NES 6540 - Moses Maimonides

(crosslisted) MEDVL 6540
(CU-ITL)

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with JWST 4540/MEDVL 4540/NES 4540/RELST 4540/SPAN 4540.

R. Brann.

Moses Maimonides who was born in Cordoba (1138), moved to Fez as a youth and died in Cairo (1204) is regarded by Jewish, Islamic, and Christian tradition alike as the most important Jewish religious intellectual of the classical age of Islam/the High Middle Ages. This seminar will examine Maimonides as the product of his time and place including his complex relationship with Arabo-Islamic culture and, because of his stature as a communal figure, rabbinic scholar, court physician and philosopher, his role as a catalyst for cultural developments. For comparative purposes we also consider Maimonides’ Andalusi contemporary, Ibn Rushd, the philosopher, Muslim jurist, physician and scholar of Islamic law.