Maimon ben Joseph


Rabbi Maimon ben Joseph HaDayan was an exegete, moralist and dayyan from al-Andalus. He is best known as the father of Maimonides. His teacher was the respected scholar Joseph ibn Migash. He authored a commentary, in Arabic, on the Pentateuch, and also wrote on Jewish ritual and festival law.

Biography

Maimon was born to a Sephardic family of al-Andalus documented back to the beginning of the 10th century. He studied under Joseph ha-Levi ben Meʾir ibn Migash in Lucena. It is speculated that his family left Córdoba when the city submitted to the Almohad Caliph Abd al-Mu'min in 1148. According to the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Muslim World, "it must be assumed that they remained in Cordova until 1159 to 1160, posing as Muslims, and then moved to Fez, the Almohad capital in Morocco, apparently because the life of a crypto-Jew was easier there."

Works