e of
his heart, was born to him. Then he was appointed physician at the court
of Saladin, and so great was his reputation that Richard Coeur de Lion
wished to make him his physician in ordinary, but Maimonides refused the
offer. Despite the fact that his works raised many enemies against him,
his influence grew in the congregations of his town and province. From
all sides questions were addressed to him, and when religious points
were under debate, his opinion usually decided the issue. At his death
at the age of seventy great mourning prevailed in Israel. His mortal
remains were moved to Tiberias, and a legend reports that Bedouins
attacked the funeral train. Finding it impossible to move the coffin
from the spot, they joined the Jews, and followed the great man to his
last resting-place. The deep reverence accorded him both by the moral
sense and the exuberant fancy of his race is best expressed in the brief
eulogy of the saying, now become almost a proverb: "From Moses, the
Prophet, to Moses ben Maimon, there appeared none like unto Moses."

In three different spheres Maimonides' work produced important results.
First in order stand his services to his fellow-believers. For them he
compiled the great Codex, the first systematic arrangement, upon the
basis of Talmudic tradition, of all the ordinances and tenets of
Judaism. He gave them a system of ethics which even now should be
prized, because it inculcates the highest possible ethical views and the
most ideal conception of man's duties in life. He explained to them,
almost seven hundred years ago, Islam's service to mankind, and the
mission Christianity was appointed by Providence to accomplish.

His early writings reveal the fundamental principles of his subsequent
literary work. An astronomical treatise on the Jewish calendar, written
in his early youth, illustrates his love of system, but his peculiar
method of thinking and working is best shown in the two works that
followed. The first is a commentary on parts of the Talmud, probably
meant to present such conclusions of the Babylonian and the Jerusalem
Talmud as affect the practices of Judaism. The second is his Arabic
commentary on the Mishna. He explains the Mishna simply and clearly from
a strictly rabbinical point of view--a point of view which he never
relinquished, permitting a deviation only in questions not affecting
conduct. Master of the abundant material of Jewish literature, he felt
it to be one of