Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations xix
Chapter One: Maimonides and Mediterranean Culture 1
Mediterranean Cultures 3
Maimonides as a Mediterranean Thinker 6
Horizons 13
Transformations in the Jewish World 18
Maimonides and Saadia 22
Chapter Two: The Theological Context of Maimonides' Thought 24
Islamic Theology 24
Heresies, Jewish and Muslim 38
Chapter Three: An Almohad "Fundamentalist"? 53
Almohads 53
Maimonides and the Almohads 59
Legal Aspects 61
Theology 70
Exegesis and Political Philosophy 73
Philosophy and Astronomy 80
Conclusion 82
Chapter Four: La Longue Durée: Maimonides as a Phenomenologist of Religion 84
Sabians 84
Maimonides as an Historian of Religion 106
"A Wise and Understanding People?": The Religion of the People 111
Chapter Five: A Critical Mind: Maimonides as Scientist 125
Medicine and Science 125
"Ravings": Maimonides' Concept of Pseudo-Science 138
Chapter Six: "From Moses to Moses": Maimonides' Vision of Perfection 153
"True Felicity": The Hereafter in Maimonides' Thought 153
Issues of Life and Death:
The Controversy Regarding Resurrection 165
"Gates for the Righteous Nation": The Philosopher as Leader 183
Conclusion 189
Bibliography 193
Index 219

While the great medieval philosopher, theologian, and physician Maimonides is acknowledged as a leading Jewish thinker, his intellectual contacts with his surrounding world are often described as related primarily to Islamic philosophy. Maimonides in His World challenges this view by revealing him to have wholeheartedly lived, breathed, and espoused the rich Mediterranean culture of his time.
Sarah Stroumsa argues that Maimonides is most accurately viewed as a Mediterranean thinker who consistently interpreted his own Jewish tradition in contemporary multicultural terms. Maimonides spent his entire life in the Mediterranean region, and the religious and philosophical traditions that fed his thought were those of the wider world in which he lived. Stroumsa demonstrates that he was deeply influenced not only by Islamic philosophy but by Islamic culture as a whole, evidence of which she finds in his philosophy as well as his correspondence and legal and scientific writings. She begins with a concise biography of Maimonides, then carefully examines key aspects of his thought, including his approach to religion and the complex world of theology and religious ideas he encountered among Jews, Christians, Muslims, and even heretics; his views about science; the immense and unacknowledged impact of the Almohads on his thought; and his vision of human perfection.
This insightful cultural biography restores Maimonides to his rightful place among medieval philosophers and affirms his central relevance to the study of medieval Islam.

Sarah Stroumsa is the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she currently serves as rector. Her books include Freethinkers of Medieval Islam.