity, is governed bya set of ancient regulations with which allfarmers who practise irrigation are bound tocomply. A special court, the Tribunal de las

Aguas, exists to make sure that the regulationsare observed. It is the descendant of an institu¬

tion which, according to a text by the 11th-century Andalusian historian Ibn Hayyän,performed a similar task at the time of theCordobán caliphate. The court, the membersof which represent all the towns and villages ofthe Huerta, meets beside the Apostles' Door inValencia Cathedral every Thursday morningbetween 11 o'clock and noon. Following a sim¬ple oral procedure, it settles lawsuits and im¬poses fines, which are paid with the ancientcurrency of Valencia, the libra, worth 3.75pesetas.

The CourierA window open on the world

Editorial

TWELFTH-century Córdoba was the setting for a gloriouschapter in the history of human culture. It saw the floweringof four centuries of the civilization of al-Andalus, Muslim

Spain, which covered an area essentially that of Andalusia today. Italso saw the apogee of the even older classical Arab Muslimcivilization of which al-Andalus was but a part, although a distinc¬tive part, and which extended from India to north Africa and theIberian peninsula.

Until the beginning of the thirteenth century, Córdoba, capital ofal-Andalus, was the most populous, the wealthiest and the mostcultured city in Europe. Its Great Mosque, a legacy which has comedown to us largely intact, provides magnificent testimony to itssplendour. But the crowning glory of Córdoba and al-Andalusundoubtedly lay in the sphere of intellectual creativity. In thisregion of southern Europe flourished a galaxy of great minds whichwould influence the development of modern thought and liter¬ature: poets such as Ibn Hazm, al-Mu'tamid and Ben Quzman;mystics such as Ibn 'Arab!; thinkers such as Ibn Tufayl; geog¬raphers such as al-Idrlsï; physicians such as Avenzoar; philosopherssuch as Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), Ibn Masarra, Ibn Bäjja (Avem-pace) and, above all, Maimonides and Averroës.

Moses ben Maymün (Maimonides in Latinized form) and IbnRushd (the Averroës of the Europeans) were both born in Córdobawithin a few years of one another. The former Jewish, the latterMuslim, both writers in Arabic, they took the great tradition ofClassical Antiquity and transmitted it, enriched and modified, tomedieval Christendom. These two great Cordobán philosopherssymbolize the cultural universalism of al-Andalus, a traditionwhich made for the fruitful co-existence of cultural traditions that

sprang from the three great monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaismand Christianity, in a spirit of tolerance which, despite religiouspersecution as the period drew to an end, still stands as an exampleand was almost unique in its time.

This issue of the Unesco Courier, devoted to these two great

figures of universal learning, is an attempt to throw light on a greatage of intellectual achievement, the age of classical Arab Muslimthought, which deserves to be more widely known and understood.Already last December, Unesco organized an international roundtable to mark the 850th anniversary of Maimonides' birth. Part ofthe November 1986 issue of the magazine will be devoted toanother major figure in this tradition: al-Ghazäll, the Algacel of theLatins. In conclusion, it should be recalled that the authors, of all

shades of opinion, to whom we have given space in this issue,express their own point of view which is not necessarily that ofUnesco or of the editorial staff.

Cover: above, Averroës, detail of The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas,(see page 16); below, Maimonides, detail of his statue in Córdoba (seepage 4).Photo © Scala, FlorencePhoto © Diodoro Urquia, Salduero, Soria, Spain. Taken from Moisés ben Maimón "Maimonides"1135-1204, an audiovisual montage by Diodoro Urquia, Ministry of External Affairs, Madrid

Editor-in-chief: Edouard Glissant

September 198639th year

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South-west façade of the Great Mosque, Córdoba.

4 Maimonides, a guide for the perplexedby Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow

6 Averroës and Maimonides, philosophers of al-Andalusby Miguel Cruz Hernández

14 Two mediators of medieval thoughtby Mohammed Arkoun

18 A miniature anthology of Maimonides and Averroës

21 A voice that speaks across the centuriesby Shalom Rosenberg

24 Averroës, reason and toleranceby Mohammed Allai Sinaceur

25 Ibn Rushd and the Islamic philosophical traditionby Artur V. Sagadeev

29 Maimonides the humanist

by Angel Sáenz-Badillos

32 The prophet, the scholar and the statesmanby Roland Goetschel

34 1986: International Year of Peace/ 9

2 A time to live...

SPAIN: The water tribunal

Published monthly in 32 languagesby UnescoThe United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization -7, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris.

English Italian Macedonian Turkish Finnish A selection in Braille is publishedFrench Hindi Serbo-Croat Urdu Swedish quarterly in English, French,Spanish Tamil Slovene Catalan Basque Spanish and KoreanRussian Hebrew Chinese Malaysian Thai

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e Sinhala

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ISSN 0041-5278

N° 9 - 1986 - CPD - 86 - 1 - 437 A

Maimonides,a guide for the perplexed

by Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow

In December 1985 Unesco organizedat its Paris Headquarters an international symposium to mark the 850th anniversaryofthe birth in Córdoba ofthe great Jewish thinker Moses ben Mayrnun (Maimonides) . We publish below salientpassagesfrom an address given on this occasion by Mr. Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, Director-General of Unesco. At anothersymposium held at Unesco Headquarters last December, the life and work ofthe Islamicphilosopher al-Ghazäli (Algacel)were also commemorated. Extracts from the address given by Mr. M'Bow during the al-Ghazäli symposium will bepublished in the November issue of the Unesco Courier.

MAIMONIDES was at one and the

same time one of the greatestexponents of Jewish law, one of

the authorities of medieval philosophy ofGreek inspiration and one of the main con¬tributors to the extraordinary blossoming ofphilosophic and scientific thinking whichoccurred in the Arab world in the eleventh

and twelfth centuries.

The Maimonides of The Guide of the Per¬plexed is a thinker at the height of hispowers who brings together into a meaning¬ful whole Arab science, Greek philosophyand Jewish theology. In a letter to Samuelibn Tibbon, who in France was embarkingon the Hebrew translation of his work,Maimonides wrote as follows:

"Take good care to study the works ofAristotle only with the help of his com¬mentators Alexander of Aphrodisias,

Themistus or Averroës. The writings ofAristotle's master, Plato, are parables anddifficult to understand, and there is no needfor recourse to them, as Aristotle's work is

sufficient; nor, is it necessary to concernoneself with works written by his pre¬decessors, for his intellect represents theacme of the human intellect, with the excep¬tion of those who have received divine

inspiration. ... As for logic, it is necessary tostudy only the works of Al-Färäbl. All hiswritings are excellent. ... as are those of IbnBäjja."

It would be a mistake, however, to see in

the approach adopted by Maimonides anexclusively philosophical orientation. Heconsidered philosophy, including, be itsaid, the science of his time, as an essential

preliminary to defining the ideal society andto pondering such fundamental questions

as: Where do I come from? Where am I

going? What meaning can be attributed tothe order of the world? What can be known

about its creation?

In Maimonides' view the elucidation of-

these questions should be the goal of allintellectual striving. In his own words: "...that perfection in which man can truly takepride lies in his having acquired, in a degreecommensurate with his capacity, knowl¬edge of God."

Maimonides was in fact addressing theundecided, the "perplexed" throughout theages who are already virtuous in theirreligion and conduct, who are already con¬versant with the philosophical sciences-andwho are already inclined to exercise humanreason and to apply it as widely as possiblebut who are nevertheless troubled in their

minds, for they are unable to reconcile the

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findings of science and philosophy with theliteral meaning of the Scriptures. The per¬plexed are, in sum, those who know thatdiscursive reason cannot fully account forthe mysteries of human existence and who,at the same time, do not intend to forgo theinexhaustible resources of reason.

Logic and mathematics are tools that helpthe human mind to exercise its faculty ofdemonstration. But can demonstrative dis¬

course exhaust all our questions? Clearlynot, in Maimonides' view. He did not claim,

any more than did his contemporary IbnRushd, that faith in reason exhausts the

reasons for faith, even though some theo¬logians criticized both men for havingunduly magnified the power of reason.

Concerning the limits of demonstrativescience and, concomitantly, the meaning tobe assigned to the interpretation of theScriptures, one example among othersthrows light on the approach adopted byMaimonides. Aristotle is known to have

distinguished the world of living, corrupt¬ible beings the "sublunar world" fromthe world of the heavenly spheres, actu¬ated, so he felt, by a necessary being from

Statues commemorate Maimonides and

Averroës in their native city of Córdoba.Far left, bronze statue of Maimonides byAmadeo Ruiz Olmos stands on Plaza

Tiberiades in the old Jewish quarter of thecity. Left, white marble statue of Averroësnear the city walls and the Alcázar gar¬dens.

Below, map showing the extent of Islamicdomination in the Mediterranean basin

around the middle of the 11th century.Also shown are cities connected with the

lives of Maimonides and Averroës.

time immemorial. Down the centuries,

many theologians of the three revealedreligions have set in opposition to this con¬ception that of the creation of the entireworld by a free act of divine will. Theydefied the philosophers to account for thedoubts concealed by Aristotle's system.Al-Ghazäll's famous critique of the "phil¬osophers" is an example of this attitude.

What does Maimonides say? "All thatAristotle has said regarding that whichexists beneath the sphere of the moon allthe way down to the centre of the earth isundoubtedly true and no one can claimotherwise, save him who has not under¬

stood. ... However, concerning that whichlies above the sphere of the moon, whatAristotle has to say seems little morethan conjecture."

As regards the limits of Aristotelian sci¬ence i.e., in his time, science tout courtMaimonides adds: "As for all that is in the

heavens, man knows nothing except thissmall portion of mathematics. ... I wouldsay, borrowing from poetry: 'the heavensbelong to the Lord; but He has given theearth to the sons of Adam. ..'. As for what is

beneath the heavens, he has given man theability to know it, for it is Man's world andhis abode, where he has been placed and ofwhich he forms a part...".

Maimonides does not, however, dismiss

out of hand a possible science or knowledgeof the heavens. He repeats that he is per¬fectly willing to hear a demonstration onthis subject, if any such exists. In the mean¬time, it is best to adopt an attitude which hedescribes as follows: "... To weary men'sminds with what they cannot grasp, noteven possessing the wherewithal to do so,

would go against common sense and be akind of madness. Let us confine ourselves to

what is within our power; let us leave thatwhich cannot be grasped by reason to himwho has been visited by divine inspira¬tion...".

He therefore introduces certain qualifica¬tions into his interpretation of the Scrip¬tures. When science has established a truth,

there is nothing to be gained by setting it inopposition to the literal meaning of God'sword; preference should be given to theallegorical meaning, the ta'wil of the Mus¬lim theologians. However, the wisdom thenrequired is even greater than that of thescientists although it should include it.

Of these men, who would need to be at

one and the same time scientists, lawgiversand defenders of a religion both demandingand enlightened, Maimonides draws apoetic portrait at the end of his "Guide":"Those who have understood the demon¬

stration of all that is demonstrable; who

have achieved certainty in metaphysicalmatters, wherever this is possible; or whohave approached certainty, there where itcan only be approached; they are the oneswho 'have attained the innermost abode

where dwells the Lord'...".

Does not this description apply to Mai¬monides himself, just as much as to the mostbrilliant minds of the great epoch that washis? And is it not because he attained such

heights that he was able to clarify the think¬ing and guide the faith of so many who cameafter him from the researchers of Islam, to

the commentators of the Mishna, from theo¬

logians of Christianity such as St. ThomasAquinas and Meister Eckhart to such mod¬ern philosophers as Leibniz and Spinoza?

Averroës and Maimonides,philosophers of al-Andalus

by Miguel Cruz Hernández

CORDOBÁN society experienced anauthentic cultural renaissance in

the twelfth century. As excavationshave shown, the city had been an importantsettlement since the days of the Phoeni¬cians, as in antiquity the River Guadal¬quivir was navigable as far as the Cordobánford.

The extensive Roman city was remark¬able for its beauty and the fame of someof its families, such as that of Seneca.But it was Islam that established Córdoba

as the capital of al-Andalus MuslimAndalusia and as the court of the

Umayyad monarchy, making it the pearl of

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the western Arab world and the most

important, populous and wealthy city inEurope until the twelfth century.

Its fertile valley and gardens, its rich soiland the splendour of its palaces andreligious buildings, despite the vicissitudesof war and other harsh strokes of fate, have

survived to the present day, as has the repu¬tation of its people, famed for their knowl¬edge and culture.

After the great fitna or civil war whichdestroyed Córdoba at the downfall of theUmayyad monarchy, the city was reducedto the status of one more "petty kingdom"of the Banü 'Abbäd, the Lords of Seville.But the Almoravids and the Almohads

made it once again the capital of al-Andalusand filled it with new leading lights in art,science and literature, until its conquest bythe Christians. The Crusaders, in turn, were

impressed by the city's grandeur, thanks towhich the Great Mosque has survived tothis day.

After the Islamic conquest the three greatmonotheistic religions existed side by sidein Córdoba: the Jewish, Christian and Mus¬

lim faiths. Remarkable tolerance reignedbetween 711 and 1085, apart from isolatedincidents and the persecution of Christiansin the time of 'Abd al-Rahmän II. Duringthe Almoravid period (1085-1146) therewas greater intolerance of Christians andJews, aggravated in the former case by thesupport given by the AndalusianMozarabs1" to the aceifa (military expedi¬tion) led by King Alfonso VII of Castile.After the Almohad occupation, Jews andChristians were obliced to leave the terri-

The splendour of the Umayyad caliphateofal-Andalus reached its artistic apogee inthe Great Mosque (today the cathedral) ofCórdoba. Begun In 786 AD by 'Abd al-Rahmän I, "the Immigrant", an Umayyadleader who escaped from 'AbbäsidDamascus and founded the emirate of

Córdoba, it was enlarged and enrichedover the centuries by his successors.Opposite page, general view of Córdobawith the old Jewish quarter and the GreatMosque at centre and, In foreground, theRoman bridge over the Guadalquivir. Left,typical patio in the Jewish quarter, withbeyond the tower (formerly the minaret) ofthe Great Mosque.

tory under their sway or to pretend, as didthe family of Maimonides, that they hadbeen converted to Islam.

Cultural co-existence was a very differentmatter, although it worked to the advantageof the dominant social group and was lim¬ited to certain times and certain categoriesof people. In the ruling classes, peacefulco-existence was confined to kings, noblesand scholars; where their subjects were con¬cerned those who lived amicably side byside were scholars, artists or craftworkers

working as architects, astronomers, ambas¬sadors, landowners, mathematicians, doc¬

tors, philosophers, tax-collectors, transla¬tors, etc. In fact throughout the MiddleAges two major "established" culturesexisted in the Iberian peninsula: the Latin-Christian and the Islamic. Judaism certainlyexisted also, but Judaeo-Hebraic culture

was fundamentally centred on the syn¬agogue. Far from diminishing its greatness,this represents the greatest claim to glory ofthe Jewish community. Having lost all realpolitical power since their exile to Babylon,uprooted time and again from their lands,the Jewish people not only preserved thetreasure of their faith and the testimony oftheir customs, but made a home of their

countries of exile. No country seemed morelike a "second homeland" to them than

Sefarad, the name which they gave to theIberian peninsula. But this made it incum¬bent on them to become integrated with theprevailing social pattern, to use the lan¬guage of their rulers and to assimilate theknowledge and wisdom of other peo¬ples in this case, to speak and write theArabic language and to master science andphilosophy as perfectly as Maimonidesdid.

The importance of this great period ofcultural co-existence, which later (in thesecond half of the twelfth century and in thethirteenth century) bequeathed its benefitsto the medieval Christian world, is apparentin the work of two outstanding men oflearning, both of whom were born in Cor¬doba and wrote in Arabic: Averroës, aMuslim, and Maimonides, a Jew.

1. Spanish Christians who lhed under Muslim rule,while presen ing their religion and ecclesiastical organi¬zation. Editor.

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Centre of political power and of culturaland artistic development, the Córdoba ofthe Umayyad caliphate was for centuries agreat focus of civilization. The caliphstook pleasure in welcoming to their courtmusicians, poets, architects and philo¬sophers, who came sometimes from dis¬tant countries, such as the great Persian

musician Ziryäb. Above, a painting whichportrays this cultural splendour, by theSpanish artist Dionisio Baixeras (1862-1943), in the University of Barcelona.

Seville, the Roman Hispalis, was one of theprincipal urban centres of the civilizationofal-Andalus. Averroës, a jurist by profes-

Fundación Juan March. Taken from Andalucía, Noguer publishers, Barcelona, 1980

sion, for a long time occupied the post ofqàdï or judge in the city. Below, detail ofthe raisedaltarpiece ofSeville cathedral, arepresentation in relief of the medievalcity; in background can be seen the cele¬brated Giralda, the minaretof the vanishedmosque, today the tower of the Gothiccathedral.

Averroës: a universal Andalusian. The

Banü Rushd family can be traced back forsix or more generations. Averroës' grand¬father (450-520 AH/1058-1126 AD) knownas Abü l-Walld Muhammad b. Ahmad b.

Muhammad al-gidd, "the grandfather", todistinguish him from his famous grandson,was an outstanding jurist, chief qàdï (qädial-gamä') of Córdoba and adviser to theAlmoravid and Almohad rulers. Thanks to

his advice, the Mozarabs who lent their

assistance to the Christian aceifa of AlfonsoVII were only exiled, instead of beingexecuted according to custom. Several ofhis works are still extant, including twomonumental legal encyclopaedias: TheMuqaddamät al mttmahhadät and the Kitâbal-Tahsïl.

Averroës' father was called Abu 1-Qäsim

Ahmad Ibn Rushd (487-564 AH/1094-1168AD) and he too was a jurist and chief qädiof Córdoba. He took part in the educationalreform ordered by the Almohad rulers. Hisson, Abu 1-Walïd Muhammad b. Ahmad b.

Muhammad al-hafïd, "the grandson", todistinguish him from his grandfather, wasborn in Córdoba in 520 AH/1126 AD, and

in due course was to become the greatest ofthe Islamic philosophers and the most uni¬versal of those born in the Iberian penin¬sula.

From a very early age Averroës studiedthe Arab humanities, Islamic law, medicine

and philosophy. He was so industrious that,according to his biographers, he rested onlytwice in his lifetime: on the day of hisfather's death and on his own wedding day.

8

The igäza or licentia docendi, the equivalentof a lecturer's diploma today, was probablyawarded to him between 1141 and 1146, andhe must have married between 1146 and

1153.

Towards the end of 1168, Ibn Tufayl, theauthor of the famous work Risâla Hayy ibnYaqzän ("The Improvement of HumanReason"), introduced Averroës to theAlmohad sultan Abü Ya'qüb Yüsuf, towhom he was vizier and personal physician.The sultan reassured Averroës concerninghis dedication to philosophy and even urgedhim to write a commentary on Aristotle.The monarch's protection was very impor¬tant, as acknowledged by Averroës in dedi¬cating his "Commentary on Plato'sRepublic" to his successor. In 565 AH/1169AD he was appointed qädlof Seville, wherehe performed his duties to the satisfactionof the Sevillians, who showed their

approval by interceding on his behalf whenhe fell from favour. In 578 AH/1182 AD

Averroës was appointed chief qädi of Cor¬doba and chief physician at the Almohadcourt, positions in which he was confirmedby the new sultan, Abu Yüsuf Ya'qübal-Mansür, in 580 AH/1184 AD.

After the battle of Alarcos (18 June1195), at which the Almohad army crushedtheir Christian opponents, the intolerantalfaquies and ulemas (doctors of law andIslamic theologians) of Córdoba denouncedAverroës, with the result that his workswere banned and he was exiled to Lucena

for some twenty months. In 595 AH/1198AD the sultan pardoned him, restored hisposition at court and took him with his reti¬nue to Marrakesh, perhaps in order to pro¬tect him from his Andalusian enemies. On

Thursday 9 safar of the year 595 AH (10December 1198), at the age of seventy-two,Averroës died in that Moroccan city. Hisbody was transported three months later toCórdoba and buried in the cemetery of theBanü 'Abbäd. The funeral must have been

a remarkable occasion, since the great mys¬tic Ibn 'Arab! of Murcia tells us that he was

present; the mule which carried Averroës'mortal remains was laden with the corpseon one side and his books on the other as a

counterweight. Thanks to an extract fromthe Kullïyât, we are able to deduce that hedied of the complications of arthritis, fromwhich he had suffered since his youth fol¬lowing an attack of rheumatic fever whichhad not been properly treated when he wasa child.

Averroës is thought to have had morethan five children. We know the names of

only two of them: Abü Muhammad 'AbdAllah ibn Rushd, a doctor, philosopher andqàdï, like his father; and Abu al-QäsimMuhammad ibn Rushd, who died in 612

AH/1215 AD and who also held the post ofqàdï. The names of the other sons are lost,

Because ofhis unorthodox ideas, towardsthe end of his life Averroës was exiled to

Lucena, to the south ofCórdoba. The fami¬ly of Maimonides also was linked with thistown, with its strong Jewish roots. Right,arcades of the old synagogue, now thechurch of Saint James.

but we know that they also held the positionof qädi in al-Andalus. Of his grandchildrenwe have information about only one, Abul-'Abbâs Yahyä b. Qäsim ibn Rushd, whowas likewise a judge.

The writings of Averroës form an impres¬sive corpus. As many as 127 works areattributed to him, but he cannot have writ¬ten more than 84; of these 55 are still fullyextant and parts of another eight have beenpreserved. These works constitute a com¬plete scientific, legal, medical, philosophi¬cal and theoretical encyclopaedia. In accor¬dance with a convention of medieval

scholarship, part of these works consists ofan exegesis of the body of doctrine inheritedfrom Antiquity (the Corpus aristotelicum inphilosophy, the Corpus galenicum in medi¬cine, etc.). For this reason, the ChristianSchoolmen claimed that Averroës had writ¬

ten three types of commentaries on Aristo¬tle (whereas in reality they are three exposi¬tions of his philosophy), and called him"The Commentator".

Besides such expositions of Aristotle,Plato, Euclid and Galen, Averroës alsowrote many works from a more personalapproach, such as the Kitâb al-Kullïyât("Book of the General Principles of Medi¬cine"); the great legal encyclopaedia Kitâbal-Bidäya; the famous defence of philoso¬phy against more traditional theologians,Tahäfut al-Tahäfut ("The Incoherence ofthe Incoherence"), which was an attack onThe Incoherence of the Philosophers byal-Ghazäli; and the theological works Faslal-Maqäl ("Decisive Treatise on the Har¬mony of Religion and Philosophy"); and

Kashf 'an manähij (on the interpretation ofthe revealed Scriptures).

Beneath the scholastic appearance typi¬cal of the forms and method of medieval

scholarship lurks the distinction betweenscientific and philosophical knowledge onthe one hand, and theology on the other,together with the idea of human wisdom assomething which can exist independently,and even the concept of an altogether secu¬lar society. It is not surprising that whenAverroës' ideas were encountered by themedieval Christians they caused real intel¬lectual turmoil, and he was branded as an

atheist and a blasphemer.At the same time, his writings on the

natural world and medicine contain numer¬

ous empirical observations concerningastronomy, earthquakes, the growth ofplants, the meat and wool of sheep, andeven the food eaten in his time, for which he

gives some recipes for rehogo (a sim¬mered meat dish), for humble fried eggs,for a dish of aubergines and for barleywater, which are still typical of Spanishcooking.

Averroës' great human qualities wereaugmented by a strong affection for hisnative Córdoba, which he regarded as themost beautiful of places, and for his com¬patriots, whom he held to be the most intel¬ligent people of their time. By contrast, hewrote with particular severity againsttyrants of all periods, especially his own."There is nothing worse than to be atyrant," he repeatedly wrote, and in hissocial theory lie gave prominence to theanalysis of the well-known dialogue

between master and slave, of Platonicorigin, which Hegel was to make famous.He was the first, and perhaps the only,medieval thinker to criticize the status of

women in society, which "turned them intocabbages" since it was impossible for themto achieve complete personal and socialfulfilment. In his model society, the neces¬sary order would come into being freely,there would be no distinction between

"mine and thine", and no-one would be

treated as an outcast from the community ofall human beings.

Maimonides, "the Andalusian", the uni¬versalJew. Averroës' twenty-month exile toLucena, a Cordobán town famous in the

past for its distinguished Jewish com¬munity, gave rise to the legend that he andMaimonides knew one another. Unfor¬

tunately this was not the case. The family ofMoses ben Maymün, who was known asMaimonides and also as "Rambam" (ananagram of Rabbi Moses ben Maymün),had long been living in Córdoba. But whenAverroës arrived in Lucena, Maimonides

had been living in Cairo for thirty years.

The Banü Maymün held two unshake-able convictions: that they were descendedfrom the line of King David and that theyhad Andalusian roots. They were estab¬lished in Córdoba, well known and

respected by the Cordobán Jewish com¬munity. Rabbi Isaac ben Maymün, father ofMaimonides, begat him in that city where,according to tradition, he was born in thesiesta hour on Saturday 14 nisán of the year4896 of the Jewish calendar (30 March 1 135).There he received instruction in the Arab and

Hebrew humanities and in the religion ofAbraham and Moses. But in 542 AH/1147

AD, as the Almohad army was marchingtowards Córdoba, Rabbi Isaac and his fam¬

ily, including his two sons David and Moses,left the city and took refuge in Granada,where they lived until 1150. Their nextmove was to Almería, where Moses ben

Maymün continued his education. Butwhen this city in its turn was menaced by theAlmoravids, Rabbi Isaac and his familywere obliged to leave it, at the beginning of1160. They settled in Fez, where they hadoutwardly to dissemble {'amûsîm) the faithof Abraham and Moses, although in privatethey strictly adhered to it. In Almería andFez, Maimonides finished his scientific,

In the year 1198 AD, Averroës, hispositionrestored at the Almohad court in Córdoba,accompanied the sultan to Marrakesh,where he died on the 10th of December

that same year. His body was taken backand buried in Córdoba, his native city.Above, the Place Djemaa El-Fna and itsfamous market in Marrakesh.

The Moroccan city ofFez was an importantstage in the long, forced wanderings ofMaimonides and his family. During fiveyears there he completed his scientificandphilosophical education and began towrite his books. Right, this old blocked-upwindow in Maimonides' family house atFez was perhaps that of his study. Stillpreserved in the façade are eight of thetwelve bronze bowls which embellished it

in the 12th century, which were apparentlyused by the philosopher scientist for hissolar astronomical calculations. Above

right, library of the al-Qarawiyym mosque(859 AD), the oldest and most important inthe city.

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philosophical and theological training, andit was in Fez that he began to write the firstof his books.

Still fearing for their safety, Rabbi Isaacand his family decided to emigrate to theEast, and on Saturday 4 iyar of the year4927 (18 April 1165) they took ship for Pal¬estine, reaching Akko (St. Jean d'Acre) on3jiván (16 May) after a stormy voyage dur¬ing which they almost lost their lives. Theyspent six months in Akko, then visitedJerusalem and Hebron in order to pray inthe ruins of the temple and at the tomb ofthe patriarchs. According to tradition,there were only four Jewish families livingin Jerusalem; the city was in ruins, to whichMaimonides seems to have been referringwhen he said that such ruination was

brought about by men and their strife:"May God give me strength in everything Ido and help me to keep my promises, andmay that for which I prayed, there in theruins, be granted to me, and may all Israelsoon see the Holy Land restored and res¬cued from its decline."

The family of Rabbi Isaac left for Egypt,where they lived for a time in Alexandria.Maimonides was then thirty-one, and sor¬row came to him again with the death of hisfather, which raised the problem of his ownlivelihood. Grief at his father's death was

eased by the countless testimonies ofrespect which he received, even from landsfar distant from Egypt. The problem ofkeeping body and soul together was solvedby his younger brother David, who used the

money inherited from his father to set him¬self up as a merchant trading in preciousstones. It may have been the intransigenceof the Jewish "literalists" of Alexandria

which compelled Maimonides to leave thatcity and travel to Fostat, or Old Cairo,where he completed his great commentaryon the Mishna, in 1168.

