İbn Meymûn’un Mucize Görüşü Üzerine Bir İnceleme/A Study of Maimonides' View of Miracles

Abstract

Miracles play an important role in the formation of the religious and national identity of the Jews. However, under the influence of philosophical movements that were influential in the Middle Ages, Jewish scholars debated the possibility of supernatural events described throughout the Torah. Maimonides, one of the leading Jewish community leaders of this period and whose influence on Jewish theology is indisputable, also made an explanation on this issue in many of his works. On the one hand, he describes miracles as one of the foundations of religion, and on the other hand, he interprets some of the miracles of the Torah outside of Jewish tradition. Based on this, the issue of which idea Maimonides actually defended is debated by many researchers. Maimonides’ understanding of miracles, which has not been studied independently in Turkish literature, constitutes the subject of this article. First, the issue of whether Maimonides believed in miracles, and then the nature of the miracles he presents in his works and the purpose for which they occur are discussed. The sections in the works of Maimonides that deal with the issue of miracles constitute the main sources of this study. The article aims to clarify the issue by examining Maimonides’ views on miracles as a whole.

Keywords

• history of religions
• judaism
• maimonides
• miracle
• natural order