ABSTRACT
Moses Maimonides, the greatest philosopher of the twelfth century, was born in Cordova but when the Almohades came to power he and his family were forced to emigrate. After travelling through Spain and North Africa, Maimonides eventually settled in Cairo where he wrote numerous studies ranging from halakhah to philosophy. The Guide for the Perplexed was deliberately written for the intellectual elite. In the introduction Maimonides explains that his book was intended only for those whose study of logic, mathematics, natural science and metaphysics had led them to a state of perplexity about seeming contradictions between the Torah and human reason. Maimonides insisted that God withholds prophetic inspiration from certain individuals but those whom he has selected teach speculative truth and adherence to the Torah. Unlike Aristotelian philosophers, Maimonides conceived of God's providence as concerned with each person.
