The Cure of Souls: On Knowledge

Joseph Ibn ‘Aqnīn

Ṭibb al-nufūs (The Cure of Souls), Chapter 27 (selections)

ca. 1190

Illustration of two golden-haloed figures in robes, one white-haired and bearded and the other younger, holding hands and gesturing.
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The Cure of Souls (Ṭibb al-nufūs), written in Judeo-Arabic, is a wide-ranging ethical and psychological treatise on the soul, extant in manuscript but still unpublished, which treats not only the nature and activities of the soul, but also, using a common medical metaphor for ethics, how to improve (or “cure”) it. This excerpt focuses on the first requirement of a good teacher, namely, a perfect mastery of his subject. In explicating what that perfect mastery entails, Ibn ‘Aqnīn turns to interpret key verses from Deuteronomy, taken from the paragraphs following the recitation of the Shema‘, as referring to epistemology.

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Creator Bio

Joseph Ibn ‘Aqnīn

ca. 1150–1220

Joseph ben Judah Ibn ‘Aqnīn was an Andalusi philosopher, exegete, and physician. It is thought that he was born in Barcelona and then moved to Fez, but little is known for certain of his biography. He wrote The Cure of Souls (Ṭibb al-nufūs), a moral guidebook, in Judeo-Arabic, and a Hebrew translation, reworking, and elaboration of Maimonides’ Eight Chapters, called The Book of Ethics (Sefer ha-musar). In his Judeo-Arabic philosophical commentary on the Song of Songs, titled The Divulgence of Mysteries and the Appearance of Lights (Inkishāf al-asrār wa-ẓuhūr al-anwār), he reported that he outwardly converted to Islam following the Almohad persecutions. He articulated a desire to return to a public expression of Judaism, but it is not known if he was able to do so.

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