1. All English citations in this chapter are from Shlomo Pines’ translation of The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1963). Page numbers refer to this edition unless otherwise indicated. The Arabic edition of the Guide utilized is that of Joseph Kafih, Moreh HaNevukhim (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1972).
2. For the most thorough scholarly study of Maimonides’ code see Isadore Twersky, Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (New Haven: Yale University, 1980). Maimonides’ discussion of prophecy in the Mishneh Torah is found in the first section of the first book, The Book of Knowledge. All translations from the Book of Knowledge are my own based on the critical edition of J. Cohen, M.H. Katzenelenbogen, S. Lieberman (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1964).
3. For a more detailed discussion of this issue see my, Maimonides’ Political Thought: Studies in Ethics, Law and the Human Ideal (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999): 1–61,189–223.
4. Alfarabi’s political philosophy has been the subject of numerous studies. See in particular Miriam Galston, Politics and Excellence (Princeton: Princeton University, 1990).
5. See L.V. Berman, “Maimonides, the Dis ciple of Alfarabi”, Israel Oriental Studies, 4 (1974): 154–178. The importance of Alfarabi’s philosophy for the understanding Maimonides’ political thought has been strenuously argued by Leo Strauss, beginning with his Philosophie und Gesetz (Berlin, 1935) [F. Baumann, trans.,Philosophy and Law (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1987)]. See also Joel Kraemer, “Mairnonides on the Philosophic Sciences in his Treatise on the Art of Logic”, in Perspectives on Maimonides, Joel Kraemer ed. (Oxford: Oxford University, 1991): 77–104; and my Maimonides’ Political Thought [index: Alfarabi].