But misfortune again befell Maimonideswith the death of his brother David, towhom he had always been very close andwhom he would remember all his life, andthat of his wife which occurred shortly after¬wards. Thus he was faced with the problemof earning a living. Since he did not wish tobe a burden on the community, he decidedto support himself by working as a doctor.He communicated this plan to al-Fädil,vizier and royal secretary to the famous Sal-adin (Salâh al-DIn), who appointed himCourt Physician, a position which addedlustre to his reputation. It may have beenaround this time that Maimonides married

again, this time a sister of another royalsecretary, al-Mâtï, who himself married oneof Maimonides' sisters, with whom he had ason called Ibrahim.

In 1177 Maimonides was appointed nag-gib (ruler) of the Jewish community, whichmeant personal recognition within thatcommunity but was also an honourbestowed by Saladin on the Jews, since thepost had been vacant for several yearsowing to the irregular conduct of the lastincumbent. Maimonides never allowed the

Jews to call him by the title of naggib, but

the Arabs, undeterred by such modesty,repeatedly mentioned his title when writingof him. In carrying out his official duties,Maimonides distinguished himself by hisintegrity and his liberal attitudes. Despitethese heavy responsibilities and his unre¬mitting work as a doctor, in 1180 he suc¬ceeded in completing the Mishne Torah("The Torah Reviewed"), begun twelveyears previously.

Maimonides' biographers describe hislong working day. He would rise at firstlight and ride on horseback to the court,which in those days was in Cairo, severalkilometres north of Fostat. He lectured on

philosophy and medicine and attended tohis patients at court. In the early afternoonhe returned home, dealt with official mat¬

ters and treated his many other patients,most of whom were poor and needy. More

In 1165 Maimonides and his family tookship at Ceuta for Palestine. After dis¬embarking at St. Jean d'Acre, where theystayed for a time, they visited Jerusalemand other holy places of Judaism. Laterthey left for Egypt, settling in Fostat (OldCairo). Here Maimonides wrote the majorpart of his work and held Important posts,notably that of physician to Saladin andhis court. Opposite below, the Ben Ezrasynagogue at Fostat, near the site ofMaimonides' house, where he and hisfamily may have worshipped. This page,the AI Azhar mosque, construction ofwhich was begun in 970 AD.

12

than once there were so many of them, andso great was his fatigue, that he was obligedto lie down on his bed to conduct his medi¬

cal consultations.

Yet it was during this period of his life(1185-1200) that he wrote the most univer¬sal and grandiose of his works, The Guide ofthe Perplexed (Dalâlat al-hairin), written inArabic as were virtually all his books and allhis letters. During this period (in 1190) thewritings of Averroës reached Egypt, asMaimonides himself testifies. He took the

view that the Cordobán Muslim thinker

"interpreted Aristotle according to anappropriate and reliable method". Never¬theless, the Arab thinkers who reallyinfluenced Maimonides were Mu'tazila,

al-Fârâbî and Avempace (Ibn Bâjja), andpossibly also the Andalusian Ibn Tufayl, inview of the parallel approach adopted byboth philosophers in the introductions totheir most important works.

The fame of Maimonides, both for his

work and writings in the field of medicineand for his Guide of the Perplexed, spreadthroughout the Arab world and the Jewishcommunities. In 1195, for example, a letterarrived in Cairo from the Jewish communityof Lunel, in Provence, hailing his supremeauthority in rabbinics. It came at a time ofaffliction, for Maimonides was ill and had

been the butt of accusations by the mostintransigent of his critics. But letters such asthis, and the high opinion of the sultanal-Afdal, Saladin's elder son and successor,

brought him consolation for his mental and

physical sufferings. When the scholars ofLunel received the copy of the Guide of thePerplexed which they had requested, theyentrusted the Sephardic Jew Samuel benTibbon with the task of translating it intoHebrew. The task was an arduous one, buton 30 November 1204 Samuel ben Tibbon

finished the translation, which in Hebrewbore the title Môrè Nebûkhîn. Samuel ben

Tibbon had hoped to deliver the translationpersonally into Maimonides' hands, butduring the night of 20 tebet of the year 4965(13 December 1204), Moses ben Maymündeparted this life. According to his wishes,his body was taken to Tiberias (Israel),where he was buried.

The written works of Maimonides are

very extensive, chief among them being themany medical writings (some of which havebeen published for the first time in recentyears), the scientific learning of which isproof of considerable advances in the careof the sick comparable to the practices ofthose Averroës called the "new Andalusian

doctors", in other words those of the Banü

Zuhr (Latin Avenzoar) family. Also ofgreat importance are his Commentary onthe Mishna, the impressive Mishne Torah,and, above all, The Guide of the Perplexed,the greatest landmark in Jewish writingsince the Scriptures. Soon after Mai¬monides' death it was being said in Jewishcommunities that "between Moses and

Moses, there is no one to choose but

Moses"; in other words, Maimonides is thesecond Moses of the Jewish people.

MIGUEL CRUZ HERNANDEZ, of Spain, is pro¬fessor of Islamic thought at the AutonomousUniversity of Madrid and formerly taught at theUniversities of Granada and Salamanca. Amonghis manypublished works are Historia del pensa¬miento en el mundo islámico ("History ofThought in the Islamic World". 1981), Historiadelpensamiento en al-Andalus ("History of Thoughtin al-Andalus", 1985). and the forthcoming Aver¬roës: Vida, obra, pensamiento e influencia("Averroés: Ufe, Work. Thought and Influence").

In accordance with his wishes, the mortalremains of Maimonides were transportedfrom Fostat to Tiberias (Israel) to beburied. Below, epitaph in English and Heb¬rew carved on his tomb, formerly unpro¬tected, today covered by a small shelter. !

1 :

13

Two mediators of medieval

thought

by Mohammed Arkoun

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Page from an Arabic manuscript of theGreat Commentary and Paraphrase on thePosterior Analytics of Aristotle by Aver¬roës, copied In Maghrebi script by ananonymous 13th century scribe. Themanuscript is now in the State Library,West Berlin.

IBN Rushd (1126-1198) and Müsa IbnMaymün( 1135-1204), more commonlyknown in the West as Averroës and

Maimonides, dominated the twelfth cen¬

tury by the power of their thought, the vol¬ume and the variety of their writings, theirintellectual commitment to the service of

their respective communities and, not least,their wide influence in the Western

world.

Both were born in Córdoba, the brilliant

capital of what was then Muslim Andalusia,into families of jurists (of qâdïs, for theMuslim Averroës, of rabbis, for the Jewish

Maimonides). Both lived for a time inMorocco Averroës at Marrakesh (wherehe died in 1198), undcrthe patronage of theAlmohad ruler Abü Ya'qüb (1163-1184)and of his successor Ya'qüb al-Mansür(1 184-1 199), and Maimonides at Fez, wherehe took refuge in 1160. In 1165 Maimonideswas obliged to seek refuge again, this timein Cairo, where he became head of the Jew¬

ish community and physician to al-Fâdil,vizier of the Sultan Saladin, and where he

died in 1204, just six years after Averroës.To be born into a family of magistrates

whose task it was to apply the standards ofreligious law within a society totally subjectto the dogmas of revealed religions, to beoneself a judge or doctor of religious lawand yet at the same time to devote one'senergies to the secular sciences groupedtogether under the name of philosophythis was the mark of a certain society and acertain age. Confrontation between therevealed religions and the Greek philosophi¬cal tradition went back to Philo of Alex¬

andria and the Fathers of the Church. In the

Islamic context, it became more intense

from the third century of the Hegira (ninthcentury AD). Maimonides claimed intellec¬tual kinship with the Muslim philosopheral-Fârâbî (878-950) and held the philos¬opher-scientist Ibn SInâ (Avicenna, 980-1037) in great respect, whilst expressingsome reservations on his teachings. He alsoacknowledged his debt to Averroës who,with his critical re-examination of four cen¬

turies of Arab Muslim research, endowed

the twelfth century with the most faithfulexpression of Aristotelian philosophy.

It is in this historical context that the work

of these two mediators should be consid¬

ered. I call them "mediators" because theydid much to reconcile rational philosophywith revealed religion and also because they

created a meta-theological language whichmade possible enduring communicationbetween the three great religious commu¬nities stemming from the same initial phe¬nomenon of revelation yet irremediablyopposed and divided by mutually exclusivetheological systems.

Even today, Christians and Jews arereluctant to admit an intellectual and

cultural debt to classical Arab Islamic

thought. Certain Jewish thinkers take thisreluctance so far as failing to mention that alarge number of Maimonides' works wereconceived and written in Arabic. Some

biographers maintain that Maimonides mayeven have been converted to Islam; even ifsuch a conversion was forced, it throws

some light on the possibilities of culturalcommunication and the differences of rites

and dogma between the religious commu¬nities of the Middle Ages.

At all events, it is important to stress thatthe works of these two sages are concernedboth with philosophy and religion. In exam¬ining Aristotle's rationalism in depth in hisclosely-argued commentaries, Averroëscreated a new intellectual climate which

Maimonides, for the Jews, and St. Thomas

Aquinas, for the Catholics, took advantageof to elaborate theological theories whichare not wholly outdated even today.

To the Neoplatonism of the "oriental"philosophers, the dialectical weakness ofthe Ash'arite school'" and the simplistic,legalistic dogmatism of the jurists, Aver¬roës opposed the demonstrative (Analyti¬cal) method, dialectical (Topical) reasoningand persuasive (Rhetorical) argumenta¬tion, the categories of logic (Organon)which reflect Aristotle's philosophical prac¬tice and approach. In this attempt at therationalization of knowledge Averroës doesnot seem to have been aware of the contri¬

bution of the Mu'tazilites'2'. The teachingsof this important Islamic school, which, asearly as the second to the fourth century ofthe Hegira (eighth to tenth century AD),did so much to restore confidence in

rationalism, did not spread to the MuslimWest (Andalusia, the Maghreb) owing tothe opposition of the Malekite jurists'3'. Itwas these same Malekites who succeeded in

obtaining the banishment of Averroës him¬self towards the end of his life.

The political and social position of thejurists (fiiqahäs) was an abiding factor in thehistory of the intellectual activity and

14

Parchment manuscriptpage of the secondpart of Maimonides' Guide of the Per¬plexed, in the Hebrew translation com¬pleted by Samuel ben Tibbon, a Jew fromProvence, in the lifetime of the author.Maimonides, in a letter to his coreligionist,advised him on the best way to translate.This manuscript ¡s earlier than 1356 AD,the date when it is known that the manu¬

script was used as security for a loan(perhaps in the Spanish town of Huesca).The title of the work here stands out

against a floral background, with an ani¬mal motif on the lower part of the page.

religious thought of the Muslim West.Strong ideological pressure had everywhereestablished the teachings of the Malekiteschool as the exclusive expression of Islam.With the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba(1031), the break-up of Muslim Spain intopetty kingdoms and the growing pressure ofthe Christian reconquest, the Reconquista,Islam fostered an ideology of combat(jihäd) so as to mobilize its forces; this gaveadded importance to the role of the juristsand, even more, of the popular preachers.Thus, rather than deplore the fanaticismof the Almoravids and the Almohads, thehistorian would do better to examine the

social and ideological context of intellectualactivity in the Muslim West.

The difficulties Averroës encountered

and the conversion of Maimonides,

whether feigned or sincere, are indicative ofthe general climate of the time and also,going beyond the specific situation inAndalusia, of the tension between the

"rational" or "intrusive" sciences ('aqliyya-dakhïla) and the "religious" or "traditional"sciences (dûnïyya-naqlïyya) throughoutIslam. The struggle between the Mu'taz¬ilites and the Hanbalites14' in Baghdad in thethird century of the Hegira/ninth centuryAD reflected both a socio-cultural split anda philosophical difference regarding thefaculties, the paths and the seats ofknowledge.

Ghazâlï'5» (1058-1111 AD) had added aspeculative dimension to the argumentwhich, nearly a century later, captured theattention of Averroës. In his lhyâ 'Ulumal-din ("The Revival of the Religious Sci¬ences"), Ghazâlï inveighed against the stul¬tifying literalism of the jurists, the gnosticconstructs of the esotericists (al-Bätiniyya)and the heretical deviations of the philos¬ophers (falâsifa) all this in the name of aspiritual religion open to rational knowl¬edge but nevertheless with the strict limita¬tion that the body of revealed knowledgewas not susceptible to critical investiga¬tion.

Averroës chose to contest the views of

Ghazâlï as a means of furthering philosophi¬cally (today we would say scientifically) thecrucial debate on the relationship betweenphilosophy and religion. In his Faslal-maqâl fïmâ bayn al sharVa wal-hikmamin alittisäl ("Decisive Treatise on the Har¬mony of Religion and Philosophy") Aver¬roës replied to Ghazâlî's Faysal al-tafriqa

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Page from a paper manuscript of Mai¬monides' Mishne Torah ("The Torah Re¬viewed"), at the bottom of which can beread this phrase In his own hand: "Faircopy of my book made by myself, Moses,son of Rabbi Maymün blessed be thememory of this just man." This is the old¬est known signature of Maimonides. TheMishne Torah, Maimonides' major rabbi¬nical work, is a vast and detailed codifica¬tion, with an Aristotelian philosophicalbase, of all the laws and rules characteriz¬ing post-Biblical Judaism. It is the onlyone of his master works that he wrote in

Hebrew.

15

"In examining Aristotle's rationalism indepth in his closely-argued commentar¬ies, Averroës created a new intellectualclimate which Maimonides, for the Jews,

and St. Thomas Aquinas, for the Catholics,took advantage of to elaborate their theo¬logical theories" (M. Arkoun). Mediator inthe fullest sense of the word, Ibn Rushd

made possible the attempt to reconcilerational philosophy and revealed faithwhich would characterize all Western

scholasticism, in particular that of St. Tho¬mas Aquinas. Thus he exerted a consider¬able influence on European philosophy ofthe Middle Ages and succeeding centur¬ies, even though the novelty and audacityof his ideas often shocked the defenders

of Christian, as well as Islamic, tradition.

Below, A vermes is depicted at right in thisdetail of The Triumph of St. ThomasAquinas, fresco by the 15th century Italianpainter Andrea de Firenze, in the "SpanishChapel" of the Church of Santa MariaNovella, Florence. Part of this portrait ofthe philosopher is reproduced on the frontcover of this issue.

