prehensive intellect. Only a genius, master of all the sciences,
combining soundness of judgment and clearness of insight with great
mental vigor and depth, can succeed in reconciling the divergent
principles of theology and speculation, if such reconciliation be within
the range of the possible. At Cordova, in 1135, when the sun of Arabic
culture reached its zenith, was born Maimonides, the man gifted with
this all-embracing mind.

Many incidents in his life, not less interesting than his philosophic
development, have come down to us. His father was his first teacher. To
escape the persecutions of the Almohades, Maimonides, then thirteen
years old, removed to Fez with his family. There religious persecution
forced Jews to abjure their faith, and the family of Maimon, like many
others, had to comply, outwardly at least, with the requirements of
Islam. At Fez Maimonides was on intimate terms with physicians and
philosophers. At the same time, both in personal intercourse with them
and in his writings, he exhorted his pseudo-Mohammedan brethren to
remain true to Judaism. This would have cost him his life, had he not
been rescued by the kindly offices of Mohammedan theologians. The
feeling of insecurity induced his family to leave Fez and join the
Jewish community in Palestine. "They embarked at dead of night. On the
sixth day of their voyage on the Mediterranean, a frightful storm arose;
mountainous waves tossed the frail ship about like a ball; shipwreck
seemed imminent. The pious family besought God's protection. Maimonides
vowed that if he were rescued from threatening death, he would, as a
thank-offering for himself and his family, spend two days in fasting and
distributing alms, and devote another day to solitary communion with
God. The storm abated, and after a month's voyage, the vessel ran into
the harbor of Accho."[38] The travellers met with a warm welcome, but
they tarried only a brief while, and finally settled permanently in
Egypt. There, too, disasters befell Maimonides, who found solace only in
his implicit reliance on God and his enthusiastic devotion to learning.
It was then that Maimonides became the religious guide of his brethren.
At the same time he attained to eminence in his medical practice, and
devoted himself zealously to the study of philosophy and the natural
sciences. Yet he did not escape calumny, and until 1185 fortune refused
to smile upon him. In that year a son, afterwards the joy and prid