130 CHAPTER FIVE
alone, because he [felt that he] lacked collaboration^28 [with others]. He
had no skill either (in treating [the sick] or prescribing a regimen [for the
healthy].”^29 We should fi rst of all note that in the pre sentation quoted
above, Ibn al- Qifti’s information appears as one continuous evaluation.
This pre sentation, however, is grossly misleading. Ibn al- Qifti’s entry is
arranged in chronological order, beginning with Maimonides’ youth and
education in al- Andalus. Just as he discusses Maimonides’ education in
mathematics and his youthful composition in logic, he recounts his early
achievements in medicine. He thus reports: “He studied medicine there
[that is, in al- Andalus], and knew its theory well, but did not acquire
confi dence in practice.”^30 This description is not meant to sum up Ibn al-
Qifti’s evaluation of the physician Maimonides, but rather to report on
his accomplishments before he left al- Andalus. After reporting on this
initial stage, Ibn al- Qifti discusses the Almohad persecution and its effect
on Maimonides’ family until Maimonides fi nally settled in Egypt, which
is where he eventually began to work as a physician. From Maimonides’
own writings it appears that a signifi cant part of his clinical training was
indeed done after he left al- Andalus, in the years spent in North Africa
(which are not mentioned by Ibn al- Qifti).
The other part of Ibn al- Qifti’s supposedly negative evaluation is equally
problematic. While the fi rst sentence is quite clear (“he used to work
with other physicians”), the reading of the last part of the text is uncer-
tain, and even in the proposed reading the syntax remains rather awk-
ward. The text is thus translated ad sensum. For such a translation to be
valid, however, one has to assume that we can be certain regarding the
gist of the text, and that it is indeed intended to present a negative evalu-
ation of Maimonides’ expertise. In the present case, such a presupposi-
tion is unwarranted, relying as it does only on the very text it seeks to
clarify.
Furthermore, although physicians, like phi losophers, could sharplycrit-
icize one another, in this par ticular case the text does not fi t the characters.
Ibn al- Qifti’s main source on Maimonides must have been Maimonides’
student Joseph Ibn Shimon, Ibn al- Qifti’s intimate friend, of whose medi-
cal expertise Ibn al- Qifti had a very high opinion;^31 and Joseph (himself a
renowned physician who ministered to high offi cials of the Zahiri court
(^28) The reading is unclear: rifqan, waqafan, or wifqan; the Cairo edition (on 210) reads
rafiqan.
(^29) IQ, 318; Bos, Maimonides on Asthma, xxviii.
(^30) IQ, 317:17: wa- qaraa al-tibb hunak fa- ajadahuilman, wa- lam yakun lahu jassara fi’l-
amal.
(^31) According to Ibn al- Qifti, Joseph “had studied medicine in his city of origin [i.e., Ceuta],
and excelled in it”; see IQ, 318.