142 CHAPTER FIVE
Astrologers, the hozim ba- kokavim, are called hereal-hadhiiyyin bi-
qadaya al- nujum. Their science is mere raving; Maimonides insists on the
disparity between their philosophical pretenses and their actual intellec-
tual level, just as he did in the Guide concerning the Sabians.^84 In this
paragraph, Maimonides adds two other characteristics that describe the
scholars who fall into this category: they are often physicians (or claim to
be) and they scoff at the wisdom of the Sages. As we have seen above, the
combination of these characteristics recalls Maimonides’ criticism of the
tenth-century freethinking phi losopher and physician Abu Bakr al- Razi.^85
Indeed, Razi seems to have played an important role in the development
of the term hadhayan in Maimonides’ vocabulary.
InGuide 3:12 Maimonides says: “Razi has written a famous book,
which he entitled Divine Things. He [has] fi lled it with the enormity of
his ravings (hadhayanat) and his ignorant notions. Among them there is
a notion that he has thought up, namely, that there is more evil than
good in what exists.”^86 Gellman’s interpretation of Maimonides’ concept
of “ravings” is anchored in this passage. As Gellman understands it, the
notion of the predominance of evil in the world constitutes, for Maimo-
nides, the core of Razi’s “ravings.” Gellman thus proceeds to analyze the
concept of “ravings” in light of Maimonides’ subsequent refutation of
Razi’s notion of the predominance of evil in this world. Maimonides,
however, sees the predominance of evil as only one of the “ignorant no-
tions” found in Razi’s book. Maimonides applies the term “ravings” not
just to this par ticular notion, but to the entire content of Razi’s Divine
Things. Furthermore, it seems that, for him, the “ravings” and the “igno-
rant notions” are two distinguishable categories of fallacies in Razi’s
book.
Maimonides again refers to Razi’s book in his letter to Samuel Ibn Tib-
bon. In this letter, Maimonides dismisses Razi’s book on metaphysics as
worthless, “because Razi was only a physician”; that is, his pretense to
be a phi losopher was unwarranted. Although here Maimonides does not
use the word “ravings” to describe Razi’s book, this description seems to
hang like a shadow over the whole paragraph. Immediately preceding
al-nujum, li- annahum bi- zamihimhudhdhaqhukama falasifa, wa- ma abadahum min al-
insaniyyainda al- falasifaala al-haqiqa.”
(^84) See chap. 2, note 88, above.
(^85) See chap. 2, above (apud note 80 ff.). It is interesting to note that Maimonides’ translator
and fi rst commentator, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, regarded the Sabians as people who took the
biblical stories literally and did not realize their parabolic nature; see his remarks on Guide
3:29, quoted in C. F. Fraenkel, From Maimonides to Samuel ibn Tibbon: The Transforma-
tion of Dalalat al- Ha’irin into the Moreh ha- Nevukhim (Jerusalem, 2007), 142– 43
[Hebrew].
(^86) Guide 3:12 (Dalala, 318; Pines, 441).