Jewish rationalist philosophy, medieval theology

Moses Maimonides

1135 – 1204

Moses Maimonides was the preeminent Jewish philosopher and jurist of the medieval period, born in Cordoba and eventually settling in Egypt. His philosophical masterwork The Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190) sought to reconcile Aristotelian rationalism with Jewish scripture and law, profoundly shaping both Jewish and Islamic intellectual traditions. His systematic theology and negative theology of divine attributes became foundational reference points for later esoteric and mystical interpreters within the Kabbalistic tradition.