^ bayn al-islâm wal zandaqa ("DistinctionBetween Islam and Impiety"); and in Taha¬fut al-tahäfut ("The Incoherence of theIncoherence") he also refuted another workof Ghazâlï entitled Tahâfut àlfalâsifa ("TheIncoherence of the Philosophers"). In moregeneral terms he exposed the weaknesses ofthe methodology of the theologians (theMutakalliiiu'tn) in his Kashf 'an manâhijal-adilla ("Examination of the Methods ofProof Concerning the Doctrines ofReligion"), as well as writing an importanttreatise on the basic sources of law (Bidäyatal-Mujtahid).

All these works go to show how deeplyAverroës wanted to remain a Muslim

thinker and, with all his philosophical cul¬ture (the scientific knowledge of his age), toface up intellectually to all the problemsarising from the confrontation between theQur'anic revelation and the strictest philo¬sophical standpoint. Latin commentators,and later the French writer Ernest Renan,

distorted Averroës' thought by thinking ofhim only in terms of his commentaries onAristotle. For their part, Muslims so dis¬trusted him as a philosopher that they for¬got that he was also a Muslim thinker.

Maimonides, for the Jews, and St.

Thomas Aquinas, for the Christians (theCatholic Church of pre-Reformation days),adopted Averroës' intellectual scheme for

the purposes of their own communities,using the same philosophical approach, thesame conceptual guidelines and methodol¬ogy to systematize the received corpus ofrevealed knowledge of their different tradi¬tions. For all three revealed religions thegreat problem remained the harmonizationof faith and reason, the reconciliation of

religious law and the essential tenets or uni¬versal of religion with Aristotle's logicalprocesses and categories. The Torah,Canon Law and the Shari'a, which expressGod's commandments as interpreted bylearned experts in the Law trained in theexegesis of the Word of God, retain theirsupremacy. The difficulties that arise arenot concerned with the norms thus deduced

from the revealed word, but with the dogmaon which the Law itself is based. Three

essential points are at the heart of the con¬frontation with philosophy: the creation ofthe world, causality, and the destiny of thesoul (immortality and the body/soulduality).

This is not the place to enter into thesubtle discussions of these questions, whichmodern science has shifted towards new

fields of research; of greater interest, itseems to me, is to examine to what extent

Averroës and Maimonides were, and

remain today, mediators between threecommunities and three historic destinies.

Thought and culture as expressed in Ara¬bic reached full flower in the sixth centuryof the Hegira/twelfth century AD thanks tothe great works written in the East and theMuslim West from the second century ofthe Hegira/eighth century AD onwards.The intellectual and scientific supremacy ofthe Arab world of that time is confirmed bythe many translations into Hebrew andLatin of studies on philosophy, medicineand the natural sciences written in Arabic

by authors not all of whom were Muslims.Jews and Christians who lived in an Arab

cultural setting thought and wrote in Ara¬bic, thus enriching a body of knowledge anda range of intellectual activity that wentbeyond the limits set by the creeds of eachof the three communities. Maimonides

ranks among the greatest Jewish thinkerswho conceived and wrote their works in

Arabic in that area of intellectual and

cultural convergence of which philosophy,as understood and practised in the MiddleAges, was largely representative.

His works were, however, very soontranslated into Hebrew. As early as 1204AD, his Guide of the Perplexed had beentranslated by Samuel ibn Tibbon, and thisled the Jews to forget the cultural values andintellectual climate in which Maimonides

had lived, worked and written. Today, theideological tensions between Arabs andIsraelis is such that many Jews are unwillingto take into account the great thinker's deeplinks with the corpus of learned writing inArabic. Yet it was precisely the existence ofthese links that made even more preciousMaimonides' historic role as a mediator.

The same could be said of St. Thomas

Aquinas, even though he wrote all hisworks in Latin. His intellectual debt to

Averroës in particular marks him out also asa leading light of a world of thought andhuman existence based on an axiologicalsystem common to that medieval intellec¬tual milieu that I have elsewhere^6' referred

to as the "Societies of the Book". I call

"Societies of the Book" all those commu¬

nities whose existence, order and culture

are based on the phenomenon of Revela¬tion (a unique living God, revealing himselfto men at a moment in history so as tocommunicate to them his commandments

which then become the source of the Law)and on a philosophical culture whichfavours the search for a rational order of

things. These two great lines of approachRevelation and scientific and philosophicalrationality imposed an educative tensionon all medieval thought, whatever its par¬ticular religious attachment, in which attimes religion and the "orthodox" tradition,at times reason, held sway. The whole ofmedieval thought bore the mark of thisduality. The question remained: how couldrevealed knowledge be reconciled andbrought into harmony with the necessaryconstraints of reason?

Both Averroës and Maimonides suc¬

ceeded in achieving a real, personally satis¬fying balance which they attempted toexpress in elaborately thought out systemsin which they integrated rational knowledge(philosophy) and religious Law, the Shari'awith all its developments and the Torah andthe whole rabbinical tradition Mai-

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monides' Mishne Torah ("The TorahReviewed"), was a systematization of theoral Law, Mishna, and the Talmud.

Rationalist commentators on the two

thinkers have attempted to claim them bothas supporters of "pure" reason and a phil¬osophy which, if not entirely secular, was atleast distinct from religious ideas.However, the functions they fulfilled asjudges in their respective religious commu¬nities have to be disregarded and their writ¬ings concerning the "religious sciences" oftheir time have to be ignored, if they are tobe considered as "philosophers in dis¬guise".

Like all the sages of his time, Maimonideshad a lofty view of his responsibility as anintellectual capable of explaining to thefaithful the teachings of religious Law whilsttaking into account the fact that men hadnot all attained the same level of learning.In Book III of The Guide of the Perplexed,with the aid of a rich parable, he explainsclearly the various stages and levels in anytrue search for God. I quote this entire pas-

Another page from a parchment manu¬script of Samuel ben Tibbon's Hebrewtranslation of the Guide of the Perplexed. Itwas copied in Barcelona in 1348 AD byLevi ben Ishaq Fijo Caro (son of Caro), ofSalamanca, for the physician R. MenahemBesalel, and illuminated shortly after¬wards in the Catalan Gothic style, prob¬ably by a Christian artist. The miniatureshows an astronomer with an astrolabe in

his hands speaking to his pupils. Accord¬ing to one specialist, it depicts Aristotleexplaining the creation of the world.

sage, since it has not been contradicted byMuslim thinkers and because it affords an

example of that climate of intellectual, spiri¬tual and cultural convergence in which thebrightest Jewish, Christian and Muslimminds were active under the double im¬

pulsion of Revelation and a philosophicalculture.

"I will begin the subject of this chapterwith a simile. A king is in his palace, and allhis subjects are partly in the country, and

CONTINUED PAGE 20

17

MAIMONIDES

Maimonides tells how he spends his workingday at Cairo

I live at Fostat whereas the king resides inCairo; the two towns are two sabbatical

days apart [each equivalent to a league]. Myobligations towards the king are very timeconsuming. I must pay him a visit eachmorning; when he is not well, or if his chil¬dren and his wives fall ill, I dare not nor¬

mally go far from Cairo, being constrainedto stay at the palace almost all day. It is alsousual for me to have to look after one or

another of his officials. Thus, I go to Cairoevery day at dawn and do not return toFostat, even if something unexpected doesnot arise which forces me to stay in Cairo,until the early hours of the afternoon atbest, racked by hunger.

I find the waiting rooms of my home fullof people: Jews and Gentiles, dignitariesand ordinary people, judges and officials,friends and enemies, a whole multitude who

are impatiently waiting for me. I get downfrom my mount, wash my hands and go intothe antechamber, praying to God that theywill not be impatient while I quickly take alight refreshment: the sole meal worthy ofthe name which I have throughout the day.Then I receive them, I write prescriptionsand advise them on the treatment corre¬

sponding to their ailments, and the peopledo not cease coming in and going out of thehouse until dusk, indeed until two hours

after nightfall, I swear on the Law, and itmay be that I have eaten or drunk nothing.When it is pitch dark, I am so weary that I goto bed without even having been able to saygoodnight.

Only on Saturdays can I speak in privatewith a Jew, or meditate alone. Then, the

whole community or at least a substantialnumber of its members, gathers in my houseafter the morning religious service; so Iadvise them on the best thing to do thefollowing week, and we meditate togetherfor a while until noon, the hour at which

they leave. Some of them come back [in theafternoon] to study with me until the eve¬ning prayer. Thus I pass my days.

Letter to Samuel ben Tibbon, September 1199

Photo © Diodoro Urquía, Salduero, Soria, Spain

Man is naturally a social beingIt has already been fully explained that

man is naturally a social being, that by vir¬tue of his nature he seeks to form commu¬

nities; man is therefore different from other

living beings that are not compelled to com¬bine into communities. He is, as you know,the highest form in the creation, and hetherefore includes the largest number ofconstituent elements; this is the reason whythe human race contains such a great varietyof individuals, that we cannot discover two

persons exactly alike in any moral quality,or in external appearance. The cause of thisis the variety in man's temperament . . . Sucha variety among the individuals of a classdoes not exist in any other class of livingbeings ; for the variety in any other species is.limited; only man forms an exception; twopersons may be so different from each otherin every respect that they appear to belongto two different classes. ... This great vari¬ety and the necessity of social life are essen¬tial elements in man's nature. But the well-

being of society demands that there shouldbe a leader able to regulate the actions ofman.

The Guide for the Perplexed, translated byM. Friedländer, Dover Publications, New York,

1956, Part II, Chapter XL, pp. 232-3

Ignorance is the cause of all evilsAll the great evils which men cause to

each other because of certain intentions,

desires, opinions, or religious principles,are likewise due to non-existence, because

they originate in ignorance, which isabsence of wisdom. ... In the same manner

various classes of men, each man in propor¬tion to his ignorance, bring great evils uponthemselves and upon other individual mem¬bers of the species. If men possessedwisdom ... they would not cause any injuryto themselves or to others.

The Guidefor the Perplexed, idem, Part III,Chapter XL, p. 267

Intellectual perfection is the highest level oftrue human perfection

The ancient and the modern philosophershave shown that man can acquire four kindsof perfection. The first kind, the lowest, inthe acquisition of which people spend theirdays, is perfection as regards property; thepossession of money, garments, furniture,servants, land and the like; ... The second

kind is more closely related to man's bodythan the first. It includes the perfection ofthe shape, constitution and form of man'sbody; ... The third kind of perfection ismore closely connected with man himselfthan the second perfection. It includesmoral perfection, the highest degree ofexcellency in man's character. ... Thefourth kind of perfection is the true perfec¬tion of man; the possession of the highestintellectual faculties ... With this perfectionman has obtained his final object; it giveshim true human perfection; it remains tohim alone; it gives him immortality, and onits account he is called man.

The Guide for the Perplexed, idem, Part III,Chapter LIV, pp; 394-5

The difficulties encountered in writing "TheCommentary on the Mishna"

I have finished this work in accordance

with what I promised [when I began it],praying fervently to the Ail-Powerful thathe should preserve me from error. But ifanyone were to discover some error in thiscommentary or to know of some betterexplanation, I will readily accept them, andmy only excuse will be that I have done mybest to apply myself much more than some¬one who writes expecting a reward or who ismoved by self-interest. I have worked invery difficult conditions, as heaven desiredthat I live in exile and wandering from placeto place; thus I have been obliged to do thiswork while I was travelling on land or sea.Suffice it to recall that during all this periodother tasks also occupied my time, but Iprefer the former explanation, in order tostimulate those who wish to criticize or glossover this commentary, and supply at thesame time [the reason] for the long processof compiling this work. I, Moses ben May¬mün, began this work when I was twenty-three years old, and I have finished it inEgypt at the age of thirty-three, in the year1479 of the Seleucid era (1168 AD).

The Commentary on the Mishna

18

A miniature

anthology

On the condition of women in medievalIslamic society

And we say that women, in so far as theyare of one kind with men, necessarily sharein the end of man. They will differ only inless or more ... If the nature of men and

women is of one kind, and the [nature] thatis of one kind [turns] to only one activity inthe city, then it is evident that the women inthis city will practice the [same] activities asthe men ... Similarly, too, since somewomen are formed with eminence and a

praiseworthy disposition, it is not imposs¬ible that there be philosophers and rulersamong them. . . . The competence of womenis unknown, however, in these cities since

they are only taken [in them] for procrea¬tion and hence are placed at the service oftheir husbands and confined to procreation,upbringing, and suckling. Since women inthese cities are not prepared with respect toany of the human virtues, they frequentlyresemble plants in these cities. Their being aburden upon the men [in these cities] is oneof the causes of the poverty of these cities.This is because they are to be found there indouble the number of men, while not

understanding through [their] upbringingany of the necessary actions except for thefew actions like the art of spinning andweaving that they undertake mostly at atime when they have need of them to makeup for their lack of spending [power].

Averroës on Plato's "Republic", translatedby Ralph Lerner © Cornell University Press,

New York, 1974. The First Treatise, pp. 57-9

Necessity for social cohesionNow there is no greater evil in the gov¬

ernance of the city than that governancewhich converts a single city into many cities,just as there is no greater good in cities thanthat which joins them together and makesthem one. This being so, it is clear thatcommunity in advantages and damages willlead them to be bound to the city andbefriend it. ... That is why it is said thatpeople's being near other people is advan¬tageous. In general, there is nothing moreproductive of evil and confusion to the citythan its citizens saying of some particularthing: "This is mine and this is not mine."

Averroës on Plato's "Republic", idemThe First Treatise, p. 64

Photo © Scala, Florence

The psychology of sightSight has the property of capturing the col¬ours of material reality, and so it must adaptitself adequately to matter. Thanks to thisadequation, it can be abstracted by cogita¬tion and understanding. ... The sense ofsight [also] receives the forms of objects inthe following manner: first, the air receivesthe [sensible] forms by means of light, con¬ducting them straight to the tissue; then, thecommon sense receives the forms of the

objects. The tissue contains the vitreoushumour, which resembles a mirror the

nature of which is between air and water,

thanks to which it can capture the imagefrom the air, which functions [also] as amirror, and transmits it to the aqueoushumour which, through its very condition,can communicate with the two natures. ...

From this the common sense receives the

forms which it transmits to the imaginativefaculty where their reception, totallydematerialized, takes place. And so it issaid that the received form shows three

degrees: the first is the sensible [in the eye] ,the second is dematerialized in the common

sense, and the third is immaterial in the

imaginative faculty. From these degrees,one then passes to others, more elevatedand more noble [in the memory and in theunderstanding].

