126 CHAPTER FIVE
In his youth in al- Andalus he studied “the ancient sciences,” that is to
say: philosophy and the sciences that were translated into Arabic, mostly
from Greek,^6 and this is also what he taught in the still Fatimid Egypt.^7
Ibn al- Qifti notes in par ticular that he mastered mathematics (ahkama
al-riyadiyyat), and that he “got a grip on some things pertaining to
logic” (shadda ashya min al- mantiqiyyat). This peculiar formulation
may mean that Maimonides acquired the knowledge of some parts of
logic. If so, Ibn al- Qifti would be using shadda as a synonym of ahkama.^8
This, however, is an unusual way to convey this idea.^9 With a slight cor-
rection (shada) this sentence could be understood as saying that he learnt
only a smattering of logic,^10 but incomplete mastering of logic is, how-
ever, at odds with Maimonides’ fi rm belief that a solid training in logic,
as in mathematics, belongs to the elementary stage of philosophical edu-
cation.^11 For him “no orderly instruction or learning can be sound save
by the art of logic,” and logic thus serves as a precondition and an in-
strument for the acquisition of the sciences.^12 It seems more likely that
Ibn al- Qifti is referring here to Maimonides’Treatise on Logic.^13 The
defective, and Maimonides corrected them (haqqaqa,aslaha, hadhdhaba); see IQ, 319, as
well as IQ, 392:22. See also T. Langermann, “The Mathematical Writings of Maimonides,”
JQR 75 (1984): 57– 65; T. Lévy, “Maïmonide et les sciences mathématiques,” in Lévy and
Rashed, eds., Maïmonide: philosophe et savant, 219– 52; R. Rashed, “Philosophie et
mathématique selon Maïmonide. Le modèle andalou de rencontre philosophique,” in ibid.,
253–73; G. Freudenthal, “Maimonides’ Philosophy of Sceince,” in Seeskin, The Cambridge
Companion to Maimonides, 134– 66; M. A. Friedman, “Did Maimonides Teach Medicine?
Sources and Assumptions” (forthcoming), 361– 76.
(^6) Maimonides’ abovementioned studies of astronomy are probably subsumed under this
category, too. On Maimonides’ rabbinic and scientifi c education, see Davidson, Moses
Maimonides, 75– 121.
(^7) See IQ, 393:11– 12.
(^8) See E. W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (London, 1893 [reprinted 1984]), 3:1517.
(^9) The peculiarity of the expression may account for its replacement by a simpler, more fa-
miliar term (akhadha) in another edition of the text (Dar al- Mutanabbi [Cairo, n.d.], 209).
The edition does not specify the manuscripts on which it is based.
(^10) Such a formulation appears, for example, in Ibn al- Qifti’s entry on Maimonides’ student
Joseph Ibn Shimon: see IQ, 392. It also appears in the biography of Ghazali, where al-
Subki reports (on the authority of Farisi), that in his childhood in Tus Ghazali acquired a
smattering of knowledge (shadatarfan) in Fiqh, which he later perfected. See Subki,Ta-
baqat al- shafiiyya al- kubra (Cairo, 1968), 6:204. I am indebted for this reference to the
anonymous reader.
(^11) See, for example, Guide, “Epistle Dedicatory” (Dalala, 1; Pines, 3); Guide 3.51 (Dalala,
455:29; Pines, 619).
(^12) See J. L. Kraemer, “Maimonides on the Philosophic Sciences in his Treatise on the Art
of Logic,” in Perspectives on Maimonide, 89; A. Hasnawi, “Réfl exions sur la terminologie
logique de Maïmonide et son contexte farabien: Le Guide des perplexes et le Traité de
logique,” in Lévy and Rashed, eds., Maïmonide: philosophe et savant, 78.
(^13) The verb shadda is attested in the meaning of “binding a book”; 1: On the Treatise on
Art of Logic, see I. Efros, “Maimonides’ Treatise on Logic,” PAAJR 8 (1938); idem, “Mai-