Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon

Letter from Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, beginning of the 13th century, found in the Geniza in Cairo .

Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon or Abraham Maimonides ( Hebrew אברהם בן הרמב"ם; born June 17, 1186 in Fustat , Egypt ; died December 7, 1237 ibid), the only son of Maimonides , was an Egyptian-Jewish theologian, exegete , mystic and doctor. After his father's death, he succeeded him as the leader of the Jewish community in Egypt.

Live and act

Before the Cairo geniza was discovered at the end of the 19th century, little was known about the life of Maimonides' only son. Abraham was born on a Friday evening, Siwan 28, 4946 according to the Jewish calendar in Fustat, a suburb of Cairo today . His mother, Maimonides 'second wife, was the sister of Ibn Almali, a royal secretary who himself had married Maimonides' only sister. His father describes his son in a letter as a meek character, gifted with a keen intelligence and a friendly nature. From childhood he was trained by Maimonides in rabbinical studies , possibly also in philosophy and medicine, and was allowed to be present at his audiences. At the age of 18 he took over his father's office after the death of his father, but was not appointed Nagid (leader) of the Jewish community in Egypt until 1213 . For nearly two hundred years this office was inherited from his descendants. After his appointment, controversy arose among Egyptian Jews over the question of whether his name should be used in public prayers. As a representative of the Jewish community among the Ayyubid rulers, he enjoyed personal relationships with Muslim authorities and scholars, especially as the personal physician of Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil , Saladin's nephew . Among his acquaintances was the Arab doctor Ibn Abī Usaibiʿa , who described him in an obituary as an excellent doctor in the service of the Sultan and a scholar of pleasant manners. Although Abraham Maimonides recognized the incompatibility of political office and spiritual perfection, he devoted himself to his political calling to counteract religious decline. He died on the 18th Kislev of the Jewish year 4998.

His main work, the Compendium of the Servants of God (Arabic Kifayāt al-abidīn , Hebrew Ha-Maspik le-Ovdei ha-Schem ), originally in ten volumes, was completed around 1232 and is only partially preserved. It is written in Arabic and found readership from Provence to the Orient, here up to the 18th century. The work is based on Mishne Torah , also his father's main work and like this a collection of halachic laws, but is also influenced by al-Ghazālīs ethical treatise Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn ("The revival of the religious sciences"). Abraham Maimonides publicly admired the Muslim Sufis and ultimately attributed their practices to ancient Israelite customs. He compared the simple clothing of the prophets of Israel with the woolen patchwork cloak ( chirqa ) of the Sufis that the prophet Elijah left behind his disciple and successor Elisha according to the biblical description ( 2 Kings 2.13  EU ). However, one of the most important aspects of the Sufi path is the spiritual guidance from an experienced teacher and master, the sheikh . Abraham relates this to the statement Make a teacher of the sayings of the fathers . In his Milchamot ha-Shem ("Wars of the Lord"), written in Hebrew after 1235, he defends his father's eschatology . This work is specifically directed against the criticism of the Provencal rabbis, whom he accused in the Maimonides dispute of a pagan anthropomorphism under the influence of the local Christian environment. His commentary on the book Genesis and Exodus was written in Arabic and did not appear until 1958 with a translation in modern Hebrew . As chairman of the Rabbinical Court in Cairo , he received legal inquiries from distant communities such as Yemen , Byzantium and Provence. Of particular interest are his statements on the occasion of the burning of the Führer of the Undecided .

Abraham Maimonides founded a pietistic circle in Oriental Judaism based on the model of Sufism, which however fell into oblivion after some time, although some of its mystical elements were incorporated into the emerging Kabbalistic movement.

literature

• Paul B. Fenton , in: Encyclopaedia Judaica , Second Edition, Vol. 1, pp. 304-308.

Web links

• Abraham Maimonides: A Jewish Sufi