Book of the General Principles of Medicine

The prime mover is devoid of movement andeternal

If a prime mover exists, which precedesall movements, whether temporally oressentially, then that movement will takeplace either in a generable and corruptiblemoving body, or in an eternal moving body.Thus [Aristotle] says that if it were a gener¬able moving body, it would not be the primemover, either by nature or temporally,because it cannot be asserted that the primemover is a form generated in a movingbody.

Treatise on Physics

The most elevated knowledge alone bringshappiness

Just as hunger and thirst are an emptyingof the body and an emptiness that befalls it,so are ignorance and absence of knowledgean emptying of the soul and an emptinessfor it. This being so, there are two peoplewho are filled i.e., he who takes food and

he who acquires knowledge. But the truefullness is only through the thing that hasthe noblest existence. ... Now if, in general,fullness in what one apprehends is pleasant,whatever [he apprehends of what] is essen¬tially nobler and [participates] more in truthand is more enduring, is necessarily a morechoiceworthy pleasure. Such is the case ofthe pleasure of the intellect relative to theother pleasures.

Averroës on Plato's "Republic", idemThe Third Treatise, pp. 146-7

The virtues of the use of olive oilWhen it is derived from ripe and healthy

olives and if its properties have not beenadulterated in an artificial manner, the oil

can be assimilated [perfectly] by the humanorganism. ... Foodstuffs seasoned with theoil are nourishing, so long as the oil is freshand not very acidic. ... Generally, the entiresubstance of the oil agrees with man, and soat home [in al-Andalus] meat is seasonedonly with this oil, because it is the best wayto prepare it, while cooking it slowly. This ishow it is done: place the meat in a casseroleinto which some oil has been poured, thenadd water and heat it on a low flame, with¬

out allowing it to boil.

Book of the General Principles of Medicine

The base condition of the tyrantThis is necessarily the situation of the

tyrant: he is detained among a class such asthis, filled with hunger and fear. Moreover,he has great hunger [within] himself andcannot rule himself. Hence he cannot gowherever he wishes nor look at whatever he

wishes. ... One of the worst dispositions ofsuch an individual is that he is unable to

restrain and overcome himself, yet heattempts to lead other people at some level.. . . The tyrant is the most enslaved of peopleand has no device by which to put an end tohis desires, but rather is forever in continual

sorrow and mourning. The soul of one whois of this description is an impoverishedsoul; hence he is envious, violent and

friendless. ... Without any doubt, he is ofnecessity troubled and unlucky.

Averroës on Plato's "Republic", idemThe Third Treatise, pp. 142-3

19

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

p. partly abroad. Of the former, some havetheir backs turned towards the king's pal¬ace, and their faces in another direction;

and some are desirous and zealous to go tothe palace, seeking 'to inquire in his tem¬ple', and to minister before him, but havenot yet seen even the face of the wall of thehouse. Of those that desire to go to thepalace, some reach it , and go round about insearch of the entrance gate; others havepassed through the gate, and walk about inthe ante-chamber; and others have suc¬

ceeded in entering into the inner part of thepalace, and being in the same room with theking in the royal palace. But even the latterdo not immediately on entering the palacesee the king, or speak to him; for, afterhaving entered the inner part of the palace,another effort is required before they canstand before the king at a distance or closeby hear his words or speak to him. I willnow explain the simile which I have made.The people who are abroad are all thosethat have no religion, neither one based onspeculation nor one received by tradition.Such are the extreme Turks that wander

about in the north, the Kushites who live in

the south, and those in our country who arelike these. I consider these as irrational

beings and not as human beings; they arebelow mankind, but above monkeys, sincethey have the form and shape of man, and amental faculty above that of the monkey.

"Those who are in the country, but have

their backs turned towards the king's pal¬ace, are those who possess religion, belief,and thought, but happen to hold false doc¬trines, which they either adopted in con¬sequence of great mistakes made in theirown speculations, or received from otherswho misled them. Because of these doc¬

trines they recede more and more from theroyal palace the more they seem to proceed.These are worse than the first class, and

under certain circumstances it may becomenecessary to slay them, and to extirpatetheir doctrines, in order that others shouldnot be misled.

"Those who desire to arrive at the palace,and to enter it, but have never yet seen it,are the mass of religious people; the multi¬tude that observe the divine command¬

ments, but are ignorant. Those who arriveat the palace, but go round about it, arethose who devote themselves exclusively tothe study of the practical law; they believetraditionally in true principles of faith, andlearn the practical worship of God, but arenot trained in philosophical treatment ofthe principles of the Law," and do notendeavour to establish the truth of their

faith by proof. Those who undertake toinvestigate the principles of religion, havecome into the ante-chamber; and there is nodoubt that these can also be divided into

different grades. But those who have suc¬ceeded in finding a proof for everything thatcan be proved, who have a true knowledgeof God, so far as a true knowledge can beattained, and are near the truth, wherever

an approach to the truth is possible, theyhave reached the goal, and are in the palacein which the king lives.

"My son, so long as you are engaged instudying the Mathematical Sciences andLogic, you belong to those who go roundabout the palace in search of the gate. Thusour Sages figuratively use the phrase: 'Ben-zoma is still outside'. When you understandPhysics, you have entered the hall; andwhen, after completing the study of NaturalPhilosophy, you master Metaphysics, youhave entered the innermost court, and are

with the king in the same palace. You haveattained the degree of the wise men, whoinclude men of different grades of perfec¬tion." (The Guide of the Perplexed, III,51)

Averroës was even more insistent than

Maimonides on the importance of notrevealing "philosophical interpretations tothose who are not able to comprehendthem". This was not because he had an aris¬

tocratic or elitist attitude towards philos¬ophy or because he wanted to protect hisreputation as a good Muslim; the fact is thathe shared with other experts of the LawGhazâlï held the same view with regard toKaläm (Muslim scholastic theology) thespecifically religious conviction that greatcaution should be exercised by teachers soas not "to lead the faithful away from thedivine Law", following in this the exampleof "the divine legislator [who] cares for thewell-being of the soul as a doctor cares forthe health of the body".

It is true that Maimonides was much bet¬

ter received and respected within his com¬munity than Averroës ever was by the Mus¬lims. This is no doubt due to the fact that

Maimonides compiled "guides" to theorthodox faith to help the faithful avoidperdition and the loss of eternal salvation.Thus, in his "Commentary on the Mishna",he summarized the thirteen articles of faith

which every Jew must accept and whichhave been used, in verse form, since the

fourteenth century in the daily ritual ofSephardic communities. Religious commu¬nities, especially when they are minorities,need the cohesion provided by beliefs andrituals that are valid for all and act as a

"safety net" for believers. Maimonides waswell aware of this need, whereas it was notso vital a matter of concern for Averroës

who was a member of a broader and more

dominant Umma (community), especiallyduring the time of the Almohads.

At all events, the century of Averroësand Maimonides, succeeded shortly by thatof St. Thomas Aquinas, is worthy of studywith a view to a reassessment of medieval

thought which goes beyond the claims ofsupremacy of militant theologies or a his¬tory of philosophy deprived of its medievaldimension, such as the secularized, positiv¬ist, anti-clerical West has long imposed.

In university courses as conceived andfollowed in the West, Arab philosophy isgenerally left to departments of Orientalstudies which themselves are considered of

only marginal importance within the uni¬versities. If this state of affairs is to be rec¬

tified, a scientific revision must be under¬

taken of the overall history of the culturalclimate of the Mediterranean during theMiddle Ages, involving philosophy, theol¬ogy and the history of the sciences. This isthe lesson that emerges from the works ofthe two great mediators whom I have all toobriefly presented here.

1. The Ash'arite school: Followers of the Muslim theo¬

logian al-Ash'ari (873-935 AD) who reconciled a dialec¬tic method with orthodox beliefs to create a new form of

scholasticism in Islam. Editor.

2. The Mu'tazilites: A Muslim philosophical schoolfounded in the eighth century AD emphasizing reason inreligious interpretation, free will in opposition to pre¬destination and the unity and justice of Allah. Editor.3. The Malekites: One of the four Sunni schools of law

founded in the eighth century AD. The Malekites pre¬ferred traditional opinions and analogical reasoning to astrict reliance on Iladïth (traditions concerning theProphet's life and utterances) as a basis for legal judge¬ment. Editor.

4. The Hanbalites: School of religious law relying solelyon a literal reading of the Our'an and Iladïth in for¬mulating legal decisions. Editor.5. Part of the November 1986 issue of the Unesco Cou¬

rier will be devoted to this great Islamic thinker.6. Pour une critique de la raison islamique, Maison-ncuvc-Larosc, 1984, and Lectures du Coran, 1982.

MOHAMMED ARKOUN, born in Algeria, is pro¬fessor ol the history of Islamic thought at the NewSorbonne, University of Paris III, and director ofthe University's Institute of Arabic and IslamicStudies. He has previously taught at the Univer¬sity of Lyon, the University of California at LosAngeles, the Catholic University of Louvain, atPrinceton, and at the Pontifical Institute ofArabic

Studies, Rome. He has taught and lectured inmany academic and cultural centres around theworld. Among his many publications are La pen¬sée arabe, ("Arab Thought", 1979), l'Islam,religion et société, ("Islam, Religion andSociety", 1981), Lectures du Coran, ("Readingsfrom the Qur'an", 1982) and Essais sur la pen¬sée islamique ("Essays on Islamic Thought",1984).

20

A voice that speaksacross the centuries

by Shalom Rosenberg

EIGHT hundred and fifty years afterhis birth, Maimonides is still in

some ways an enigmatic figure, andresearch into his writings is a detective storythat passionately divides scholars and scien¬tists.

There are various reasons for this, some

of them subjective. In the Jewish tradition,for example, Maimonides has become a"Rorschach ink blot" onto which peopleproject their ideals, and sometimesthough very seldom their enmity.

On the one hand, Maimonides' profoundand encyclopaedic knowledge, the depthand scope of his writings, have made him acentral authority for experts in many dif¬ferent fields. On the other hand, his per¬sonal integrity and dedication, his commit¬ment to the future of his people, have givenhim a great significance to large numbers ofmen and women, not only as a focus ofidentification but as a caring teacher. Hehas certainly become, as the name of hismain philosophical work implies, the"Guide", but not only of the perplexed.Indeed, everyone who has studied his workshas interpreted them in his own image andaccording to his own level of understanding.

This subjective picture is, however, onlya partial representation of the whole truth.Great controversy, between even the mostdispassionate modern scholars, is caused bythe fact that Maimonides wrote in a specialway. He saw himself continuing the Biblicaland Talmudic tradition of writing on twolevels. The Bible and the Talmud are,

according to him, books written for themasses, yet they have an inner level thatspeaks to the philosophers and those whohave advanced beyond the masses.

The principal idea characterizing Mai¬monides' interpretation of the Scriptures isthat the texts are relevant to all people at alltimes. His Biblical-philosophical exegesistook four variables into consideration.

First, the linguistic component, whereby

Detail of a miniature from a manuscriptof Maimonides' Mishne Torah, copied inPortugal in 1472, today preserved in theHebrew University of Jerusalem. Mai¬monides is represented clutching a roll ofparchment, possibly the Mishne Torahitself.

revelation is transmitted through a lan¬guage, the semantic and syntactic charac¬teristics of which cannot be ignored.

Second, the historical perspective, bywhich Biblical issues and stories can only beunderstood in the light of their particularhistorical situations; taking into account,for example, the nature of a society thatpractises idolatry, or one that is not scien¬tifically advanced.

Philosophy may therefore be taught usingone of two methods: the Greek way, intechnical language and by constructing sys¬tems that can only be understood after alengthy initiation; or the Hebrew way, byencoding philosophy in a symbolic text andtransmitting the key of interpretation fromteacher to disciple.

The third variable in Maimonides' inter¬

pretation of the Scriptures is the psychologi¬cal dimension prophecy and revelationtake place through the mediation of humanbeings. Anthropological and psychologicalcharacteristics are reflected in the very con¬tent of revelation.

A fourth variable, Sod (secret), is the useof esotericism as a teaching aid. The sacredtexts must take into consideration the exis- ^

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tence of many people who are incapable ofattaining philosophical perfection andwhose exposure to metaphysical truths maybe dangerous for them and for society.

Maimonides applied this method to hisown writings. In the introduction to hismajor work, The Guide of the Perplexed, hedeliberately warns the reader that esotericviews are concealed in his book in such a

way that only those who study the wholetext will be able to find them. Hesees this as

the inner meaning of the Sage's saying:"...apples of gold in settings of silver"(Proverbs, chapter XXV, verse 11). The"silver" structure of the Guide was imme¬

diately obvious and admired, but the natureof the inner "golden" content is still beingdebated.

As a result of its author's method, Mai¬

monides' book has an impressive architec¬tonic structure which connects all its parts.One constantly finds new secret doors lead¬ing to an unmapped labyrinth of cross-refer¬ences and varied hints, a guide to the hiddenphilosophical treasure sometimes dif¬ferent treasures for different readers.

Maimonides was a great philosopher. Tofully understand his system the readerwould be obliged to abandon his contempo¬rary world-view and adopt the medievalscientific and philosophic mentality. It is

important to note, however, that his teach¬ings nevertheless still have relevance today.They are undoubtedly controversial; Mai¬monides never intended to be "popular". Ameaningful presentation of Maimonideanthought would entail translating more of hisideas into our modern vocabulary.

In an attempt to summarize his ideals ofhuman behaviour, I would present them asa scale of four values which need to be

attained sequentially: Society, Self-realiz¬ation, Transcendence and Politics. Such a

sequence will allow better understanding ofeach stage.

Further clarification can also be achieved

by using a theatrical analogy. We can con¬sider a play from three different angles. Itcan be understood as the realization of the

instructions of the script; or, from the stand¬point of the director, as the realization of acertain situation on the stage; or as psycho-drama, wherein the play's central functionlies in the influence it has on the actors. In

the same way, ethics can be understoodeither as deontological, as the fulfilment ofthe ethical categorical imperatives; or asutilitarian, fulfilling a social function; or as ameans of self-transformation.

Society. The first condition of human

development is the existence of a healthysociety that assures the basic freedoms of

the individual. Maimonides thought thathuman beings are, as Aristotle wrote,"social by nature". But people are individ¬uals, distinct and different from one

another. This is a divine blessing but also animminent danger. The political structure isthe instrument through which society gov¬erns itself and provides a possibility for theindividual to develop.

