David ben Joshua Maimuni’s Commentary on the Liturgy: Preliminary Observations

• In Event: Jewish Law and Practice in the Medieval Islamic World

Abstract

David ben Joshua Maimuni (d. ca. 1415), the last of Maimonides’ descendants to occupy the office of NAGID in Egypt and an adherent of the same Sufi-influenced form of pietism embraced by various members of his family, was a prolific writer whose extensive oeuvre has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. The proposed paper will focus on Maimuni’s Judeo-Arabic commentary on the text of the liturgy, a work that forms part of a more comprehensive commentary on the MISHNEH TORAH undertaken by the author. The paper will offer a preliminary analysis of the as yet unpublished text -- preserved in two complete, and several fragmentary manuscripts -- focusing on three key elements. First, the commentary's relationship to the corpus of Maimonidean writings will be explored in order to develop a better appreciation of the reception history of the master’s literary legacy in the Islamic east in general and the specific uses that Maimonides' descendants made of their famous ancestor's works in particular. Second, attention will be given to the Sufi terms and concepts deployed in the commentary, underscoring the way Maimuni fuses them with ideas and texts drawn from the rabbinic tradition. Lastly, the proposed paper will consider Maimuni’s work in relation to the important place accorded to prayer in the writings of other members of the pietistic movement in Egypt.

Scholarly interest in the pietistic movement in Egypt has primarily focused on the early period, and has most often revolved around the richly documented career of Abraham Maimonides (d. 1237). Abraham is famous for having advocated a series of prayer reforms inspired by the practices of contemporary Sufi mystics; at the same time, he was also deeply engaged in the transmission of his father’s legacy, both defending and interpreting his writings. The proposed analysis of David ben Joshua Maimuni’s commentary on the liturgy will facilitate an evaluation of how those different agendas developed and progressed within the pietistic movement over the ensuing two centuries. It will also shed new light on the movement’s later and less well-known phase.

author

• Arnold Franklin, Queens College, CUNY