How to Situate Maimonides: An Exchange

To where and what language does the great Jewish philosopher and his name belong?

A monument to Maimonides in his birthplace of Cordoba, Spain. Wikimedia.

A monument to Maimonides in his birthplace of Cordoba, Spain. Wikimedia.
Observation
Lawrence J. Kaplan and Arnold E. Franklin
June 10 2020
About the authors

Lawrence J. Kaplan is professor of rabbinics and Jewish philosophy at McGill University, and, among other publications, is the co-editor of The Thought of Moses Maimonides.

Arnold E. Franklin is associate professor of history and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College in New York. He is the author of This Noble House: Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East (2012) and co-editor of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times (2015).

Last month we published a column by Arnold E. Franklin puzzling over the mystery of Maimonides’ name. Franklin, a professor of medieval religion, attracted such interesting comment from Lawrence Kaplan, himself an eminent scholar of Maimonides, that we decided to publish Kaplan’s comment, along with a final word from Franklin.—The Editors

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