What novel featured Maimonides as a character?

December 12, 2008 7:05 AM

BookFilter: Looking to reread a historical novel (probably romance) with Maimonides as a character. No clue as to title or author.

I remember the book described him as one of the dhimmi and involved his role as a doctor.

posted by terrortubby to media & arts (3 comments total)

Seems like he might at least be mentioned in one of these
http://www.noahgordonbooks.com/novels.htm
(is definitely not in "The Physician", poss. in the later Cole family books)
pretty poor prose to plough through though....
posted by runincircles at 7:51 AM on December 12, 2008

It might be 'The Physician.' 1986 (when it came out) I would have been 10 and I probably read it around that time. Are you sure he isn't a minor character?
posted by terrortubby at 8:04 AM on December 12, 2008

I don't personally know of any book but one where he is mentioned as a character (possibly minor though) is "The strange nation of Rafael Mendes" by Moacyr Scliar (1988).
Focuses on one catastrophic day in the life of businessman Rafael Mendes, weaving together stories of his ancestors and occurrences of the present as Mendes learns how the past informs and shackles the present.
posted by saucysault at 9:41 AM on December 12, 2008