Jews in medieval and Renaissance medicine

In the Middle Ages, Jewish physicians played a notable role in the transmission and practice of medical knowledge, serving both Christian and Muslim courts. Drawing on a tradition of learning and an ability to move between cultural spheres, they contributed to the translation and dissemination of the Greek medical heritage, transmitted and enriched by Arab scholars. Maimonides (1138–1204), simultaneously a great codifier of Jewish law and a renowned physician attached to the Ayyubid court in Egypt, embodies the summit of this tradition and left several medical treatises. Other Jewish physicians practiced in Spain, Provence, and Italy, sometimes in the service of sovereigns and popes. This presence in medicine illustrates the role of cultural intermediaries that Jews occupied between civilizations.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill