A CRITICAL MIND 137
physician, and like Maimonides, he speaks of ridiculing Galen for his
views. But in Amiri’s text the ridicule is explicitly connected to the state-
ment that the appropriate appellation for Galen is “the physician,” de-
spite his aspirations to be considered a phi losopher. It is interesting to
note that for Amiri, as for Maimonides, the modern- day example of a
physician who is unduly considered a phi losopher is Abu Bakr al- Razi,
about whom Amiri says: “The extraordinary thing about the people of
our time is that, when they see a man has read Euclid’s book and mas-
tered the principles of logic, they describe him as a Sage.... Thus they
ascribe wisdom to Muhammad b. Zakariyya al- Razi: because of his pro-
fi ciency in medicine, in spite of his various ravings (hadhayan)”^60 Amiri’s
work circulated widely, and was used extensively by Muslim writers, even
when they did not cite their source.^61 We cannot be sure that Maimonides
readAmiri’s work, but it stands to reason that a similar account, in
which Galen the physician is ridiculed, reached Maimonides. It may even
have been the case that such an account fi gured in the version of Farabi’s
words as read by Maimonides. Even if Farabi had only said “Galen the
physician,” however, Maimonides could have felt himself to be on solid
ground when interpreting this appellation to be strongly pejorative.
We can thus complete our picture of the image that Maimonides had of
medicine. Technically speaking, medicine is a science, but its limits are
well defi ned: the physician who oversteps these limits will gain only
scorn. Maimonides’ reliance on Farabi in the evaluation and description
of medicine thus refl ects his ambivalence toward the profession he him-
self practiced and studied late into the night.
Maimonides’ refl ections on medicine highlight his continuous monitor-
ing of human intellectual activities. On the one hand, he avidly strives for
the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, pushing himself to ex-
haustion in the desire to learn more. On the other hand, he restrains the
craving for unattainable knowledge and warns against false pretense that
comes with it. He repeatedly admonishes the student of metaphysics not
to be like Elisha ben Abuya, rushing forward as if there were no limita-
tions on human intellect, but to hold back.^62 And he repeatedly admon-
ishes the physician to tread carefully, consult others and refrain from
(^60) See below, apud note 89. Razi was painfully aware of this kind of criticism; see his Kitab
al-sira al- falsafi yya, in Rasail falsafi yya, ed. P. Kraus (reprinted Beirut, 1982), 109:15– 16.
(^61) ForAmiri’s sources for this specifi c passage and for his quotation by others, see Row-
son’s commentary, A Muslim Phi losopher on the Soul and Its Fate, 216, and also the intro-
duction, 29.
(^62) See chap. 2, notes 73– 74, above; and see Langermann, “Maimonides and the Sciences,”
167.