“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 183
only reiterate his position: the resurrection of the dead is an article of
faith, nothing less, nothing more.
“Gates for the Righ teous Nation”:
The Phi losopher as LeaderThe controversy over resurrection exploded late in Maimonides’ life, at
the height of his career. As the controversy revealed, his intellectual repu-
tation did not protect him from severe criticism (nor, after his death, did
it protect his writings from being censored or even burned). The contro-
versy was the direct result of his involvement in politics in the broad sense:
the politics of community leadership as well as the politics of halakhic
ruling. Maimonides could have avoided the unpleasantness had he re-
mained within the domain of pure philosophical speculation. Neither his
temperament, however, nor his philosophical education, allowed him to
choose to remain completely aloof from po litical activity.
Muslim po litical thought, and its impact on Maimonides, has been ex-
tensively studied, and need not be repeated here.^104 The following pages
will only seek to highlight some traits of this philosophy that seem pecu-
liar to Maimonides.
Since Leo Strauss’s early studies scholars have underlined the pivotal
role of po litical philosophy in the medieval world of Islam. The Strauss-
ian approach, which underlines the cardinal role of po litical philosophy
in the medieval Islamic world, raises it to the position of the most impor-
tant aspect of philosophy. The importance of po litical philosophy can,
however, be overemphasized. One example of such an overemphasis con-
cerns the history of Islamic philosophy in al- Andalus, where historians
were led to take the theory for reality. Since the phi losophers have a po-
litical theory, and since they cooperate with the rulers, this cooperation is
sometimes perceived as an application of the phi losophers’ po liticaltheory.
The outcome is depicted as the realization of Plato’s ideal republic, to the
(^104) See, for instance, M. Galston, Politics and Excellence: The Po litical Philosophy of Al-
farabi (Princeton, 1990); Ch. E. Butterworth, ed., The Po litical Aspects of Islamic Philoso-
phy: Essays in Honor of Muhsin Mahdi (Cambridge, Mass., 1992); M. Mahdi, Alfarabi
and the Foundation of Islamic Po litical Philosophy (Chicago, 2001); P. Crone, God’s Rule:
Government and Islam: Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Po litical Thought (New York,
2004), 165– 96; R. Brague, La loi de Dieu: Histoire philosophique d’une alliance (Paris,
2005), 205– 9, 237– 46; W. Z. Harvey, “Maimonides on Human Perfection, Awe and Poli-
tics,” in I. Robinson, L. Kaplan and J. Bauer, eds., The Thought of Moses Maimonides:
Philosophical and Legal Studies (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, 1990), 1– 15; M. Kellner,
“Politics and Perfection: Gersonides vs. Maimonides,” Jewish Po litical Studies Review 6
(1994): 49– 58.