Abstract
In the following zuta I wish to draw attention to four philosophical texts in Arabic which are silently present in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. We owe the late Shlomo Pines an in-depth treatment of ‘The Philosophical Sources of The Guide of the Perplexed’ published in 1963.1 More recently, Rémi Brague has offered an overview of subsequent research on Maimonides’ sources.2 In the case of a strong-minded and personal thinker such as Maimonides, the question of the sources with which he was familiar is indeed not of purely antiquarian or historic interest. Rather, by determining the sources with which a thinker was familiar we can draw up a kind of ‘map’ of the theoretical options to which he or she was alert and better appreciate his or her theoretical choices: we recognize where s/he chose to follow (be ‘influenced’ by) a predecessor, or, conversely, ignore an available theoretical option. In the latter cases, the silent rejection of a theoretical stance signals a deliberate choice that sheds some light on the thinker’s views.
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Footnotes
Sh. Pines, ‘Translator’s Introduction’, in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, translated by Sh. Pines (Chicago 1963), I, lvii–cxxxiv. For helpful remarks on a draft of this note I am very grateful to Professors Rémi Brague, Ruth Glasner, Steven Harvey, and Remke Kruk.
R. Brague, ‘Mise à jour (1997)’, following upon Sh. Pines, ‘Les sources philosophiques du Guide des perplexes’, in idem, La liberté de philosopher. De Maïmonide à Spinoza. Traduction, introduction et notes par Rémi Brague (Paris 1997) 227-233.
H.H. Ben-Sasson, ‘Maimonides — the Leadership of an Intellectual in His Own Generation and for Generations to Come’ (Hebr.), in Ha-ishiyyut we-dorah, Jerusalem [5)724, 93-106, on p. 94. (= Idem, Continuity and Variety (Hebr.), ed. J. Hacker (Tel-Aviv 1984) 301-315, on p. 302, 481). Ben-Sasson (n. 6) explicitly directed his criticism against L.V. Berman, who had submitted his doctoral dissertation, entitled ‘Ibn Bajja and Maimonides’, to the Hebrew University in 1959; he may, however, have had in mind also the supervisor of Berman’s dissertation, the late Shlomo Pines.
Maimonides, Guide, ‘Instruction with respect to this treatise’; Pines, 16. Text: R.Y. Qafah (ed. and trans.), Rabbenu Moshe ben Maimon, Moreb ba-nevukbim. Dalâlat al-hâ’irîn I (Jerusalem 1972), vol. I, 17. Ben-Sasson referred to the one-volume edition of Samuel ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation of the Guide, edited by Y. Even-Shmuel (Jerusalem 1947; often reprinted) 15.
Ben-Sasson, ‘Maimonides‘, 94 (p. 302, 481).
G. Misch, Geschichte der Autobiographie. Dritter Band: Das Mittelalter. Zweiter Teil: Das Hochmittelalter im Anfang. Zweite Hälfte (Frankfurt a. Main 1962) 991.
Translation quoted after G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers (2nd ed.; Cambridge 1983) 211, n. I. See also W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy I: The earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans (Cambridge 1962) 409.
Ed. Kühn, vol. 8, 766-961, on p. 773. There are two parallel texts which confirm the authenticity of the quotation, but which were not available in Arabic and thus do not concern us here.
F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Band III: Medizin — Pharmazie — Zoologie — Tierheilkunde (Leiden 1970) 91–94; M. Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden 1970) 43-44; E. Lieber, ‘Galen in Hebrew: The Transmission of Galen’s Works in the Mediaeval Islamic World’, in V. Nutton, ed., Galen: Problems and Prospects (London 1981) 167-186, on p. 173.
Listed by Sezgin and by Ullmann (n. 9).
Quoted after Ibn Abî ‘Usaibî’a, ’Uyûn al-’anbâ’ fî tabaqât al-’atibbâ’ (Beirut n.d.) 558. Ibn al-Haitham’s autobiography is translated in E. Wiedemann, ‘Ibn al-Haitam, ein arabischer Gelehrter’, in Festschrift J. Rosenthal gewidmet (Frankfurt 1906) pt. I, 147-178 (= E. Wiedemann, Gesammelte Schriften zur arabisch-islamisch en Wissenschaftsgeschichte. I. Band: Schriften 1876-1912. Ed. by D. Girke [Frankfurt 1984] 168). It is in Wiedemann’s translation that G. Misch (supra, n. 6) read Ibn al-Haitham’s autobiography, whence the reference found its way into Ben-Sasson’s lecture (supra, n. 3).
Maimonides very often refers to Megapulsus, as e.g. in his Aphorisms of Moses. See S. Muntner, ‘The Identification of Galen’s Works Mentioned by Maimonides in his The Aphorisms of Moses’ (Hebr.), in idem, ed., Maimonides, Medical Aphorisms of Moses. Hebrew Translation by R. Nathan ha-Me’ati, Medical Works vol. 2 (Jerusalem 1961) 399–421, on p. 401, n. 5, n. 7, and p. 418, index, s.v.
