“Mine eye longed to behold Thy glory, But, as if I were deemed unworthy, I could only tread on the threshold of Thy Temple. I must also endure the sufferings of my people; Therefore I wander aimlessly about, As I dare not pay homage to any other being.”[44] This prophet and singer of Zionism died in the land which his soul loved so dearly. Another great Jew of Spain was Moses Maimonides, born at Cordova in 1135. He came of a long line of Rabbis, who traced their descent from the royal house of David, and he might be described as a Talmudist by inheritance as well as by training. He had scarcely completed his thirteenth year when Cordova was taken by the fanatical sect of the Almohades, who offered to the Jews and Christians of the city the alternatives of Islam or death. The ancient Jewish community was broken up, and the family of Maimonides migrated to Almeria. But this town also, three years later, fell into the hands of the same fanatical Mohammedans, and the Jews and Christians were once more driven forth to seek freedom of worship elsewhere. Henceforward the family of Maimonides wandered hither and thither through Spain, unable to find a home. But this roaming life did not prevent the youth from attaining great proficiency in various branches of learning, sacred and profane. His father’s teaching was always ready at hand, and his own quick and clear intellect found it easy to acquire and to digest the lessons of experience. Aristotle, as has been said, was much studied, though little understood, by the Jews and Arabs of Spain. Maimonides’ intellect had much in common with the Greek philosopher’s scientific mind, while he possessed a sense of religion to which the Greek was a stranger. In the character of Maimonides the two temperaments, the Hebraic and the Hellenic, the reasoning and the emotional, met in a harmonious combination. Truth in thought as well as in action, was the object for which he strove, and the idle fictions of poetry were as severely condemned by him as by the mediaeval monks; but he was far from adopting the monastic definition of poetry as “the Devil’s wine.” His earnestness was free from fanaticism, and he could be severe without being savage. Unsparing in his scorn of what he considered false, he was most forbearing towards the victims of falsehood. Like many earnest men, Maimonides was born a missionary. Neither fatigue of body nor pain of mind deterred him from the diffusion of what he deemed to be the light, and to the propagation of rational Judaism he devoted his whole life ungrudgingly and unfalteringly. To this end he made himself master of all the knowledge accessible in his time. He studied ancient Paganism as well as contemporary Islam and Christianity; philosophy, medicine, logic, mathematics, and astronomy. Thus equipped, he entered the arena.