6 The Book of Lights

Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion Volume 1, 2022

“…Following-and under the long-lasting influence of-Ibn al-Qifṭī's biographical sketch, Joseph Ibn Shimʿon subsequently also gained considerable fame as a Jewish physician in biographical works by other Arabic writers.78 A development of this kind is found in Ibn Abī Uṣaibiʿah's (1203-1270) short biography in the ʿUyūn al-Anbāʾ, where we can read that he served (ḫadama) not only al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, but also the amīr Fāris al-Dīn Maimūn al-Qaṣrī. 79 The latter resided in Aleppo and was in the service of al-Malik al-Ẓāhir during the last years of his life, dying in 1219, three years after the ruler's death. In a long section of the medical part of his work, al-Baġdādī sharply criticises the physicians of Aleppo in general, and more specifically recounts the scandalous events surrounding the untimely death of the Ayyubid ruler in 1216.…”

“…Because you will not have certainty from the Bible, nor from faith, nor from divine revelation, nor from experience, nor from topical arguments, or from anything else. 79 In Hus's view, miracles can be claimed arbitrarily. If a person commits a severe crime for which he goes to prison, vows to the "Blood of Christ" at Wilsnack that he will become free, and finally his chains are violently broken, this does not prove that the blood of Wilsnack liberated him.…”

“…On the Ḥug ha-ʿIyyun, see Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 309-61, esp. 331ff 79. On the circles and straight lines, see Ḥayim Viṭal, ʿEṣ Ḥayyim, 1.2; on the three heads and bodies (imagery taken from Idra ʾ Rabba ʾ), see ʿEṣ Ḥayyim, Šaʿar ha-Kelalim; on the body of zeʿir anpin, see ʿEṣ Ḥayyim, 25.1.…”