Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/23

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Introduction
3

that his main object was to harmonize Jewish traditional belief with the current Aristotelian philosophy.[1] For this work Maimonides was admirably equipped; his ability as a systematizer was most remarkable, and not only had he a profound knowledge of Jewish law and lore, but was so deep a student of philosophy and the sciences that his works have since exercised considerable influence even outside the domains of Judaism.[2] His chapters, for instance, in the Moreh on the Mutakallimun have become the main source for the history and knowledge of the Kalām.[3]

The most important of his works which have had a profound influence upon Judaism are his Commentary on the Mishnah (פירוש המשנה), the Mishneh Torah (משנה תורה) or Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah (יד החזקה), and the Guide for the Perplexed (מורה נבוכים).

The Commentary on the Mishnah,[4] Maimonides’ first work of importance, written in Arabic,[5] was begun at the age of twenty-

  1. ↑ Munk, Guide, Vol. I, Preface, p. 1; Beer, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, pp. 4 and 12; Arab. Lit., pp. 203–204; Rosin, Ethik, p. 30; Grätz, VI3, pp. 275, 307; Wolff, Acht Capitel, Introd., p. ix; M. Friedländer, Guide, Introd., p. xxiv.
  2. ↑ Joel, Verhältniss Alb. d. Gr. zu Moses Maimonides (Breslau, 1863); Etwas über den Einfluss der jüdischen Philosophie auf die christliche Scholastik (Frankel’s Monatsschr., IX, pp. 205–217); Jaraczewski, Die Ethik des M., etc., in ZPhKr., XLVI, pp. 5–24; Guttmann, Das Verhältniss des Thomas v. Aquino zur jüd. Literatur (Göttingen, 1891); Die Scholastik des 13 Jahrh. in ihren Beziehungen zur jüd. Litteratur (Breslau, 1902); D. Kaufmann, Der Führer Maimuni’s in der Weltlitteratur, AGPh., XI, p. 335 ff.; Richter, Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie, Vol. I, p. 610 ff.; Ueberweg, Hist. of Phil. (1885), Vol. I, p. 428; Weber, Hist. of Phil. (1895), p. 210, n. 2; Jacob Guttmann, Der Einfluss der maimonidischen Philosophie auf das christliche Abendland, in Moses ben Maimon, I, pp. 135–230; Philip Bloch, Charakteristik und Inhaltsangabe des Moreh Nebuchim, ib., p. 41, n. 1.
  3. ↑ Munk, Mélanges, p. 323; HUb., p. 415; M. Guttmann, Das religionsphil. System der Mutakallimun nach d. Berichte Maimon (Leipzig, 1885); D. Kaufmann, op. cit., pp. 339–340.
  4. ↑ The Arabic title is כתאב אלסראג̇ (ספר המאור, Book of Illumination), which, however, as Steinschneider (Arab. Lit., p. 200) and Geiger (Moses ben Maimon, p. 82, n. 31) maintain, hardly originated with Maimonides.
  5. ↑ M. wrote all of his works, with the exception of the Mishneh Torah and a number of letters, in Arabic, but with Hebrew characters, as Arabic was the language used by the Jews living under Islam. On his objection to having the Moreh copied in other than Hebrew characters, see Munk, Notice sur Joseph ben Jehouda (Paris,
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