person · P0229
Rambam רבי משה בן מימון
"From Moshe to Moshe, none arose like Moshe." Codifier of the entire Oral Torah in the Mishneh Torah, philosopher of the Guide, physician of Saladin's court at Fustat. He received from his father R' Maimon, heir of the Rif's line through Ibn Migash — and it is his own introduction to the Mishneh Torah, counting forty generations back to Moshe, that this atlas's chain of reception follows throughout.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רבי משה בן מימון
- Also known as
- Maimonides, Moshe ben Maimon, HaNesher HaGadol
- Era
- rishonim
- Received the mesorah from
- Rabbi Maimon (the Dayan)
- Parents
- Rabbi Maimon (the Dayan)
II. When
- Traditional
- 4898–4965 AM
- Academic
- 1138–1204 CE (birth year 1135 in older reckonings)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈67 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Cordoba, Fez, Fustat, Tveria
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| His first and constant teacher was his father R' Maimon; he honors Ibn Migash (who died when Moshe was an infant) as "my teacher" through his father's transmission — an honorific this atlas records as a claim, deliberately not an edge.
The Ibn Migash "my teacher" usage is textual reverence for a chain through his father, not personal reception — a small model of this atlas's central distinction.
|
tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Mishneh Torah gathers the whole Oral Torah "so that a person shall need no other work in the world for any law of Israel" — his own statement of purpose in the introduction. | rabbinic tradition | ★★★★★ | |
| That same introduction is the chain's charter: it lists the forty generations from Rav Ashi back to Moshe "from the mouth of the Almighty" — the very received_from spine this atlas draws for the amoraic era and earlier. | rabbinic tradition | ★★★★★ | |
| Born in Córdoba, exiled by the Almohads through Fez and Eretz Yisrael, he settled in Fustat, where Genizah documents — some autograph — anchor his biography with rare documentary solidity. | external archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| Died 20 Tevet 4965 (December 1204) at Fustat; body taken for burial to Tiberias.
The Tiberias burial is a near-contemporary tradition, not a documented interment record; the modern site is a later identification.
|
tradition | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Practised as a physician at Fustat and served the household of al- Qadi al-Fadil, Saladin's vizier; his medical career is recorded independently in Arabic biographical literature.
Gold-standard non-Jewish corroboration. Both entries exist; the research pass has not verified page numbers in a specific edition.
|
external | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Held the office of Ra'is al-Yahud (head of the Jews) in Fatimid/Ayyubid Egypt; the office and his tenure are attested in Cairo Genizah documents.
The office is documentary; the exact years of tenure (and whether it was held twice) are debated.
|
external | ★★★☆☆ |
|
| His younger brother David, a gem merchant, drowned in the Indian Ocean carrying the family capital; Rambam described the loss and a subsequent year of illness in a letter.
An autograph fragment relating to David also survives from the Genizah; the research pass has not verified its shelfmark and give none.
|
rabbinic external | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Completed the Commentary on the Mishnah in 1168 CE while in Egypt, and the Mishneh Torah roughly a decade later; both completions are recorded in his own colophons.
The colophon to the Mishnah commentary is not in Sefaria's text, and Sefaria's Mishneh Torah introduction text is empty via the API; sefaria fields omitted per the research source's instruction to verify before ingest.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Corresponded across the Mediterranean and beyond: Iggeret Teiman was sent to Yaakov al-Fayyumi in Yemen, and the Moreh Nevuchim was composed in Judeo-Arabic for his student Yosef ben Yehudah.
Both addressees are named in the works' own opening matter.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★★ |
|