Maimonides in Córdoba

The Jewish Quarter in Córdoba is just as you would expect--very old, with impossibly narrow streets where no car can enter, small shops, lots of tourists, and an air of genteel charm.  For a place that dates back almost to the Romans, it is in terrific shape--but do not wear thin-soled shoes to walk around--the pavement is stone, and the years have not made the streets flat and even.  Of all that I saw in this part of Córdoba (still within the UNESCO World Heritage Site),  I especially  like the temple that remains--it looks very much like the Moorish architecture of the rest of the old city, with the stylized arches and the elaborate carvings in stone.  The one thing that is remarkably different is that the letters are not in Arabic, but in Hebrew.  That was my one and only clue that As you wend your way up one such street, suddenly it opens up into a plaza, Maimonedes Plaza, and a plaque that lets one know that the great man himself was born here, in Córdoba, at a time when the city was remarkable.  That ended soon thereafter, but it is the place where the seeds of the man he was to become were sown. 



Maimonedes was born into a distinguished and scholarly family--he was lucky in that respect.  He studied with his father, who was a well known educator and thinker.  All was well until 1148 when the radical Muslims of the time, the Almohads, invaded Córdoba--after that it was convert to islam, leave, or face the consequences.  Maimonedes family left--emigrating first to Fez, in Morrocco, and then to Palestine, and ultimately to Egypt.  Along the way Maimonedes beceame a physician (like many a good Jewish boy), which worked out well for his family, because that is how he supported himself.  Maimonedes is best known, at least amongst Jews, as writing the Mishnah Torah.  It is the only medieval writing that delineates all of Jewish observance, and remains an influential work to this day.  He wrote it over a 10 year period of time, starting when he was 23 years old, and after his father had died.  It was criticized by religious leaders almost immediately--they did not think it was adequately footnoted--but it quickly became the go-to source for what to do for a host of Jewish ceremonies and celebrations.  Go to Córdoba and walk the streets that the great man himself once walked.