Maimonides: Faith in Reason

In this illuminating biography, Manguel (Fabulous Monsters), former director of the National Library of Argentina, examines philosopher Maimonides’s intellectual legacy in Jewish and secular fields—from theology to medicine to politics. Moses ben Maimon was born in 1138 into a scholarly family in Córdoba (then part of Islamic Spain). During his childhood, his family was uprooted from their home by the Almohads, a group of Sunni Muslims hostile to Jews; the Maimons sought refuge in Morocco and Palestine, eventually landing in Egypt, where Maimonides became the de facto head of the Egyptian Jewish community. He turned to medicine after his brother’s unexpected death forced him to support his extended family, and later wrote influential texts linking theology and medicine that proposed the idea that “the body and spirit [were] as one in God’s creation.” Manguel also unpacks the cultural significance of Maimonides’s other writings, noting many—like the Mishneh Torah, a bold attempt to create a “coherent set of rules” from Talmudic laws—remain cornerstones of Jewish thought. Manguel employs meticulous detail and textual support to bring alive the “learned scientist, brilliant philosopher, and... religious devotee” in a manner that’s both intellectually rigorous and historically vivid. Jewish history scholars will appreciate this rich portrait. (Mar.)