RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Mahan Maimonides
win the favor of Louis XIV. by upholding his rights against the Roman see, and then attempts to soothe Innocent XII. by his Histoire du schisme des Grecs (2 vols., 1680); but soon after he took such a strong stand in favor of Louis XIV. against the pope that he was obliged to leave the order. The king named him historiographer, and used his practised pen against the Huguenots in the Histoire du Calvinisme (1682). His collected historical writings (14 vols., 1686-87) include histories of the League (Eng. transl. by Dryden, History of the League, London, 1684), the Crusades (Eng. transl., 1686), the Wycliffites, Gregory the Great, and Leo the Great. (C. Pfender.)
Bibliography: L. Ellies Dupin, Bibliotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques, Paris, 1689-1711; P. Bayle, Dictionary Historical and Critical, iv. 63-66, London, 1737; idem, Critique generals de I'histoire du calvinisme de M. Maimbourg, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1714; F. H. Reusoh, Index der verbotenen Biicher, pp. 583-882, Bonn, 1885; Lichtenberger, ESR, viii. 554-556.
MAIMONIDES, mai-men'i-d6z or -diz, MOSES (Grecized from Maimuni), also called Rambam (formed acrostically from Rabbi Moses ben Maimun), and by the Arabians Abu Amran Musa Obeidallah alkortobi: Jewish rabbi and philosopher; b. at Cordova Mar. 30, 1135; d. at Old Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 13, 1204. He received his early education in the house of his father, and was instructed in natural science and philosophy by Mohammedan teachers. When in 1148 the Almohade Abdelmuman took Cordova and interdicted Judaism, his father fled, and finally settled in 1159 at Fez with his family, where they lived as Mohammedans. The first work of young Maimuni was a justification of this position. In the Iggereth hashemadh, written in Arabic about 1162, he showed that Mohammedanism required neither idolatry, murder, nor unchastity, but simply acknowledgment of Mohammed as prophet, a mere formality, by which one may avoid martyrdom, though it is best to seek a country where one can live according to his religion. [Some good authorities doubt the genuineness of this work.] In April, 1165, Maimuni's family left Morocco and after a short residence in Palestine settled at Old Cairo. There Maimuni spent the remainder of his life. For a time he practised medicine, at the same time preparing his commentary on the Mishna which he completed in 1168. Two years later the government appointed him head of all Jewish congregations in Egypt, and ten years later, about 1180, he completed his legal code, the Mishneh Torah, which soon spread his fame abroad. In 1190 he published his religio-philosophical work, Moreh Nebhukhim, and soon afterward his treatise on the resurrection of the dead; both works were in Arabic. He was buried at Tiberias in Palestine. Maimuni's importance rests on his writings. The first important work was his " Commentary on the Mishna." Before him, aside from the two Talmuds, only glossatory expositions of the Mishna existed. He assumed the task of classifying and explaining the matter contained and implied in that work. In elaborate introductions he discoursed on the nature of prophecy, interjecting remarks on the natural sciences and philosophy. In the special introduction to the chapter called He-
lek in the treatise Sanhedrin, he for the first time defined and formally laid down thirteen articles of the Jewish creed, which in an abbreviated form were received into the Jewish ritual. These articles state: (1) That there is one God, creator of all things; (2) that he is One in the sense that no other shares his divinity (a disavowal of the doctrine of the Trinity); (3) he is incorporeal and formless; (4) he is eternal; (5) he alone is to be worshiped and without any mediator (against Christianity); (6) he ordained prophecy; (7) Moses was the greatest prophet, to whom revelation was delivered in a most complete manner (against Islam) ; (8) law and tradition are the complete expression of the revelation of God; (9) neither can ever be changed (against Christianity and Islam); (10) God is omniscient;
(11) he rewards and punishes the acts of men;
(12) Messiah is still to be expected (against Christians and unbelieving Jews); (13) the dead shall rise again. A truly monumental work was his Mishneh Torah, i.e., " Deuteronomy," also called Yadh ha- Hazakah, i.e., "The Mighty Hand," or simply Yadh. It is a cyclopedia comprising every department of Biblical and Jewish literature. [Portions of this work have been translated into English by Bernard : Main Principle of the Creed and Ethics of the Jews, Cambridge, 1832.] As an appendix to the Yadh he published the " Book of Laws " on the [613] precepts. His third and most important work was the " Guide for the Perplexed," Arabic Dalalat elhalrtn [translated into Hebrew under the title Moreh Nebukim], consisting of three parts. The first part is devoted to the explanation of all expressions which are employed in the Bible in connection with deity. The second part develops his theory of creation, and shows Gen. i.-iv. to be in accord with his cosmology; it deals also with prophecy. The third part deals with the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel, the relation of God to the world, treats of the opposition of good and evil in the world, of God's providence and omniscience, all with the purpose of encouraging the more intelligent to a thorough investigation of the Old Testament. This work contributed more than any other to the progress of rational reformatory efforts in Judaism. Being translated into Latin a short time after its composition, it influenced Christian scholasticism. But it must be stated in praise of the latter that it never explained away the contents of revelation in favor of " reason " to the same degree as did the Jewish scholasticism which preceded it, whose most prominent representative was Maimuni. The anathemas of French rabbis against the study of the " Guide " and its burning by the Inquisition on the basis of its condemnation in 1233 were indeed foolish and without effect, but not without occasion in the rationalizing notions of the author. (G. Dalman.)
Bibliography: The editions of the works of Maimonides are numerous, mostly published in parts which deal with sections of his productions. The editio princeps of the Mishneh Torah is without place and date; numerous editions followed, e.g., Soncino, 1490; Constantinople, 1590; 4 vols., Amsterdam, 1702; Hebrew and Eng., H. H. Bernard, Cambridge, 1832; Hebrew and German, Vienna, 1889; Eng. by J. W. Peppercorne, London, 1838, 1863. His " Guide for the Perplexed " appeared first without place or date (before 1480); then in Hebrew, Venice, 1551; Berlin, 1791; in Latin, Paris, 1520; Basil, 1629;
Mains Majal