Flight from persecution
Maimonides' family to Egypt
← View on the mapWhy it happened
After the Almohads took Córdoba in 1148, non-Muslims faced conversion, exile, or death, and Maimonides' family left the city.12 They reached Fez in 1160.2 Their departure from Almohad territory is commonly dated to 1165; a later account by Saadiah ibn Danan associated it with the martyrdom of Maimonides' teacher Judah ibn Susan, so that immediate cause remains a reported tradition rather than a securely documented fact.2
The migration
Maimonides' father Maimon, a rabbinic judge, left Córdoba with his family after its fall to the Almohads in 1148,2 and they settled in Fez in 1160.2 The Encyclopaedia Judaica notes that Muslim authorities described the family as having formally converted to Islam, but also records a Jewish source disputing comparable allegations; the claim should therefore be treated cautiously.2 The family left Fez in 1165 and reached Acre about a month later.2 After roughly five months they visited Jerusalem and Hebron,2 then sailed to Egypt, stopping at Alexandria before settling in Fustat (Old Cairo); Stanford's account dates their arrival in Egypt to 1166.21 Maimonides completed his Commentary on the Mishnah in 1168.1
Sources
- BSeeskin K. 2024. Maimonides. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (substantive revision Nov 18, 2024), ed. Edward N. Zalta link
- BRabinowitz LI, Dienstag JI, Hyman A, et al.. 2007. Maimonides, Moses. Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.), ed. Fred Skolnik & Michael Berenbaum, Macmillan Reference USA / Thomson Gale link