A CRITICAL MIND 141
Babylonians, and Canaanites (the same nations grouped in the Guide
under the name “Sabians”) occupied themselves with this fraud (taut),
which they called “science.”^79 He then proceeds to distinguish this
pseudo-science from astronomy, “that science of the stars which is scien-
tifi cally certain” (hokhmah vaddait, lit.: “certain [or: apodictically
proven] science”). To this true science, extolled in Deuteronomy 4:6 as
“your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations,” Maimo-
nides opposes astrology, which, he says, is intended by the prophet when
he warns [Is. 29:14] that “the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and
the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”^80
TheEpistle on Astrology is, in many ways, a postscript to the Sabian
chapters of the Guide. If we read them together, the notion of hadhayan
becomes clear: it is the pseudo- science that is not based on the evidence of
the senses or on rational argument, the nonconsequential discourse that
presumes to be science.^81
In the Epistle on Astrology, astrologers are called “hozim ba- kokhavim”
(lit.: “those who observe the stars”)^82 and astrology is described as “empty
nonsense” (hevel va- riq), “stupidity” (tipshut), and “sheer lies” (sheqer
ve-kazav). The impact of the whole diatribe is such that one would expect
to see, instead of the factual hozim, another biblical word, hozim (day-
dreamers or hallucinating). It thus does not come as a surprise that we
fi nd the Arabic equivalent of hozim in Maimonides’ attack on astrology
in another, earlier work.
In his introduction to the tenth chapter of the Mishnah in tractate
Sanhedrin (known as Pereq Heleq), Maimonides criticizes a category of
scholars who, taking the midrashim literally, ridicule them. These schol-
ars presume to be wiser and more intelligent than the Sages and say that
the latter were ignorant of the nature of the universe. According to Mai-
monides, “Most prone to fall into this belief are those who have pretense
to practice medicine, and those who rave about the decrees of the stars.
They claim to be cultivated men, physicians and phi losophers. How re-
mote they are from true humanity in the eyes of real phi losophers!”^83
(^79) Cf. Maimonides, Epistles, 479– 81. The astrologers’ claims that a person’s character is
decreed at birth are also described as hadhayanat in the “Eight Chapters”; see Commen-
tary on the Mishnah, Neziqin, 396.
(^80) Epistles, 101; and see note 4, above.
(^81) See also the Epistle to Yemen, where Maimonides dismisses the astrologers’ claim to pre-
dict the future as “things that have no base in reality (umur lahaqiqa la- ha), and which are
governed by chance (ittifaq)”; see Maimonides, Epistles, 103; see also Schwartz, Astral
Magic, 105.
(^82) In reference to Isa. 47:13 (cf. Lerner’s translation, 228).
(^83) Commentary on the Mishnah, Seder Neziqin, on Sanhedrin 10, Introduction, 202:
“wa- akthar ma yaqau fi hadha al- itiqad muddaiyi al-tibb wal-hadhiiyin bi- qadaya