Moses Maimonides The Man and His Works [Hardcover]

Moses Maimonides (1137/38-1204), scholar, physician, and philosopher, was the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. In this magisterial biography, Herbert Davidson provides an exhaustive guide to Maimonides' life and works. After considering Maimonides' upbringing and education, Davidson expounds all of his many writings in exhaustive detail, with separate chapters on rabbinic, philosophical, and medical texts.Moses Maimonideshas been recognized as the standard work on a towering figure of Western intellectual history.

The first serious comprehensive study of Maimonides' life and works in English. For anyone who is interested in Maimonides, especially those in areas outside the field of Jewish studies who need to work with texts of this great scholar and on his links with Christian and Islamic thought in the Middle Ages, this erudite, careful, and balanced work will be the standard work for many years to come. --Journal of Religion

We have an honest, if more complex, picture of Maimonides, arguably the most intriguing and influential single medieval Jew, and for that all raders for some time should be grateful. This is a lucid, comprehensive, and expertly informed book that integrates the philosophical, political, medical, and above all rabbinic forces at work in writings of Moses Maimonides. --Speculum

[T]he first serious comprehensive study of Maimonides life and works in English. Davidson is a patient and determined guide. He begins by telling us that we have more information about Maimonides life than about that of any other medieval Jew. He then proceeds to demolish much of what we thought we knew. [T]his erudite, careful, and balanced work will be the standard work for many years to come. --Journal of Religion

Davidson discloses a formidable knowledge of Talmud and rabbinic literature, as well as of the history, science, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy of MaimonidlƒN