רוח חן - אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב

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Abstract
This research sheds new light on the study of the sciences among the Jews of
the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period, through the prism of a
particular scientific Hebrew text. The text is Rua˙ Óen: a small, popular,
introduction to the Aristotelian sciences, written by an anonymous Jewish
scholar in the thirteenth century. The research comprises two related parts, each
based upon different approaches.
The first part focuses on the text of Rua˙ Óen. Like other studies which have
examined introductory texts and philosophical-scientific encyclopedic writings
written by and for Jewish readers, this part of the study includes an in-depth
discussion of the structure of Rua˙ Óen, its terminology, content, and sources.
In addition, the questions related to the circumstances under which Rua˙ Óen
was written are investigated: the time and place in which it was written, and its
authorship.
Rua˙ Óen is one of the early fruits of the cultural change that took place in
the Jewish communities of Southern France and Italy in the beginning of the
thirteenth century, in the center of which is the reception and subsequent
appropriation of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. The author of Rua˙ Óen
was one of the early readers of the Guide. He strived to comprehend the
scientific doctrines on which it is based and with which he was not familiar. He
therefore studied philosophical and scientific texts, most of which probably
were not written in Hebrew. During his investigations he became familiar with
various Aristotelian scientific theories. A close scrutiny showed that some of
the theories he appropriated go back to al-Farabi's and Ibn Sina's, whereas there
are no traces in Rua˙ Óen of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd. Based on his studies,
the anonymous author compiled an independent and homogenous treatise,