AN ALMOHAD “FUNDAMENTALIST”? 79
for him abstract constructs. The Almohads, on the other hand, offered a
living model: a po litical regime that, despite the fact that it persecuted
Maimonides’ own people, presented some traits with which Maimonides
could identify.^111
As in the domain of law, so also in hermeneutic and po litical theory
Maimonides seems more receptive of Almohad thinking than Averroes.
The status of Maimonides within his own community was strikingly dif-
ferent from that of the Muslim phi losophers of his generation within
their society. While the latter had no communal authority unless it was
bestowed upon them by a Muslim ruler, Maimonides was (besides his
role as a physician at the Ayyubid court) the leader of the Jewish com-
munity. As the spiritual leader of a minority group, Maimonides could
feel, perhaps more than a Muslim phi losopher marginalized in the court,
that he was able to shape the minds of his fl ock. The position of the leader
of a minority group allowed him, paradoxically, more freedom to adopt
Almohad ideology than that left to his Muslim counterpart.^112 For Mai-
monides, the Almohad revolution could serve as a source of inspiration,
precisely because (unlike for an Ibn Rushd, for example) his applications
of Almohad ideas were not monitored and could not be manipulated by
Almohad rulers. As a member of a religious (and ethnic)minority, Mai-
monides was barred from any real participation in government. His dis-
tance from the center of Almohad ideology may explain why Maimo-
nides was, perhaps, less irked by it than Averroes might have been.^113 In
other words, perhaps paradoxically, it may have been precisely Maimo-
nides’ marginal social position that permitted him to espouse Almohad
ideas. He watched Almohad practices just as he read Arabic po litical
philosophy, and both of these sources served him as building blocks for
constructing his own ideology, integrating both models into his reading
of the Jewish texts. He could thus construct a model image of kingship
and sovereignty, which he could uphold as the true image of the Jewish
polity.
(^111) The phenomenon of thorough acculturation and adaptation, which results in an imita-
tion of the persecutor by the persecuted, is well known. See, for instance, I. Y. Yuval, Two
Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians (Tel Aviv, 2000), 30– 31, 36
[Hebrew]; I wish to thank Yoram Bilu and Israel Yuval for discussion of this phenomenon
with me.
(^112) See Stroumsa, “The Literary Corpus”; idem, “Philosopher- King or Philosopher-
Courtier? Theory and Reality in the Falasifa’s Place in Islamic Society,” in C. De la Puente,
ed.,Identidades Marginales (Madrid, 2003), 453– 58; and see chap. 6, below.
(^113) At the time of writing the Guide, Maimonides was also physically distant from the cen-
ter of Almohad power, but this was not the case when he began writing the Mishneh
Torah.