Al-Harizi’s Translation of Guide of the Perplexed II,25 and the Philosophical Implications for the Question of Creation
Abstract
This article focuses on the various translations of an important chapter regarding the question of creation in Maimonides’s Guide II,25. I will try to explain the differences between the original Judeo-Arabic text and the R. Ibn Tibbon translation on the one hand, and the Al-Harizi translation and the Latin translation on the other hand, and account for some of the differences of interpretation. The first part of the article will describe the original meaning of the chapter and the internal tension between the different arguments that Maimonides explores. These internal tensions and contradictions can be interpreted as an indication that Maimonides was hiding his true esoteric eternalist opinion. In the second part of the article, I will analyze Al-Harizi’s translation and show that he made the text more coherent and more supportive of the creationist interpretation of Maimonides.
Literaturhinweise
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Schwartz, Yosef. 2002. “To Thee is silence praise”: Meister Eckhart’s reading in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (Heb.). Tel Aviv: Tel-Aviv University Press.
Shiffman, Yair. 1999. ‘The differences between the translations of Maimonides’ “Guide of the Perplexed” by Falaquera, Ibn Tibbon and Al-Harizi, and their textual and philosophical implications’. Journal of Semitic Studies 44, pp. 47–61.
Strauss, Leo. 1952. ‘The Literary Character of the Guide for the Perplexed’. In Persecution and the Art of Writing, by Leo Strauss. Glencoe: Free Press.
Wohlman, Avital. 1990. Thomas d’Aquin et Maïmonide. Un dialogue exemplaire. Paris: Cerf.
Dahan, Gilbert. 2004, ‘Maïmonide dans les controverses universitaires du XIIIe siècle’. In Maïmonide, philosophe et savant (1138-1204), edited by. T. Lévy and R. Rashed. Louvain: Peteers, pp. 367–393.
Davidson, Herbert. 2005. Moses Maimonides – the Man and his Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davis, Daniel. 2011. Method and Metaphysics in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dienstag, Jacob I. 1994. ‘Creation in Maimonides—Bibliography’. Da’at 32–33, pp. 247–267.
Di Segni, Diana. 2016. ‘Traces of a Vernacular Language in the Latin Translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed’. Recherches de Theologie et Philosophie Medievals 83, pp. 21–48.
Fox, Marvin. 1990. ‘A new view of Maimonides’ Method of Contradiction’. In Interpreting Maimonides: Studies in Methodology, Metaphysic and Moral Philosophy, by Marvin Fox. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fraenkel, Carlos. 2007. From Maimonides to Samuel ibn Tibbon: The Transformation of the Dalālat al-Ḥāʾirīn into the Moreh ha-Nevukhim (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Magnes Press.
Fraenkel, Carlos. 2009. ‘From Maimonides to Samuel Ibn Tibbon: interpreting Judaism as a philosophical religion’. In Traditions of Maimonideanism, edited by Carlos Fraenkel. Leiden: Brill, pp. 177–211.
Hasselhoff, Görge. 2004. Dicit Rabbi Moyses: Studien zum Bild von Moses Maïmonides im lateinischen Westen vom 13. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
Harvey, Steven. 2003. ‘Arabic into Hebrew: The Hebrew Translation Movement and the Influence of Averroes upon Jewish Thought’. In The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Thought, edited by D. H. Frank and O. Leaman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 258–280.
Hyman, Arthur. 1998. ‘Interpreting Maimonides’. J. A. Buijus (ed.), Maimonides: A Collection of Critical Essays, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Kellner, Menahem. 1991. Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People. New York: SUNY.
Klein-Braslavy, Sarah. 1996. King Solomon and Philosophical Esotericism in the Thought of Maimonides. Jerusalem: Magnes press.
Kreisel, Howard. 2001. Prophecy: The History of an Idea in Medieval Jewish Philosophy. Amsterdam: Springer.
Kreisel, Howard. 2008. ‘The Guide of the Perplexed and the Art of Concealment’ (Heb.). In By the Well: Studies in Jewish Philosophy and Halakhic Thought Presented to Gerald J. Blidstein, edited by U. Ehrlich, H. Kreisel and D. Lasker. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press.
Lemler, David. 2015. Création du monde et arts d’écrire dans la philosophie juive médiévale (Xe-XVe siècles). Thèse de doctorat de Philosophie, école doctorale de Ecole Pratique des Hautes études.
Lorberbaum, Yair. 2002. ‘On Contradictions, Rationality, Dialectics, and Esotericism in Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed’. The Review of Metaphysics 55, pp. 722–735.
Rigo, Catarina. 2019. ‘Dux neutrorum and the Jewish Tradition of the Guide of the Perplexed’. In Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in Translation, edited by J. Stern, J.T. Robinson, and Y. Shemesh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 81–139.
Sadik, Shalom. 2016. ‘Eckhart – Lost in Translation: La traduction de Sh-h-r par Yehuda Alharizi et ses implications philosophiques’. VIVARIUM 54, pp. 125–145.
Sadik, Shalom. 2021. ‘The Meaning of “מפורסמות” in the Thought of Maimonides and his Philosophical Sources’. JSIJ 21.
Sadik, Shalom. Forthcoming. ‘Esoteric secrets arising from the luminary of the darkness’ (Sodot Filosofim Ha-Olim Mi-Me’or Ha-Afeila), Tema.
Scheindlin, Raymond. 2019. ‘Al-Harizi’s Translation of the Guide’. In Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed in Translation, edited by J. Stern, J.T. Robinson, and Y. Shemesh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 55-79.
Schwartz, Dov. 2001. Contradiction and Concealment in Medieval Jewish Thought, Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press.
Schwartz, Yosef. 2019. ‘Persecution and the Art of Translation: Some New Evidence Concerning the Latin Translation of Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed’. Yod 22, pp. 49–77.
Schwartz, Yosef. 2002. “To Thee is silence praise”: Meister Eckhart’s reading in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (Heb.). Tel Aviv: Tel-Aviv University Press.
Shiffman, Yair. 1999. ‘The differences between the translations of Maimonides’ “Guide of the Perplexed” by Falaquera, Ibn Tibbon and Al-Harizi, and their textual and philosophical implications’. Journal of Semitic Studies 44, pp. 47–61.
Strauss, Leo. 1952. ‘The Literary Character of the Guide for the Perplexed’. In Persecution and the Art of Writing, by Leo Strauss. Glencoe: Free Press.
Wohlman, Avital. 1990. Thomas d’Aquin et Maïmonide. Un dialogue exemplaire. Paris: Cerf.
Veröffentlicht
2023-07-17
Zitationsvorschlag
Sadik, S. (2023). Al-Harizi’s Translation of Guide of the Perplexed II,25 and the Philosophical Implications for the Question of Creation. Judaica. Neue Digitale Folge, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.36950/jndf.2023.1.11
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