Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta
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Joseph ben Judah ( he, יוסף בן יהודה ''Yosef ben Yehuda'') of Ceuta ( 1160–1226) was a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
physician and poet, and disciple of
Moses Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...
. Maimonides wrote his work, the ''
Guide for the Perplexed ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' ( ar, دلالة الحائرين, Dalālat al-ḥā'irīn, ; he, מורה נבוכים, Moreh Nevukhim) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish the ...
'' for Joseph.


Life

For the first 25 years of his life ben Judah lived with his father, who was an artisan at
Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
then part of the
Almohad Empire The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the Tawhid, unity of God) was a North African Berbers, Berber M ...
. He left the
Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
when he was about twenty-five years old, and was already engaged in the practice of medicine. When not occupied with professional work he wrote Hebrew poems, which were known to
al-Ḥarizi Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi ( he, יהודה בן שלמה אלחריזי, ''Yehudah ben Shelomo al-Harizi'', ar, يحيا بن سليمان بن شاؤل أبو زكريا الحريزي اليهودي من أه ...
, who speaks highly of them in his "Taḥkemoni". Maimonides, to whom Joseph sent his poems together with other compositions from Alexandria, was not so lavish with his praise. He appreciated only the great longing for higher studies which found expression in Joseph's poems. Joseph went from Alexandria to Fustat (
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
) and studied logic, mathematics, and astronomy under Maimonides. Maimonides likewise expounded the writings of the Prophets, because Joseph seemed perplexed as to the possibility of reconciling the teachings of the Prophets with the results of metaphysical research. Maimonides advised patience and systematic study; but the disciple left before Maimonides had completed his course of lectures on the Prophets. His stay with Maimonides was short: less than two years. Joseph went further east and settled in
Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...
. Here he established himself as a medical practitioner, married, and made a successful commercial journey which enabled him to live henceforth independently and free from care. It was probably in the course of this journey that he witnessed at
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
the burning of the works of the philosopher 'Abd al-Salam (1192). After Joseph's departure from Fusṭaṭ, the intercourse between master and student was continued in writing. Maimonides's '' The Guide for the Perplexed'' was written for Joseph and for those like him who found it difficult to harmonize the results of philosophical research with the teachings of the Prophets. Joseph, however, was not convinced; for he writes allegorically to his master as follows: :"Thy daughter Kimah .e., Maimonides' method of reconciling theology and philosophy: the most difficult point in his theory seems to have been the explanation of prophecy whom I loved and married according to law and custom, in the presence of two witnesses, 'Abd Allah and Ibn Rushd, turned her face from me to follow other men. There must be something wrong in her education. Restore the wife to her husband, 'for he is a prophet.'" Maimonides replies in the same style, declaring the innocence of his daughter and the guilt of the husband; and he advises his disciple to have faith in God, and to be more modest and more careful in his utterances lest he bring evil upon himself. Joseph remained, however, a true disciple of his master. He abandoned his other pursuits and wished to open a school. Maimonides dissuaded him from the undertaking, unless he should do it without seeking material profit from his teaching. When, thirty years later, al-Ḥarizi visited Aleppo (1217) he found Joseph in the zenith of his glory. He praised him as the "Western light," and applied to him the words of Scripture, "and Joseph was ruler over the whole land; he supplied food for all". He must indeed have had great authority when he defended his master and silenced the opposition expressed by some rabbis in Baghdad against the works of Maimonides. Maimonides exhorted Joseph to moderation, begging him, being young in years, not to oppose an old rabbi whose authority was recognized in the congregation. Joseph was twice married: by the first wife he had two daughters; by the second, several sons.


Works

Joseph's poems are all lost except one in praise of Maimonides, and the beginning of another preserved by al-Ḥarizi. His only other surviving work is a dissertation in Arabic on the problem of Creation. This appears (but is not certain) to have been written before his contact with Maimonides—the opinions attributed to philosophy are those of
Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
. It is entitled ''Ma'amar bimehuyav ha-metsiut ve'eykhut sidur ha-devarim mimenu vehidush ha'olam'' (''A Treatise as to (1) Necessary Existence (2) The Procedure of Things from the Necessary Existence and (3) The Creation of the World''). In it, as summarised by Sirat, "the necessity of God's existence is first demonstrated by Avicenna's proof of contingency, but this demonstration is, as the author says, that of the philosophers, and seems to him less convincing than that proposed by the theologians—the ''
mutakallimūn ''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
'', who affirm not only the existence of a necessary being, but the temporal creation of the world, which cannot be deduced by philosophical demonstration. In effect, only divine choice and will can explain the multiplicity evident in the world, for out of an absolutely One and Only God only unity can necessarily proceed; the multiplicity that exists in fact is therefore an act of will and not the consequence of a necessary cause".Colette Sirat, ''A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages'', p. 206. Cambridge University Press, 1990.


References


Bibliography

*
Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (30 March 1816, Prostějov, Moravia, Austrian Empire – 24 January 1907, Berlin) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider ( 1782; ...
, in ''
Ersch and Gruber Johann Samuel Ersch (23 June 1766 – 16 January 1828) was a German bibliographer, generally regarded as the founder of German bibliography. Biography He was born in Großglogau (now Głogów), in Silesia. In 1785 he entered the University of H ...
'', Encyc. section ii., part 31, pp. 45 et seq.; * Adolf Neubauer, in '' Monatsschrift'', 1870, pp. 348 et seq.; * Michael Friedländer, ''
Guide of the Perplexed of Maimonides A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Expl ...
'', part i., note 1. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ceuta, Joseph ben Judah of Medieval Jewish poets Medieval Jewish physicians of Egypt 1160 births 1226 deaths Year of birth uncertain People from Ceuta 13th-century Jews People from the Almohad Caliphate Almohad poets Physicians from the Ayyubid Sultanate