Maimonides severely criticized theauthoritarian and fanatical regimes of histime, and yearned for a return to the ancientBiblical and Greek systems in which truereligion, science and philosophy couldflourish. His own experiences of wander¬ings and persecution bear witness to his sin¬cerity.

This is the first version of ethics: social

ethics, our duties in society.Self-realization. Society is not an end in

itself. There is no such entity as a "people-by-itself". A people, a nation, is above all aconstruction in which the real elements are

the individuals. Society has to enable thedevelopment and full self-realization ofeach of its members. However, Mai¬

monides did not believe that this self-

realization involves an arbitrary choice. A"human essence" exists, and people have tofind it. The central imperative is "Grow!",and society has to make this possible.

22

Here we find Maimonides' version of eth¬

ics as self-transformation, the idea of indi¬vidual ethics moulded on the model of the

psychodrama. Ethics must enable people togrow, to develop all their faculties,especially their intellectual faculties. Onlythen can the individual attain the central

human aim, the knowledge of truth. Rea¬son is the divine image that resides in everyone of us.

The ideas presented up to this point canbe illustrated with Maimonides' expositionof the Paradise story. The Biblical storyseems to present a fools' paradise in whichsuffering came to the world when Adam atethe fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. This,however, is an incorrect interpretation. TheParadise story is an archetypical representa¬tion of the human condition. True knowl¬

edge and, as we shall see later, the pos¬sibility of transcending the human conditionare represented by the Tree of Life. Theknowledge of the Tree of Knowledge is notthe knowledge of true and false , but of goodand evil.

Without going too deeply into theramifications of Maimonides' explanation,it is clear that two types of knowledge arepresented here: objective, rational knowl¬edge as opposed to subjectively distortedsystems constructed by rampant, uncon¬trolled imagination. The Paradise story isnot set in the outside world, and in historicaltime, but in our own souls. A continuous

struggle takes place between Adam and theserpent the representation of irrationalforces in man. As Goya masterfully por¬trayed it, dreams of reason engendermonsters.

Accordingly, the Messianic age does notmean changes in the laws of nature, butaccording to Maimonides represents theage when people will be cured from theirspiritual blindness which makes them harm¬ful to their fellow men as well as to them¬

selves.

Transcendence. Had Maimonides

remained at this stage in his thought, histeachings would be very similar to those ofother rationalistic systems in the history ofphilosophy. However, he used the philo¬sophical background of his time whichtreated the possibility of conjunction with asupra-human reality, the "Active Intellect"of medieval tradition. The implication ofthis philosophy is that beyond natural dis¬cursive rational activity there is an addi¬tional epistemological category, the intui¬tive way of prophecy, and the ultimatepossibility of conjunction with what tran¬scends common human experience.

We cannot say whether or not Mai¬monides accepted the reality of mystical ex¬perience, and I would instead prefer tospeak of some form of meta-intellectualexperience, modelled on Biblical prophecyand attaining its highest level with Moses.According to the rabbis, Moses died the"death by a kiss". This kiss, as in the alle¬gory of the Song of Songs, is the trueimmortality, the union of the soul with tran¬scendence.

Politics. "In the Ways of the Lord." At thisstage, Maimonides' thought resembles thatof many mystical thinkers, and he mighthave succumbed to the temptation of those

Page from a manuscript of the MishneTorah copied in Cologne (Germany) In1294-1296 AD by Nathan ben Shimon ha-Levi and completed in the same city in1413. The miniatures appear to come fromthe Cambrai region of France or the mid-Rhine and date from the end of the 13th or

the beginning of the 14th century.

Below, portrait of Maimonides (left) withthe Jewish philosopher Isaac Abravanel(1437-1508 AD) in an annotated edition ofThe Guide of the Perplexed published in1904 in Vilna (now Vilnius, LithuanianSSR).

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who achieve perfection and bliss and forgetsociety. However he goes on to close thecircle, with the symbol of Jacob's ladder, bywhich God's envoys go up and down. Wehave seen him so far on his way up, but hespeaks also of a return to society. Theprophet is not only interested in his ownpersonal experience; he has a duty to returnand bring redemption to society. This is notbecause he needs society but because, nowthat he has reached the highest level ofmorality, he must go in the ways of theLord. God had left His own perfect solitudeand, in an act of grace, created the world. Inhis imitation we find the real meaning ofpolitics, and we are able to return to the firststage, that of society. These are the roots ofthe Bible, the message of prophecy, that anew cycle begins at the point when theprophet returns to the people and presentsthem with a deontological system.

Every summary is necessarily a distortionof the whole, and this is no exception.However if something may be added tosoften the sharp edges of misunderstanding,it would be the idea of the absolute respon¬sibility of the elite.

There are pseudo-elites in the same wayas idolatry is a pseudo-religion. ContinuingMaimonides' exegesis of the Paradise story,we could say that stationed in front of theTree of Life there are angels with whirlingswords; and that there are always peoplewho mistake the flash of the sword for the

shine of the Tree itself, as do those who

confuse drugs with mystical experience.There will always be false prophets of whomhumanity should beware.

Intellectuals, scientists and scholars are

not prophets, but according to Maimonidesthey are an elite and they influence thefuture development of the world. The truepolitical, cultural and spiritual leader mustobviously act neither in his own interests,nor as the representative of a single factionor group. He is bound to the general inter¬ests of the community. Maimonides' mes¬sianic ideals were, however, not restricted

to one community. In the "end of days" thewhole world will be free from the curse of

war, and, as the prophet said, the earth willbe as full of understanding as the oceans arefuil of water.

SHALOM ROSENBERG, Israeli researcher, isamember of the teaching staff of the Hebrew Uni¬versity of Jerusalem. He is the author of numer¬ous publications on religious questions and onJewish thought.

23

A ^f^wríp'Q by MA' Sinaceur

reason and tolerance

This statue of Averroës, the work of thebrothers Agapito and Venancio Vallmit-jana, Spanish sculptors of the second halfof the 19th century, stands in an alcove atthe University of Barcelona.

IN reflecting on Averroës, it is not mywish to evoke the man whom Latin

Schoolmen held in boundless admira¬

tion or the researcher whose commentaries

on Aristotle rivalled in power of thought theworks he was analysing. Nor shall I dwellhere on his life as a sober, pious judge or onthe affinity of his approach with thatdeveloped by the great Islamic jurists, anapproach characterized by a spirit of frankself-questioning. Instead I shall concentrateon two ideas, two notions which bring usabruptly face to face with real problems,real questions, eternally posed.

The first of these is the notion of the unityof reason. To know, it is postulated, is toacknowledge participation in universalknowledge. I use the word reason instead ofthe term intellect which Averroës used, true

to the terminology of the philosophers ofAlexandria and Baghdad. To transpose inthis way is not to yield to lack of rigour andprecision; it is simply a refusal to succumbto pettifogging and indecision or to bend theknee to a form of erudition for erudition's

sake.

The unity of reason, then, was whatAverroës propounded, an overriding con¬cept which inspired audacious develop¬ments. For the French philosopher/writerErnest Renan (1823-1892) it was humanthought taken as a whole, "a universal phe¬nomenon stemming from superior powers".Unity of reason encompasses the principleson which we base the demonstration that

takes us a step further, the proof that suc¬ceeds, the experiment which achieves itsend. It is the unity of the psychologicalmake-up of mankind the hardships andvices that engender evil and suffering, andthe faculties that enable us to construct the

city of harmony and peace. It is humanityone and indivisible, living and permanent,as essential to itself as is personal dignity tothe most individualistic of individuals,

which the most intimate, innermost truth

affords to him who recognizes and acknowl¬edges it. Thus he who knows and is, is nomore, as individual, than a splendid speci¬men of the Universal.

The second idea is not unconnected with

the first. Reason cannot destroy faith. Bothexpress the same truth. Now this was anotion that was as bound to displease theSchoolmen of old as it does the ideologistsof today. Two truths, it should be remem¬bered, cannot contradict each other. But, a

word of caution, this is a truth that no singlestatement can exhaust, not inert truths that

one can take hold of and possess. The realAverroës was a practitioner of rational tol¬erance, a tolerance which was neither com¬

plaisant, sceptical nor moralistic:1. Reason should seek neither purposelessconfrontation with nor the destruction of

the faith of those for whom it is a necessity.Among men there are many kinds ofexchanges, undertakings and beliefs. Yetmen can live together quite happily in aworld in which opinions are varied anddiverse. This is because there are opinionsthat merit respect; and to respect implies toexplain and to understand.2. Reason demands that we examine other

cultures in a spirit of understanding andobjectivity: "We accept with joy whatever isin conformity with truth truth, that is,which is the outcome of research; ... that

which is not in conformity with truth weshall point out and excuse..." No matterwhence it comes or where it originates,validity is the only condition knowledge hasto fulfil. Knowledge is not the sole constitu¬ent of the heritages of the different cultures;each of them also encompasses conceptionsthat comfort or disturb.

3. Finally although Averroës did not statethis explicitly it is implicit in the wholethrust of his argument what applies toreligion and to philosophy applies also toany body of beliefs: concealed behind twoapparently opposed truths lies an identitywaiting to be discovered. Such an opposi¬tion is an invitation to research, to medita¬

tion, to the elaboration of a unity whichgoes beyond the apparently contradictoryexpressions of diversity.

By dint of excessive study, philologicalexamination and pointless and laboriousannotation it is possible to obscure theclearest lines of thought such as thosemost dear to Averroës, and the most mean¬

ingful of his life. And it is these latter thathave the power to move us. At a time whenpeople are wondering anxiously whetherthere is today a place for such a thing as"modern humanism", the least we can hopeis that in recalling his ideas we shall ensurethe continuance of the essential principleshe stated so strongly.

One day Averroës was informed of a holyman's method of curing men and women bymaking them pay out sums of money equiv¬alent to the supposed value, as determinedby him, of their affected organs. Instead oflaunching into a diatribe against supersti¬tion, Averroës declared: "There goes a manwho believes that a human being can bemoved by the act of giving." It is to behoped that evocation of the path followedby Averroës, the path of totally frank andopen thought, has power to move the heartsof men today.

MOHAMMED ALLAL SINACEUR, director ofUnesco's Philosophy Division and professor ofSociology of Development at Hassan II Univer¬sity (Morocco), was formerly a research officer atthe French Centre National de la Recherche Sci¬

entifique. He has written widely on philosophicalproblems and on the history of mathematics.

24

Ibn Rushd and the Islamic

philosophical tradition by Artur V. Sagadeev

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Page from a medieval manuscript in Latinof the commentary byAverroës on Aristot¬le's "Book On the Heavens and On the

World". Latin translations of works by thegreat Cordobán Arab philosopher multi¬plied very quickly, above all thanks to thefamous School of Translators in Toledo,where Muslim, Jewish and Christian

scholars worked closely together.

, , fW^HE name of Ibn Rushd (Averroës)I has become a symbol of freedom of

-M. thought and rationalism, of rejec¬tion of mysticism in all its forms and of blindfaith in the Holy Scriptures. The influenceof the Cordobán philosopher has spreadwidely, both through his own writings andthrough the works of his European disci¬ples, the Averroists, as well as throughattacks from their opponents, who went sofar as to claim that Ibn Rushd was the

author of the doctrine of the "three impost-ers" (Moses, Jesus and Muhammad) whichonce unleashed a storm of controversy.

Scorn has been poured on Ibn Rushd'sconcept that the individual soul is mortal,but that human reason is immortal. This

idea has become familiar to us in the works

of Duns Scotus, Dante, Herder, Kant andother writers associated with the idea of

unity in human intellectual and moral de¬velopment.

Ibn Rushd's reputation is certainly notundeserved, but to some extent it obscures

the merits of the eastern Muslim philo¬sophers who preceded him, especially al-Fârâbï (c. 870-950) and Ibn Slnä (Avicenna,980-1037), whose teachings, in the opinionof certain scholars, pointed towards a re¬conciliation of reason and faith, and thuslacked the internal coherence of Ibn

Rushd's thought. In fact, not only had theseearlier philosophers made possible the birthof Hispano-Arabie philosophy, and its frui¬tion in Ibn Rushd; they were also the trueauthors of theories often credited to him.

The differences between Ibn Rushd and

his predecessors were not due to a lesserdegree of consistency in defining the scopeof rationalism or of fidelity to the philoso¬phy of Aristotle. They were due to thedistinctive features of the social, cultural

°: and political situation in the Muslim Eastf and West during medieval times. These| differences do not relate to the fundamental» principle of the autonomy of human reason ,f but simply to the methods of its application| to doctrines of the "ideal city".m The most complete expression of Ibn© Rushd's rationalism is to be found in hiso

I "Decisive Treatise on the Harmony of Reli¬gion and Philosophy", a work in which hedivides people into three categories: the"rhetorical class", the "dialecticians" andthe "demonstrative class". For the first

category, convictions are the fruit of rhetor¬ical argument to which they turn when theywish to convince their listeners of a certain

point, without taking the validity of thepoint into account. The second categoryuses "dialectical arguments", in the Aris-

totelian sense of the term, that is to say their ^

25

^J

Averroës was the greatest medieval inter¬preter of Classical Greco-Latin thought. Inhis turn hepassedon this heritage to otherimportant thinkers, such as his compatriotMaimonides, and to Christian philo¬sophers and theologians like St. ThomasAquinas, St. Albertus Magnus and DunsScotus, who regarded him as "The Com¬mentator" on Aristotle. Below, a bust ofPlato from the Vatican Museum in Rome.

Right, Persian miniature showingAristotleIn the form of a corpulent seated mullah,taken from a manuscript in Persian verseentitled Aphorisms on Hygiene, attributedto Aristotle.

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opinions are based on "generally accep¬ted", plausible premises, unsuitable forprocuring true knowledge. Members of thethird category reach their convictionsthrough demonstrations based on soundpremises.

