The Maimonides Synagogue ( he, ,
translit
Informal or ''ad hoc'' romanizations of Cyrillic have been in use since the early days of electronic communications, starting from early e-mail and bulletin board systems. : ''Bet Knesset ha-Rambam''; ar, كنيس ابن ميمون), also known as the Rav Moshe Synagogue, is a historic
synagogue located in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
. A synagogue has existed at the site since the 10th century and was subsequently named after the famous
Jewish philosopher, rabbi and physician
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 Tora ...
, after his arrival there in around 1168. It is believed that Maimonides' original tomb is contained within the building.
In March 2010, the Egyptian government completed the restoration of the current building which dates from the late 19th century.
Early history
A synagogue has existed at the site from around two centuries before Maimonides emigrated to Egypt in around 1168, following his exile from
Córdoba, Spain
Córdoba (; ),, Arabic: قُرطبة DIN: . or Cordova () in English, is a city in Andalusia, Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. It is the third most populated municipality in Andalusia and the 11th overall in the country.
The ...
at the hands of the
Almohads
The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire f ...
.
[ Goitein, S.D. ''Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders''. Princeton University Press, 1973 (), p. 208][1954 ''Encyclopedia Americana'', vol. 18, p. 140.] The Almohads had conquered Córdoba in 1148 and threatened the
Jewish community
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 ...
with the choice of
conversion to Islam,
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
, or
exile. Maimonides' family, along with most other
Jews
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 ...
, chose exile.
After spending ten years in southern Spain, they moved to Morocco and then eventually settled in
Fustat
Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by t ...
, Egypt in around 1168. In Egypt, he gained widespread recognition and became a court physician to
Qadi al-Fadil, secretary to
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
. Maimonides studied and worked in a ''
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...
'' attached to the small synagogue.
The synagogue and yeshiva are located in Harat al-Yahud, the
Jewish quarter of
medieval Cairo Medieval Cairo may refer to:
* History of Cairo during the Middle Ages
* Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo ( ar, قاهرة المعز, lit= Al-Mu'izz's Cairo), also called Historic Cairo or Medieval Cairo, refers generically to the historic areas of ...
, and can only be reached on foot. (In the time of Maimonides, 97% of the inhabitants of Harat al-Yahud were Jews.)
After his death in Fustat on December 12, 1204, it is believed that he was buried for a short while at the synagogue before being
reinterred in Tiberias. According to tradition, his bones were placed for a week in a small
shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...
where he used to study and to heal strangers. (Some believe his bones never left
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
.)
19th century: Rebuilding
In the 19th century, another synagogue was built on the site and named in his honor.
20th century: Disuse and decay
![CairoMuskiMaimonidesInside](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/CairoMuskiMaimonidesInside.jpg)
The situation of Egypt's Jews became increasingly precarious in the middle of the 20th century. Rising Arab nationalism, together with increased tensions between Jews and Arabs following the
1948 Arab-Israeli War and later, the
Lavon Affair that led to the
1956 Suez War, led to government restrictions on foreign economic activity which deeply impacted Egypt's Jewish community. Several thousand Jewish residents were expelled from the country following the 1956 war and thousands more fled the hostile social and economic conditions. Egypt's Jewish population eventually dropped from 80,000
to less than 100.
With only about 30 Jews (mostly elderly women) left in Cairo, the synagogue was closed, and almost collapsed due to underground water and earthquakes. The ceiling of the building collapsed in 1992, and the debris was left on the floor.
The slum area in which synagogue was located was littered with garbage.
The head of the
Supreme Council of Antiquities,
Zahi Hawass
Zahi Abass Hawass ( ar, زاهي حواس; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, serving twice. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Wes ...
, said that the synagogue was used for the last time in 1960, and then was allowed to "crumble".
Although it was declared an antiquity in 1986, the condition of the medieval synagogue had deteriorated further by 2005. A
holy ark
A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls.
History
The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron ha- ...
with a broken door was located in the small courtyard, covered with debris. The ark's
Star of David was still present, but was hanging on only by a thread.
21st century: Restoration
In June 2009, the Egyptian government began a year-long restoration project, unveiled in August 2009 by their head of antiquities Zahi Hawass.
The $2 million, 18-month restoration project of the Rav Moshe synagogue, in an area of Cairo once called "the neighborhood of the Jews," was financed by the Egyptian government. The restoration work was finished in March 2010. Along with Maimonides tomb, the synagogue contains two areas that were for prayer and rituals, one of which included a section for women.
Among the synagogue's treasures is a Bible that allegedly was written by Maimonides himself. Former
Israeli ambassador to Egypt,
Zvi Mazel
Zvi Mazel ( he, צבי מזאל; born 4 March 1939) is an Israeli diplomat. He has served as the Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Romania, and Sweden.
Education and work experience
Mazel was born in Bnei Brak, and served in the IDF from 1956 to 1958. ...
, said "the results were spectacular; the original colors were restored almost perfectly".
Inauguration controversy
As restoration work was nearing completion, the Egyptian authorities agreed that the small Jewish community of Cairo would organize a dedication ceremony on March 7, 2010. The official inauguration was planned for the middle of March.
The dedication ceremony was closed to media but attendees said it was an emotional event, especially for the Egyptian-Jewish families invited, many of whom now live in Europe. About 150 people attended, none of them Egyptian officials.
On March 14, 2010 the official inauguration ceremony was canceled. Zahi Hawass explained that the cancellation was due to media reports of Jews "dancing and drinking alcohol in the synagogue" during the private March 7 dedication, which Hawass described as a "provocation to the feelings of hundreds of millions of
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
in Egypt and around the world". Hawass later added that the decision to scrap the ceremony was made at "a time when Muslim holy sites in occupied Palestine face assaults from Israeli occupation forces and settlers...".
Later still, he characterized the cancellation of the ceremony as a "strong slap in the face" to "the Zionist enemy."
Legends and tradition
![CairoMuskiMaimonidesSlab](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/CairoMuskiMaimonidesSlab.jpg)
According to a legend told by
Joseph ben Isaac Sambari
Joseph ben Isaac Sambari (Hebrew: יוסף בן יצחק סמברי; – 1703) also known as Qātāya (Arabic: قاطية) was a 17th century Egyptian Jewish historian and chronicler whose works provide important details about the affairs and con ...
, (c.1640 - 1703), a Jewish-Egyptian chronicler of the 17th century, the people who carried the body of Maimonides to the Sea of Galilee for permanent burial mistakenly left one of his toes behind in the synagogue, which at that time was called the synagogue of Western (
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
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, utc_offset1 ...
ian) Jews. Later, one of the people who carried the body had a dream, in which a wise man of Egypt reminded him about the forgotten toe. The toe was later recovered and buried next to the body.
The synagogue and accompanying ''yeshiva'' have traditionally been considered to have miraculous healing powers.
Until the Egyptian government forbade the practice in 1948, the synagogue was used as a place of healing by the local Jewish community. The ailing person was left to sleep in the special underground room in the hope that the sufferer would dream of Maimonides and get better.
References
{{Coord, 30.0507, N, 31.2583, E, type:landmark, display=title
Medieval Cairo
Synagogue
Synagogues in Cairo