A contemporary of Averroes, also born in Cordoba, Spain, Moses Maimonedes (1135-1204) came from a prominent Jewish family. In 1148, when the Almohads conquered Cordoba and life became difficult for the Jews, his family moved to Morrocco, then Palestine, finally settling in Fostat (old Cairo), Egypt. Trained both as a physician and rabbi, Maimonedes became such a good doctor that he was appointed royal physician to the King of Egypt. As rabbi he became nagid, or head of the Egyptian Jewish community in Fostat.
... His most famous work, generally regarded as one of the great philosophical works of the middle ages, Dalalat al-Ha'rin (Guide for the Perplexed, 1190), is an attempt to bring Judaism in line with Neo-Platonic Aristotleanism as taught by al-Farabi (Abu Nasr, 870-950) and Avicenna.
