Maimonides in His World. Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker

A CRITICAL MIND 135

repetition, because the practice of this art [of medicine] is subordi-

nate to [theoretical] speculation and refl ection (nazar wa- taammul)....

Knowledge is the root (asl) and practice is the branch (far
uhu), and

there is no branch without the root.^49

This view of medicine is refl ected in the way Maimonides practiced it. As
Ibn al- Qifti’s report testifi es, Maimonides had perfected his knowledge of
“the root”— the theoretical part of medicine— before moving on to “the
branch,” the actual practice. He himself was trained by accompanying
other doctors and by observing them in their practice, and he appreciates
the hands- on learning.^50 At the same time, he sharply criticizes physicians
who rely on experience (tajriba) alone. While medicine is not a pure sci-
ence, the physician cannot forgo the use of scientifi c methods, and Mai-
monides insists on the need to fi nd the medical “proof” and to use ana-
lytical reasoning (qiyas) in the study of medical etiology.^51

The physician most admired by Maimonides’ was Galen,^52 and he also re-
lied on the medical opinions of Hippocrates and of Abu Bakr al- Razi. In
his general, theoretical observations regarding the art of medicine, how-
ever, he often quotes Farabi. This would not be surprising in philosophy,
where Maimonides’ admiration for Farabi is amply attested.^53 In the realm
of medicine, however, these extensive quotations deserve to be noted.
Like other Islamic phi losophers, Farabi had studied medicine, but as far
as we know he had never practiced it.^54 Maimonides’ choice to rely on
him rather than on the great physicians is, therefore, puzzling. The solu-
tion of this puzzle lies in the tension between Maimonides’ deep involve-
ment in the practice of medicine, on the one hand, and the place he
grants it among human intellectual quests, on the other
In chapter 15 of the second part of the Guide Maimonides quotes
Farabi as having held Galen in “extreme contempt,” because of the latter’s
agnostic position concerning the question of whether the world is created
or eternal.^55 Georges Vajda, who was able to identify Farabi’s original

(^49) Ibid., 97.
(^50) Note, for example, the difference between the way he reports on procedures that he him-
self has seen tested (jarrabahuhudhdhaq al- atibba bi’l-maghrib wa- raaynahu
iyanan;
Bos,Maimonides on Asthma, 76); and the ones he had learnt only by received instruction
(akhadhnaha talqinan; ibid., 78; compare Bos’s translation there).
(^51) See Langermann, “L’œuvre médicale de Maïmonide,” 292– 93.
(^52) SeeMedical Aphorisms (Pirqei Moshe), ed. Muntner, 25, #59; Davidson, Moses Maimo-
nides, 85– 86; Bos, Medical Aphorisms, xxiv– xxv.
(^53) See chap. 2, notes 16– 19, above; chap. 4, note 91, above.
(^54) See IAU, 603.
(^55) “Istakhaffa bi- Jalinus kull al- istikhfaf”: Dalala, 203; Pines, 292. In the twenty- fi fth chap-
ter of his Medical Aphorisms Maimonides discusses at length Galen’s agnostic position