Maimonides Life and Teachings of the Great Jewish Philosopher

Moses Maimonides was born in Córdoba in 1138, in an Iberian Peninsula ruled by Muslims, and until his death in Cairo in 1204, he always lived in an Arab-Islamic environment. He grew up in the shadow of the Reconquista in Spain and the Crusades in Palestine; thus, his life, career, and writings represent the ultimate expression of the intertwined worlds of Judaism and Islam. His monumental compendium of Jewish laws, The Mishneh Torah served as the basis for subsequent Jewish legal codes and earned him recognition as one of their foremost legislators. As a physician, he wrote works that were studied for centuries in Europe. As a philosopher and scientist, he contributed to the development of mathematics, astronomy, logic, ethics, and theology.

This comprehensive biography is both a faithful account of Maimonides' life and an immersion in the fascinating Mediterranean world of the 12th century. With academic rigor and exquisitely informative, Joel Kramer draws on original sources to recreate that period in history when the encounter between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions gave rise to intense intellectual exchange and a persistent religious struggle.