A CRITICAL MIND 131
in Aleppo) had a total and unwavering admiration for his teacher Mai-
monides. The criticism is so much out of character here that BernardLewis
regarded it as an additional proof that this Joseph could not possibly be
Maimonides’ student.^32
The reading that understands Ibn al- Qifti’s evaluation of Maimonides
the physician as negative underlines two items that can serve as criteria
for judging a physician: daring and collaboration with other physicians.
In the prevalent reading of this text, daring would be a good quality in a
physician, while de pendency on collaboration with other physicians would
typify a hesitant, unskilled physician.^33
These two items are discussed by Maimonides himself, and a comparison
with his view on their relative merit is revealing. In his treatise On Asthma
Maimonides presents his observations regarding the working methods of
physicians in the different countries where he practiced medicine. Ac-
cording to him, the Egyptians always prefer simple drugs to combined
drugs, and they “recoil from [applying] it [= the stronger drug] because
of their lack of experience with strong treatments.” His note that they
lack experience may sound derogatory, but then he adds that “for this
reason, nothing of their usual treatment produces any harm; in general,
their method succeeds more often than it fails.”^34
Maimonides also mentions the Egyptian collaborative method, saying
that he has “regularly seen in the land of Egypt that only rarely would a
single physician be entrusted with the treatment of a patient from the be-
ginning to the end of his disease.” He points out the possible shortcomings
of this system, but concludes:
if the physicians gather together [for treating a patient], as in the
case of kings and rulers, and debate and argue until they have come
to a decision about what should be done, it is most appropriate and
best. For then the patient benefi ts from the sum of their correct
judgments.... If there are some physicians gathered together and
they remind and assist each other in reaching their goal together
they will achieve the perfection for which they strive.^35(^32) Lewis, who believed that Maimonides’ student was called Joseph Ibn Aqnin, states: “It is
hard to believe that Ibn Aqnin would criticize in this fashion the master he admired.” See
Lewis, “Jews and Judaism in Arab Sources,” 178; and chap. 3, note 18, above.
(^33) See Bos, Maimonides on Asthma, xxviii; and Lewis, “Jews and Judaism,” 172– 73, 178.
(^34) Bos,Maimonides on Asthma, 107. On Maimonides’ advocacy of minimal medical inter-
vention, see Langermann, “L’œuvre médicale de Maïmonide,” 285– 86.
(^35) See the text and translation in Bos, Maimonides on Asthma, 108– 9; and cf. Langermann,
“L’œuvre médicale de Maïmonide,” 291– 92; Bos, “Maimonides’ Medical Works,” 245.