Moses Ibn Tibbon - Translations From Maimonides

Translations From Maimonides

True to the traditions of his family, Moses ibn Tibbon translated those of Maimonides' Arabic writings which his father had not translated:

• "Miktab" or "Ma'amar be-Hanhagat ha-Beri'ut," a treatise on hygiene in the form of a letter to the sultan, printed in Kerem Ḥemed (iii. 9 et seq.), in Jacob ben Moses Zebi's "Dibre Mosheh" (Warsaw, 1886), and by Jacob Saphir ha-Levi (Jerusalem, 1885, from his own manuscript, under the title "Sefer Hanhagat ha-Beri'ut"). This translation (1244) was one of his first, if not the first (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers." pp. 770 et seq.).
• Commentary on the Mishnah. A fragment of his translation of Pe'ah, which was published by A. Geiger 1847, makes it at least possible that he translated the whole Seder Mo'ed (l.c. p. 925).
• Sefer ha-Mitzvot another of his earliest translations (Constantinople, c. 1516-18, also printed in various editions of Maimonides' "Yad," but without Moses ibn Tibbon's preface); in it he excuses himself for continuing his own translation, though having known of that of Abraham Ḥasdai, on the ground that the latter had obviously used the first edition of the Arabic original, while he himself used a later revision (l.c. p. 927).
• Millot ha-Higgayon, a treatise on logic (Venice, 1552, with two anonymous commentaries). No complete manuscript of the Arabic original is known. The terminology here used by Moses ibn Tibbon has been adopted throughout Hebrew philosophical literature (l.c. p. 434).
• Ha-Ma'amar ha-Nikbad, a treatise on poisons, also called Ha-Ma'amar be-Teri'aḳ (extant in several manuscripts; see Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 1919, iv.; idem, "Hebr. Uebers." p. 764).
• Commentary on Hippocrates' "Aphorisms" (1257 or 1267: l.c. p. 769, comp. p. 659).