Editing Maimonides (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Almohads1200.png|thumb|The dominion of the [[Almohad Caliphate]] at its greatest extent, {{c.}} 1200]]
Maimonides was born 1138 (or 1135) in Córdoba in the [[Muslim]]-ruled [[Almoravid Caliphate]], at the end of the [[golden age of Jewish culture in Spain|golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula]] after the first centuries of Muslim rule. His father, [[Maimon ben Joseph]], was a [[Beth din#Officers of a beth din|dayyan]] or rabbinic judge. [[Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen]] later wrote that he had traced Maimonides' descent back to [[Simeon ben Judah ha-Nasi]] from the [[Davidic line]].<ref>Joel L. Kraemer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aFgCIvDv-JEC ''Maimonides:The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds,'']  [[Crown Publishing Group]] 2008 {{isbn|978-0-385-52851-1}} p.486  n.6.</ref> His ancestry, going back four generations, is given in his ''[[Epistle to Yemen]]'' as Moses ben Maimon ben Joseph ben Isaac ben Obadiah.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Iggerot_HaRambam,_Iggeret_Teiman|title=Iggerot HaRambam, Iggeret Teiman|website=sefaria.org|access-date=31 March 2021|archive-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423164402/https://www.sefaria.org/Iggerot_HaRambam%2C_Iggeret_Teiman|url-status=live}}</ref> At the end of his commentary on the [[Mishnah]], however, a longer, slightly different genealogy is given: Moses ben Maimon ben Joseph ben Isaac ben Joseph ben Obadiah ben Solomon ben Obadiah.{{efn|name=e}}

Maimonides [[Torah study|studied Torah]] under his father, who had in turn studied under [[Joseph ibn Migash]], a student of [[Isaac Alfasi]]. At an early age, Maimonides developed an interest in sciences and philosophy. He read [[ancient Greek philosophy]] accessible via Arabic translations and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of [[Islamic culture]].<ref>Stroumsa, ''Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker'', Princeton University Press, 2009, p.65</ref>

Maimonides, who was revered for his personality as well as for his writings, led a busy life, and wrote many of his works while travelling or in temporary accommodation.<ref name="Americana 18 140">1954 ''Encyclopedia Americana'', vol. 18, p. 140.</ref>