Ibn Rushd identifies the rhetoricians with

the "overwhelming mass", with the"crowd", that is, the body of faithful who donot aspire to the subtleties of theology, andeven less to those of philosophy. The di¬alecticians are the representatives of spe¬culative (theoretical) theology, and thosewho belong to the "demonstrative class" arethe philosophers who, in all societies, con¬stitute a small intellectual elite which is

alone capable of acquiring true knowledge.Ibn Rushd was not the originator of this

theory; it was expounded in detail by IbnSînâ, and before him by al-Fârâbï. Eastern

Muslim philosophers were already classify¬ing arguments into "apodictic" (demonstra¬tive), "dialectical", "rhetorical", "sophisti¬cal" and "poetical", in decreasing order ofcognitive value, ranging from "absolutelytrue" apodictic arguments to "absolutelyfalse" poetical arguments.

Poetical arguments occupy the loweststep on the ladder because they take intoconsideration, not the objective existenceof objects, but their images, which are theresult of the purest subjectivity. These argu¬ments act on people's imagination, not theirreason, inciting positive or negative emo¬tions. "Poetical" and "rhetorical" argu¬ments were identified with religion;"sophistical" and "dialectical" argumentswith speculative theology.

In their conception of the relation be¬tween faith and knowledge, Ibn Rushd, Ibn

26

Slnä and al-Fârâbï all share the basic convic¬

tion that religion is a "political art" which isonly necessary to society insofar as societyconsists of an overwhelming majority ofpeople incapable of assimilating abstract,theoretical truths, and for whom religion isthe only means of providing their rela¬tionships with a moral and legal framework.

They teach that philosophy and religionare related to the extent that they are bothconcerned with the foundations of ex¬

istence. But this link is no more than nomi¬

nal. Al-Fârâbï prefers to regard religion asthe daughter-in-law, not the daughter, ofphilosophy; and Ibn Rushd sees them assisters by upbringing, but not by blood. Foras far as knowledge is concerned, scienceand religion are strangers, insofar as reasonworks through rigorous demonstration,while faith is based on rhetoric and mythi¬cal, poetical images.

As for the assertion that Ibn Rushd's

predecessors had made concessions totheology and mysticism, it is simply theresult of a widespread but radically mis¬taken view of the history of medieval Ara¬bic Muslim philosophy, according to whichthis philosophy owes its specific features toa blind take-over, by the Muslim world, ofthe legacy of Antiquity, integrating intoAristotelian metaphysics ideas borrowedfrom Neoplatonic works wrongly attributedto Aristotle.

Ibn Rushd's great merit is thus consi¬dered to be that of refining the Aristotelianideas from this Neoplatonic "dross". Thefalsity of such an interpretation is shownsolely by the fact that neither al-Kindî (c.800-870), who laid the foundations of East¬ern Aristotelianism, nor al-Färäbi who sys¬tematized it, confused Aristotelian and

Neoplatonic works, as can be seen fromtheir own treatises which review the com¬

plete works of the great thinker of Anti¬quity.

An analysis of the work of al-Fârâbï, heldresponsible for this "original sin" of Arabicphilosophy, clearly shows that the Neopla¬tonic theory of emanationism (extra-tem¬poral emission of existence from a singlepoint of origin) has been incorporated intoit quite deliberately, as a doctrine capableof formally reconciling the Aristotelianthesis of the eternal existence of the world

and the religious dogma of its creation.This reconciliation was essential, con¬

sidering the social and political situation ofthe Muslim East in the tenth century, whilephilosophers were faced with the prospectof the foundation of a type of "ideal State"along the lines of the "ideal city" of Plato'sRepublic. As in Plato, philosophers wouldbe at the head of such a State, the ideologic¬al foundations of which would be a religion,also ideal, modelled on philosophy. The

©

In his works Averroës takes up the basiccontribution of the Classical Greek philo¬sophers, which does not imply thathe wasmerely a follower who continued theirwork. On the contrary, the Cordobánphilo¬sopher marks the apogee of a great cur¬rent of Islamic philosophy originating inEastern Muslim thinkers of the standing ofal-Kindî, al-FäräbiandAvicenna (Ibn Slnä)and culminating in the thinkers andphilo¬sophers of al-Andalus. Above, imaginaryportrait of Ibn Slnä from Authentic Por¬traits and Lives of Illustrious Men, Greek,Latin and Pagan (1581) by the Frenchmonkand travellerAndré Thévet. It is now

in the Museum of the History of Medicine,Paris.

theory of emanationism would be at thecentre of such a religion.

The great success in the eastern Muslimworld of Ismailian Shi'ite movements,

heralding the imminent collapse of the 'Ab-bäsid caliphate, an "empire of evil" found¬ed on a "false religion", made possible theexistence of doctrines of the "ideal city".The situation in the western Muslim world

was very different. Neither in al-Andalusnor in the Maghreb were there any objec¬tive presuppositions allowing for the dreamof a State based on any ideology other thanthat of the existing religious doctrine.

This explains why the ideal situation forIbn Bäjja (died 1139), the first great Aris¬totelian philosopher of these regions, is thatof isolated individuals who, by way of intel¬lectual and moral perfection, achievehappiness while continuing to live in animperfect State. In exactly the same way,Ibn Tufayl (died 1185), an older contem¬porary and friend of Ibn Rushd, thoughtthat such a situation is the prerogative ofindividuals, but not of society as a whole.Finally Ibn Rushd himself explicitly stressesthe futility of attempts to elaborate "ra¬tionalized" forms of religion.

Like his Eastern predecessors, Ibn Rushdconsidered it essential to interpret allegcr-ically those passages in the Qur'an whichcontradict philosophical principles ofunderstanding the world, but he favouredan even sharper dividing-line between therealm of knowledge and that of faith, be¬tween science and religion. Al-Fârâbï toler¬ated the activity of speculative theologiansin the ideal State, while reducing the role of

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Coins from al-Andalus and the Maghreb(from top to bottom): Yahya al-Mamümdirham, Toledo, 1069 AD; 'Abbädid dinarof al-Mu'tamid, Seville, 1082 AD; Almor-avid dinar of All Ibn Yusuf, Fez, 1 132 AD.

27

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theology to that of a servant of philosophy,content to underpin the positions taken bythe ruling philosophers. On the other handIbn Rushd, in his Commentary on Plato'sRepublic, excludes theologians from theaffairs of State. Moreover, he recommendsthat Muslim leaders should ban the works of

theologians because they contain withinthem the seeds of dissidence, and may en¬courage the appearance of all kinds of sects,which could plunge society into the abyss ofcivil war.

The above remarks systematically con¬tradict the idea, still too often put forward,that Arab philosophers were mere com¬mentators, just capable of repeating, withgreater or lesser degrees of success, thedoctrines of their Greek masters from the

Classical or Hellenistic periods. In fact,their relationship with the philosophicaltradition of Antiquity was infinitely moreselective, critical and creative. Arabic phi¬losophy, as exemplified by Ibn Rushd andhis Eastern predecessors, was a philosophywhich responded to the demands of prog¬ressive forces in "theologized" societies,which were qualitatively a far cry from thesociety of Antiquity. The ground was there¬by prepared for a philosophical thoughtfreed from the grip of the Church that ofmedieval Western Europe, the Renaissanceand modern times. The legacy of the East¬ern and Western traditions of the Muslim

world thus blended into the creative philo¬sophical thought of all mankind.

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(^^WJU-^t, i- >Jl»9») , taiiC^öi«_iX«.fl_,",

ARTUR VLAD1MIROVICH SAGADEEV is a

Soviet specialist in Arabic Muslim philosophicalstudies. He is the author of around a hundred

publications in this field, notably three mono¬graphs on al-Färäbi, Ibn Slnä and Ibn Rushd,and has also translated into Russian many textsby medieval and contemporary Arabic thinkers.Director of the Islamic studies group at theInstitute of Scientific Information in Social Sci¬

ences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,he is also a member of the scientific advisoryboard on the history of philosophy of the USSRPhilosophical Society.

Top, page from an early 15th-centurymanuscript copied In Maghrebi Arabicscript of the Kitab al-Kullïyât ("Book of theGeneral Principles ofMedicine"), the basicmedical work of Averroës. Right, manu¬script page in the same script ofAverroës'book The Syntheses, with marginal notesin Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. The bookcontains six treatises, each of which is acommentary on a work of Aristotle.

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28

Maimonides the humanist

by Angel Sáenz-Badillos WHEN we cast our twentieth-cen¬

tury minds back to the work of amedieval thinker, we must look

not so much for objective facts or accuratetheories which may have associations orimplications for our own period as for gen¬eral attitudes.

A twelfth-century philosopher such asMoses ben Maymün, or Maimonides, waswholly a man of his time. He was influencedby his personal circumstances he was anemigrant and an exile for much of his life; by

the categories which shaped the evolutionof thought in the Jewish community; and bythe assumptions and problems which pre¬occupied philosophy in his time. To thisextent, his thought reflects the peculiaritiesof a minority religious community im¬mersed in the main currents of predominantIslamic thought in the Middle East, NorthAfrica and the greater part of Spain.

A superficial glance at the work of anymedieval philosopher may only reveal hisresponses to problems arising from histor- ^

Two portraits of Maimonides: right, thefirst known graphic representation of theHispano-Jewish philosopher appeared ina book by Biagio Ugolini, Thesaurus anti-quitatum sacrarum, published in Venice,1744. Maimonides' name is written in Heb¬

rew in a banderole. Above, white marblebas relief by Brenda Putnam dates from1949. It is one of23 medallions which com¬

memorate the great legislators of human¬ity and can be seen in the House of Repre¬sentatives, Washington, D.C.

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Three oí many postage stamps com¬memorating Maimonides from differentcountries. From left to right, 1967 Spanishstamp depicting his statue in Córdoba;1953 stamp from Israel; stamp issued byGrenada In 1970.

Fragment of a holograph manuscript onpaper of the "Commentary on the Mishna ",written in Arabic with Hebrew characters,as was Maimonides' custom. A commen¬

tary on the first "Order" of the Mishna, itwas written around 1 168 AD, shortly afterits author's arrival in Cairo.

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30

ical circumstances, and may thus overlook amuch deeper dimension. It seldom happensthat great thinkers radically overturn thecategories of their time; instead they usuallytake such categories as their starting pointand go on to open up new possibilities anddirections for human thought and conductto explore, so that giant strides forward maybe made, untrammelled by the spider webof current ideas. This attitude of transcend¬

ing time, of standing poised at a turningpoint, distinguishes the great thinkers of thepast. We would venture to suggest thatMaimonides was undoubtedly one of thegreat medieval thinkers and one of thosewho most successfully broke new ground.

While most of his fellow Jews saw a radi¬

cal opposition between the universe of theirfaith, the Torah or Law of Moses, and the

universe of human knowledge, science andphilosophy inherited from the Greeks,Maimonides was one of the masters of

Judaic learning who clearly understood thatsuch a dichotomy was spurious. In his view,the human sciences cannot be diametricallyopposed to faith; instead, they must com¬plement it and help to make it more pro¬found.

Ultimately, the contents of Aristotelianphilosophy and those of the Jewish faithshare the same essence. For Maimonides,

the religious ideal is attainable only bysomeone who is capable of assimilatingknowledge of both the human and thedivine. Moses and Aristotle join hands tohelp humanity to the summit of perfection,namely the knowledge and love of God. Weshould remember that the society in whichhe lived, and especially his own Jewish com¬munity, held a totally religious and God-centred view of the universe. Maimonides

did not break with this position, but he insis¬ted that room must be made for another,

more specifically human, component: rea¬son or philosophy. Few medieval thinkersdid more than he to end the conflict

between faith and reason.

Maimonides' rationalism is a facet of his

humanism. To be a rationalist in the Middle

Ages meant casting out ontological horrorof the supernatural and the unknown, put¬ting an end to irrational human fears, com¬bating all kinds of alienation and refusing toaccept any of the moral imperativesimposed on humanity by some arbitraryWill: in other words, it meant humanizingthe faith of the believer. Medieval man was

fundamentally a believer, as was Mai¬monides. His efforts, however, were

directed towards building a much morehuman universe, albeit still with God at its

centre. Man, the being who aspires to aloving union with God, will attain this ulti¬mate aim only by fully realizing his humanpotential, by leading a more worthy life andby casting out ignorance in order to improvehis conduct.

Maimonides wished to help his contem¬poraries to free themselves from their per¬plexities, from all kinds of superstitionswhich enslaved them and even from the

passions which dragged them down and pre¬vented them from becoming fully human.To emphasize the rational aspect was not,as he saw it, to reject the theocentric patternof his universe, but to readjust the focus on

©

Twelfth century miniature depicting Mai¬monides examining a flask of urine. Aswell as a philosopher and religious think¬er, Moses ben Maymün was, like IbnRushd, one of the greatest physicians ofhis time, and in his numerous medical

works (Commentary on the Aphorisms ofHippocrates, Compendium of the Books ofGalen, Treatise on Asthma, Guide to GoodHealth ...) he summarized and developedcontemporary knowledge in this field.

reality so that everything was in its properplace. Man does not accede to divine lovethrough false mysticism, on the paths ofirrationality where he can disguise his igno¬rance, but on the highroad to knowledge,wisdom and learning in the human sciences,complemented by theology. As manadvances along this highroad, he mustnever renounce the use of his own intel¬

ligence or be lured away by the irrationaland unknown. Likewise in the field of eth¬

ics, man is not the plaything of an arbitrarySupreme Being; the commandments con¬tained in the Law of Moses all have a reason

for their existence and are not obligationscapriciously imposed on the human will.Maimonides thus constructed a style ofhumanism which was still religious, butwhich was primarily human.

This humanism led him to combat the

alienation of man and everything whichdiverted him from his true purpose in theuniverse. Maimonides opposed all kinds ofidolatry, because he considered it to be oneof the most dangerous forms of alienation:to worship the spheres, the stars or gravenimages, to become a slave to superstition, tobelieve in astrology or to practise any kindof primitive religious rites, prevents manfrom realizing his full potential. Even fever¬ish involvement in an economic activity thatis not necessary for the fulfilment of one'sown needs he regarded as another form ofalienation, comparable to becoming a slaveto the basest passions. For Maimonides,reason and knowledge represent true liber¬ation for humanity.

The evil that exists in the universe is not

the work of God, but the consequence ofwhat some human beings do to others, orthe harm that man does to himself. And

nearly always, it is a consequence of ig¬norance. Only knowledge, which for thehuman being is akin to the gift of sight, iscapable of driving out enmity and hatred.Someone without knowledge is like a blindman stumbling against walls and blunderinginto other people. One of the evils thatpeople can inflict on one another is tyranny.True knowledge is the necessarycondition for the historical redemption ofhumanity.

Such is Maimonides' breadth of spirit thatit transcends the narrow bounds of the

majority of his fellow worshippers, and hethinks not so much in Jewish categories as ina new and universal dimension. The way toGod is not reserved for the chosen people,but is open to all humankind. The greatGreek philosophers had travelled far alongthe road to true knowledge, just as thepromises in the Bible were made not only toJewish people but to all humanity.

Thus Maimonides remains loyal to thefaith of his ancestors, but at the same time

he embraces all peoples with his genuinelyuniversal outlook. Despite having sufferedfrom it personally, he never gives way to thetemptation of fanaticism. He believes that

the other monotheistic religions haveplayed a positive role in preparing the worldfor knowledge of the one true God and hisLaw. And although he sees all problemsfrom the point of view of a devout Jew, hisinterpretation of the Law of Moses pointsthe way towards better human understand¬ing and a greater sense of the brotherhoodof man. In this respect he was ahead of histime.

Maimonides has been criticized for fail¬

ing to condemn slavery, for speaking con¬temptuously of half-savage peoples and fortaking a very negative view of women andtheir role in society. It is true that he did notradically break out of the categories of histime on these issues, but he did succeed in

pointing out new directions through his con¬ception of human dignity.

He saw the individual hidden behind the

outward façade of the slave, he pleaded forthe redemption of the oppressed througheducation and fairer working conditions,and he placed women on an equal spiritualfooting with men. He did not break with thepast, but endeavoured to change the systemof values and the attitudes of his day inorder to build a more truly humane society.Herein, I believe, lies the source of his rele¬

vance to the present and his ability to influ¬ence modern thought. a

ANGEL SAENZ-BADILLOS, of Spain, teachesHebrew language and literature at the Universityof Granada and formerly taught at the Com-plutensian University, Madrid. He has publisheda number of studies on medieval Hebrew-Span¬ish philology and poetry and on the history ofbiblical exegesis in Spain.

31

The prophet, the scholarand the statesman

by Roland Goetschel

THE philosophy of Moses Mai¬monides lies at the convergence ofJewish and Arab-Islamic thought;

this explains the considerable importanceaccorded to political activity in his thinkingand practice. This article is an attempt torediscover the coherence of this philosophythrough a discussion of his major work, TheGuide of the Perplexed.

The need for political order. The startingpoint of Maimonides' thought is the natureof man whom, like Aristotle, he considers

to be naturally a political animal. Whileother living creatures can very well lookafter themselves without help from othermembers of their species, this is not the casewith the individual isolated human, who

outside society would in the normal courseof events be doomed to perish before verylong. Man's food requirements alone neces¬sitate the existence of an elaborate technol¬

ogy and a multiple division of labour, whichwould be inconceivable outside a politicalsystem: "This is why men need someone to

guide and unite them, so that their societycan be organized and perpetuated and sothat they can give one another mutual assis¬tance."

For Maimonides the need for govern¬ment also emerges from the great diversitywhich exists between different members of

the human species. There is need for a guidewho can remedy what is defective and mod¬erate what is excessive, who can impose acommon and permanent law on the mem¬bers of a society.

He distinguishes three kinds of politicalregimes. First, conventional legal regimes

in which the aim of the legislator is simply toensure that the affairs of the community aretransacted in an orderly fashion, withoutinsisting on the improvement of man and hisrational faculty. The regime of Divine Lawis different in the sense that it is concerned

not only with material and social improve¬ment but also with man's spiritual welfare,leading him to eternal happiness. There arealso regimes which claim to be prophetic

For Maimonides, "the regime of DivineLaw ... is concerned not only with materialand social improvement but also withman's spiritual welfare" (R. Goetschel).Opposite page, the Tables of the Law (thecode which Moses, the great legislator,gave to the Jewish people during the Ex¬odus) from the Ben Ezra synagogue, Fos¬tat (Old Cairo). Above, an illumination rep¬resenting the Exodus of the Hebrews,taken from a manuscript of the HebrewHaggada (book derived from the Talmud).This manuscript, copied in Spain in the14th century, is today preserved in theBudapest Academy of Sciences (Kauf¬mann Collection).

32

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and which have in fact borrowed all or partof their content from the true propheticregime.

The prophet, the scholar and the states¬man. Although all men possess the facultyof governing, this faculty will not be fullydeveloped unless a man has brought hisrational and his imaginative faculties to astate of perfection. If such is the case, hewill be able to become a prophet when adivine emanation flows first of all into his

intellect, then into his imagination. If thisdivine influence flows only into the man'sintellect without being received by his imag¬ination, he becomes a scholar who devotes

himself to speculation. Conversely, if thedivine emanation touches only his imagina¬tion without influencing his intellect, he willjoin the ranks of statesmen who make laws,or those of soothsayers or interpreters ofomens.

It is clear from the above that con¬

ventional legal regimes are set up by politi¬cians who draw substance from their imag¬ination alone, while the regime of DivineLaw is based on a prophetic gift, necessitat¬ing the two-fold perfection of the rationaland the imaginative faculties. The trueprophet combines the capacities of the pol¬itician and the scholar, while surpassingthem both. The influence working on hisintellect brings him the speculative insightswhich enable him to grasp the essentialnature of things and makes him a superiorphilosopher.

The prophecy of Moses. The divine ema¬nation sometimes comes to the prophetwith a force sufficient for him to attain per

fection for himself, and sometimes with a

superabundance that allows him to strive totransform others. There are many degreesof prophets as there are many degrees ofscholars. Maimonides also makes a majordistinction between Moses and the other

prophets. All prophets except Mosesreceived the prophecy through an angel,whereas to Moses God spoke directly.

In his commentary on Chapter XXXIII ofthe Book ofExodus, Maimonides returns tothe subject of Moses as legislator. If Godwould not reveal his essence to Moses, henevertheless made known to him the thir¬

teen attributes of God which allowed Moses

to understand the nature of living beingsand the links between them, thus teachinghim how to govern over them. The ultimateaim of this revelation is therefore to estab¬

lish political order: "And that was the finalaim of his demand, for he ended by saying:that I may know thee, that I may find favourin thy sight and consider that this nation isthy people, which I must govern by meanssimilar to thine." The ruler of the ideal citywill therefore govern his State as far as pos¬sible according to the model furnished byGod as ruler of the world.

The finality of the Divine Law. The objectof the Law is to bring man to a full realiza¬tion of both his spiritual and his bodily exis¬tence. This is achieved by the institution ofcivil peace as well as through the individualacquisition of virtues useful to society. TheLaw of Moses therefore carries within it a

two-fold perfection: it establishes a perfectcommunity, and it produces in man right¬eous ideas which will lead to happiness.

True human perfection is not foundwhere it is commonly supposed. Most peo¬ple think that perfection lies in assets whichinclude the possession of power. As Mai¬monides wrote, "the possession of the titleof a great king belongs to this class." Butsuch perfection is external to the humanessence. The two other perfections, that ofthe body and even moral perfection, arethemselves only a means to intellectual per¬fection, which reaches its highest degree inthe knowledge of God.

However, as Maimonides points out in areference to The Book ofJeremiah, on thelast page of the Guide, knowledge of Godmust not remain speculative, it should leadmankind to ensure that solidarity, law andjustice prevail on earth. To know God istherefore to submit to ethical restraints, and

this ultimate requirement should be the pri¬ority of the ideal ruler, for he more than allother men created in the image of God mustaccomplish "the imitation of God", the sov¬ereign ruler of the universe.

ROLAND GOETSCHEL, of France, is director ofthe Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies,and of the Centre for Hebrew Studies and

Research at the University of Strasbourg. For¬merly a staff member of the department ofHebrew at the University of Paris VIII, he is anassociate professor at the Martin Buber Institute,Brussels, and teaches at the Ecole des hautesétudes en sciences sociales, Paris. He is the

author of several published works in the field ofHebrew studies.

33

1986: Year of Peace/ 9

In this article, Professor Jean Dausset

(Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine,1980) highlights the benefits of bio¬logical diversity, and stresses theunavoidable incompatibility betweenscience and racism as an important fac¬tor in efforts to establish peace.

FEAR of difference, sometimes going so faras rejection, is a widespread reflex. Chil¬dren are afraid of being different from

their peers. Adolescents are the first to followfashions. But, much more seriously, adults arealmost instinctively wary of all those who do notbelong to their group or community; this leads toneighbourhood rivalry, argument betweenadministrative bodies, conflict between nations,

religious or racial hatred.This reflex is however both a biological ab¬

surdity and a basic error where cultural life isconcerned. Three concepts from biology mayhelp to clarify the issue:

First, each living being is different, evenunique, since there are so many possible varia¬tions in its chemical composition. It is the productof a combination of paternal and maternalcharacters, which themselves came from a mix¬

ture of the characters of four grandparents.Moreover, these characters, or genes, showmultiple variations within populations. In man,the number of possible combinations exceeds, ithas been said, the number of atoms in the known

universe. In each generation new beings thusappear, fruits of the genetic lottery, uniquebecause formed from an entirely new combina¬tion of genetic characters. Nature has takengood care to ensure that this mixing happens atregular intervals: sexual reproduction and deathrepeat it for each generation.

Second, according to Darwinian natural selec¬tion, those individuals which fortuitously receivethe combinations which render them best

adapted to live in a certain environment, surviveand produce most descendants, whereas theleast well adapted produce fewer descendants.Thus, thanks to the diversity of the individuals ofwhich it is composed, a species will be able toadapt to changes that may occur in the environ¬ment or climate, or to the appearance of newparasites or pathogenic agents. Differencebetween individuals is thus an absolute neces¬

sity for the perpetuation of a species. It is basic toall animal and plant life.

Third, the environment shapes varieties withinspecies: the North African swallow is not Identi¬cal to the Norwegian swallow; the Italian poplardiffers from that of northern Europe; the Mediter¬ranean human type is not the same as the Nordictype. The influence of the environment on mod¬ern man is perhaps less than it was, but itremains a determining factor on his psychology.Two identical twins, who do not differ genetically,are subjected to different external influences,especially if they are separated, and thusbecome two different beings. Only man movesfrom individuality to personality, because onlyman appropriates a cultural heritage from hissocial environment. . v

It is thus clear that the uniqueness of eachperson confers on him or her an individual dignitywhich is an additional reason, if any were neces¬sary, for respecting that person; that this unique¬ness should not make us forget that each personbelongs to the great human family, which is alsounique; that the concept of "racial purity" istotally meaningless, since all standardizationleads to death. Thus, without losing its identity, apeople must encourage the introduction of newgenes from elsewhere. Finally, experience playsa paramount role in the mental and spiritualdevelopment of mankind.

In the melting pot of Western Europe, a humancommunity with a number of common genetictraits has developed. The relative isolation of theprovinces over a long period, inter-village mar¬riages, diversity of climate and origins havefavoured differences which modern means of

communication are tending to obliterate.These biological truths can easily be trans¬

posed by analogy to the cultural level.The diversity of living, authentic cultures,

which were even more plentiful in the last cen¬tury, is a treasure of inestimable value. The dis¬appearance of a culture is an irreparable loss,comparable to the extinction of an animal or plantspecies.

Each culture is characterized by its customs,its conception of the place of mankind in theuniverse, its beliefs. Each has its rituals, itsmodes of dress, each contributes to the incredi¬

ble range of plastic arts or architecture, music,song, dance and all the other manifestations ofmankind's creative imagination. Each has givenhumanity scientific discoveries or new technol¬ogies to ease the workload or relieve suffering.

These ideas, these dances, these techniquesare, as in the field of biology, the fruit of multipleinteractions between man and his surroundings.

This deep-seated adaptation of cultures to theirenvironment was striking before the intrusion ofwestern technology; it takes a long time for sucha symbiosis to develop.

Differences between cultures alone allow

comparisons, the confrontation of ideas, ideol¬ogies and aspirations. They allow concepts to beenlarged and enriched. They allow discoveriesand technologies to spread through the wholebody of humanity, in a word they allow evolutionthrough the choice of the highest values. In thisway, by stages, the cultural evolution of human¬ity has progressed for thousands of years. Noanimal has profited like man from the experienceof other groups; this is a unique feature of thehistory of the evolution of life.

Diversity of cultures is thus a priceless trea¬sure which must be jealously preserved. If diver¬sity is to persist, cultures must remain alive, thatis, be capable of evolving through contact withothers. Folklore is fossilized culture.

Most Important of all, there should be harmo¬nious co-existence between these diverse cul¬

tures, cohabitation accepted without discrimina¬tion, without reservations, without preconceivedideas. The most pernicious of the latter Is theestablishment of a cultural hierarchy in whichone's own culture is of course high on the list.Just as there is no hierarchy between men andwomenthey are simply differentso there isno hierarchy between cultures: they are for¬tunately different.

We are today faced with two major risks: stan¬dardization and intolerance.

The standardization of cultures, as in biology,leads to the cessation of evolution, therefore to

death. We already have a bitter foretaste ofthis.

Intolerance, more than indifference, secretes

internecine conflicts and leads ultimatelythrough incomprehension and the closing ofminds and frontiers, to the same result as stan¬dardization: the end of evolution.

Wisdom lies in open-mindedness, In listeningto others, in a spirit of total equality.

The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry(1900-1944) magnificently encapsulated thismental attitude when he wrote, "If you are dif¬ferent from me, brother, far from harming me,you enrich me." a

Jean Dausset

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Córdoba the splendid

In 923 AD the I may \ ad caliph of Cordoba "Abd al-Rahmän beganto build a "royal seat" for his court outside the city . Work on the newroyal residence, named Madinat al-Zahra or city of the flower, wascompleted 50 years later by his successor al-Hakam II ai-Mustansir.Sadly, the palace-city fell into almost immediate decline, and by the12th century it already lay in ruins. Only in the present century haveits edifices been partially excavated and restored. With the GreatMosque of Córdoba, Madinat al-Zahra illustrates the full floweringof the art of al-Andalus. in which a variety of Oriental and Greco-Roman influences blended into a style ofgreat originality . Some ideaof the splendour of this Cordobán Versailles can be gauged from thisdetail of the Salón Rico or Royal Palace (Dar al-Mulk). which wasused as lodgings for visitors of royal stock.

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