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

Moses ben Maimon, or more popularly, Maimonides, was one of the greatest thinkers of his time. He was born in Muslim-ruled Spain in 1138, and lived most of his life in Cairo, Egypt. This book details his life, the history and culture of his time, his works, his influence, and his writings. I am just amazed by how much is known about Maimonides. His life was intertwined between Jews and Muslim Arabs.

The times he lived in were tumultuous. He left Spain, because of Muslim pressure to convert from Judaism. He went to Cairo, which actually was a much more tolerant civilization at that time. He lived through the Crusades. The Crusaders were kidnapping people, including Jews, and holding them for ransom. Maimonides felt that it was his duty to raise ransom-money from his community, in order to rescue fellow Jews.

His writings were both in Arabic and Hebrew. Maimonides wrote the 14-volume Mishneh Torah in Hebrew. These books have survived to this day, and have had enormous influence on Judaism, even to this day. He also wrote the book "Guide for the Perplexed" in Arabic, using Hebrew letters. The guide discusses how religious people should think about God, and he warns not to think of God as if he were a human.

Maimonides was also a lawyer, a judge, and a physician. People liked to use his medical services because he ascribed to Hippocrates' edict to "do no harm." This was quite contrary to the majority of physicians of his time.

This book is very long and detailed. It seems to be rather dry in style, and did not engage me. The sentences often use awkward phrasing that just seem too scholarly for my taste. I did not read this book--I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Sean Pratt. His reading is good, but it irked me that his pronunciations of some of the words are just plain wrong, in any language.