Misch, Geschichte der Autobiographie, 944, quotes the same saying from the pen of Usâma b. Munqidh (d. 1188), and notes that ‘this saying circulated at the time among the educated people like a proverb’.
Pines, ‘Translator’s Introduction’, lxi-lxiii.
Maimonides, Guide, II:24; Qafah, vol. 2, 356; trans. Pines, 326 f.
Ibid.; ibid.; trans. Pines, 327, modified.
Aristotle, Parts of Animals, I:5, 644b22-645a4, quoted after A.L. Peck (ed. and trans.), Aristotle, Parts of Animals. The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA/London 1961).
Text in R. Kruk, ed., The Arabic Version of Aristotle’s ‘Tarts of Animals’ (Amsterdam/Oxford 1979), Arabic section, 19, 19-20, 7 [= 64422-645a3]. I am very grateful to Prof. Remke Kruk for her kind and valuable advice on the translation of this passage. That the knowledge of the heavens affords man great pleasure is stated by Aristotle also in De caelo 2:12, 26Ib26 ff., quoted by Maimonides in the Guide II: 19, Qafah, vol. 2, 334f.: trans. Pines, 307.
Averroes, Commentary on De animalibus, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hebrew MS Opp. 1641 Qu (= Neubauer 1381), fol. 179a, 11. 6-13. It is not clear whether this is an epitome or a Middle Commentary; see H.A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of the Human Intellect (New York 1992) 234, n. 62.
Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom), Milchamot Ha-schem. Die Kämpfe Gottes. Religionsphilosophische und kosmische Fragen, in sechs Büchern abgehandelt von Levi ben Gerson (Hebr.), (Leipzig 1866) 5. Cf. Gersonides, The Wars of the Lord. Vol. I: Book One: Immortality of the Soul. Translated with an introduction and notes by Seymour Feldman (Philadelphia 5745/1984) 96-97.
See my ‘Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides), 1288-1344’, in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, eds, The Routledge History of Islamic Philosophy (London/New York 1996) 739–754.
I study this stance and its implications for Maimonides’ philosophy in G. Freudenthal, ‘Maïmonide: La détermination biologique et climatologique (partielle) de la félicité humaine’, in T. Lévy and R. Rashed, eds, Maïmonide: Traditions philosophiques et scientifiques médiévales, arabe, hébraïque, latine (Leuven 2003) forthcoming.
Arabie text and German translation in H.H. Biesterfeldt, ‘Galens Traktat “Dass die Kräfte der Seele den Mischungen des Körpers folgen“ in arabischer Übersetzung’, Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 40:4 (Wiesbaden 1973). The Arabic translation is due to Hubaish al-A’sam al-Dimashqî, Hunain Ibn Ishâq’s nephew. In his discussion of Galen as a source for Maimonides, Shlomo Pines referred only to loci in the Guide where Galen is explicitly named; see Pines, ‘Translator’s Introduction’, lxxvii-lxviii.
Maimonides, Guide, III:I2; Qafah, vol. 3, 484; trans. Pines, 445.
Note that Judah ha-Levi refers to the treatise in a different wording in Kuzari II: IO.
F.M. Najjar, ed., Al-Fârâhî’s “The Political Regime” (Al-Siyâsa al-Madaniyya; also known as The Treatise on the Principles of Being) (Ar.), (Beirut 1964). See also the translation into modern Hebrew: Abû Nasr Muhammad al-Fârâbî, The Political Regime (Hebr.; also known as The Treatise on the Principles of Beings) Trans, by S.B. Abed (Tel Aviv 1992).
Maimonides, ‘Letter to R. Shmuel ibn Tibbon’, in I. Shailat, ed., Letters and Essays of Moses Maimonides (Hebr.), (Ma’aleh Adumim 5748 [1988]) 553.
See S. Harvey, ‘Did Maimonides’ Letter to Samuel ibn Tibbon Determine Which Philosophers Would be Studied by Later Jewish Thinkers?’, JQR 83 (1992) 51–70. Moses ibn Tibbon’s translation has been edited on the basis of two manuscripts: Zvi Filipowsky, ed.,’ sefer ha-hathalot le-Abû Nasr al-Fârâbî’, in Sefer ba-asif [for 5609] (Leipzig 1849) I-64. As published, the Hebrew text does not always reflect with exactitude the contents of the Arabic original.
Pines, ‘Translator’s Introduction’, esp. lxxxvi-xcii; cf. Brague, ‘Mise à jour’, 227-233 for subsequent research.
For details see Freudenthal, ‘Maimonide: La détermination biologique et climatologique’ (n. 23).
Maimonides, Guide 1:31; ed. Qafah, vol. 1c, 67, ll. 15-21; translation Pines, 65 (modified).
Al-Fârâbî, Al-Siyâsa al-madaniyya, 75, ll. 11-12.
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Freudenthal, G. (2003). Four Implicit Quotations of Philosophical Sources in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. In: Berger, S., Brocke, M., Zwiep, I., Fontaine, R., Munk, R. (eds) Zutot 2002. Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0199-1_13
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