2042: Language of Rambam and Aristotle Jul 18, 2020

The Jewish philosopher Maimonides, also known as the Rambam wrote in Arabic, but people would be forgiven for thinking he wrote in Hebrew. For instance, his work 'The Guide for the Perplexed' was originally titled דלאלת אלחאירין‎ (Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn) and while this uses Hebrew letters is actually Arabic. Indeed, especially considering that the greatest center of knowledge at the time was probably Bagdad, even though he lived in Europe when he often quoted Aristotle, he would do so in Arabic. As such, here and elsewhere, many translations translate Aristotle from Arabic rather than going back to the Greek.

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