Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/313

Rh M A I M A I 295 navigable for large boats throughout the year ; and during the rainy season it expands in many places to 5 or 6 miles in breadth, overflowing a considerable portion of low- lying land. The Brahmaputra enters Maimansinh at its north-western corner near Karaibari, arid flows south-east and south till it joins the Meghna a little below Bhairab Bazar. The gradual formation of chars and bars of sand in the upper part of its course has diverted the main volume of water into the present channel of the Jamumi, which has in consequence become of much more importance than the Brahmaputra proper. The Meghna only flows through the south-east portion of the district for a short distance. The eastern and south-eastern parts of the district abound in marshes. The wild animals include tigers, leopards, deer, bears, elephants, and an occasional rhinoceros. Small game is abundant. The census of 1872 returned the population of Maimansinli at 2,349,917 (males, 1,187,962; and females, 1,161,955), Mohamme dans numbering 1,519,635; Hindus, 817,963 ; Christians, 124. Of aboriginal tribes the most numerous are the Hajongs (24,936) and Garos (10,997). The semi-Hinduized aborigines number in all 205,592, of whom more than one-half are Chandals (123,262), the most numerous caste in the district, employed as cultivators, fishermen, labourers, and menial servants. Among high-caste Hindus, Brahmans number 33,414. Five towns contain upwards of 5000 inhabitants: Maimansinh or Nasirabad, 10,068; Jamalpur, 14,302 ; Kisoriganj, 13,637 ; Sherpiir, 8015 ; and Dhanikhola, 6730. Ulakandi or Bhairab Bazar, although with only a population of 1500, is the most important commercial mart, with a large trade in jute and a well -supplied cattle-market. Rice, of which three crops are raised annually, forms the staple food crop of the district. Other agricultural products are wheat, oats, maize, pulses, linseed, mustard, til, indigo, tobacco, sugar cane, pdn, and jute. The last constitutes the chief commercial staple. Maimansinh suffers occasionally from blights and floods, but never to any serious extent. The chief imports are piece goods, raw cotton, wheat, betel nuts, chillies, sugar, and cattle ; the exports consist of rice, jute, indigo, reed-mats, hides, brass and copper utensils, cheese, gh i, &c. Tobacco and muslins are also exported to a small extent. Besides a little muslin, the only manufactures are coarse silk cloth, sitalpati mats, cheese, and ghi. Apart from the rivers, means of communication are afforded by about 146 miles of good and 124 miles of inferior roads. Although the general revenue (166,938 in 1880-81) has more than doubled in seventy-five years, the land revenue has remained almost stationary ; in 1880-81 it was only 75,226, excise amounting to 23,652, and stamps to 48,680. Education in 1872-73 was afforded by 173 state-sup ported schools attended by 6372 pupils, besides 71 unaided schools, with 2425 pupils. Except towards the close of the rainy season, the climate is fairly healthy. The average annual rainfall is 105 inches. MAIMBOURG, Louis (1610-1686), a French historical writer, was born at Nancy in 1610. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and after completing his theological studies at Rome he became a classical master in the Jesuit college at Rouen. He afterwards devoted himself to preaching, but with only moderate success. After having taken some part in minor controversies he threw himself with energy into the dispute which had arisen as to the Gallican liberties ; for his Traite historique sur les prerogatives de Vfiglise de Rome (1682) he was by command of Innocent XI. expelled from his order, but rewarded by Louis XIV. with a residence at the abbey of St Victor, Paris, and a pension. He died on August 13, 1686. His numerous works (exhaustively enumerated in the Bioyraphie Generate) include histories of Arianism, the iconoclastic controversy, the Greek schism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and of the pontificates of Leo I. and Gregory I. ; they are mere compilations, written indeed in a very lively and attractive style, but inaccurate throughout, and wherever matters of controversy are touched on, specially untrustworthy. MAIMONIDES (1135-1204). Among the great men to whom Mohammedan Cordova 1 has given birth and 1 Hence he is called &quot; Al-Kortubi &quot; (and not al-Kordovi, er Hakordovi) by Arabic writers, and &quot; Hassephardi &quot; by himself (preface to Mishneh Torah}. these are not a few the greatest is unquestionably Rab- benu Mosheh b. Maimun 2 Haddayyan. 3 Like the liveS of so many great men, that of this &quot; last of the Geonim as regards time and the first of them as regards worth &quot; 4 is surrounded by a halo of fables, some of which, though fictitious, are instructive in many respects, whilst others are telling in dramatic effect and touching in the extreme. Some of these fables, however x are merely amusing, whilst others are simply ridiculous. 5 The present article confines itself to facts and a few criticisms founded on them. &quot;Rambam,&quot; or Maimonides, was born March 30, 1135, and died at Cairo, December 13, 1204; consequently he did not quite attain the age of seventy, 6 a short space of life, when we take into consideration all the work lie did for his contemporaries and all the works he left to posterity. Like many other great and conscientious rabbis of all times, who considered it a sin to make of religious learning a means of gaining bread, Maimonides adopted the medical profession. That he must have greatly excelled in it is not merely known by the medical works he composed, but is best testified to by the fact that, although a Jew (and the times and the country he lived in were certainly not more tolerant than ours), he held the lucrative and im portant office of court-physician to Saladin of Egypt. Maimonides was nfaster of Greek- Arabic philosophy, as maybe seen from his Technical Terms of Logic, 7 his Guide, and his other works. That he was a mathematician and astronomer of no mean standing appears from the Maamar Ilaibbur 8 (calculations of the calendar, which he wrote at the age of twenty-two), the Ililekhoth KiddusJi Ilahodesh (in the book Zemannim of the Mishneh Torah), and the commentary on T. B., Rosh Ilasshanah. That he was a great Talmudist we know from his commentary on the Mishnah and his chef-d oeuvre the Mishneh Torah. That he was, as philosopher and theologian, a profound thinker we know from his Guide of the Perplexed and his other works. To sum up in a few words the merits of Maimonides, we may say that, with all the disadvan tages of the times in which he lived, he was the greatest theologian and philosopher the Jews ever produced, and one of the greatest the world has seen to this day. As a religious and moral character he is equalled only by a few and surpassed by none. The works of Maimonides were composed by him partly in Hebrew and partly in the vernacular Arabic, a portion of the latter eing translated into Hebrew by himself. I. Works composed by Maimonides in Hebrew. 1. Mishneh Torah, i.e., the systematic codification of the_ whole of the Jewish law, as it is to be found in the Bible, the Mishnah, Tosephta, Mekhilta, Siphra, Siphre, both Talmudim, the Sheeltoth, Halakhoth Oedoloth, the lle.sponsa of the Geonim, the Hilekhoth, Ilab Al-phesi, &c. This work is drawn up in fourteen (T*- Yad) 2 From the initials of his name, with &quot; R&quot; (for &quot; Rabbemi &quot;) pre fixed, and his father s name with &quot; B &quot; (for son of) prefixed, the Jews call him RaMBaM ; among Christians he is, more Grseco, called Maimonides, from his father s name Maimun or Maimon. 3 See end of the commentary on the Mishnah (&quot; Ani Mosheh bar Maimun Haddayyan &quot;). 4 So Maimonides is designated by the famous Enbonet Abram (or Yeda yah Happenini Bederesi, i.e., of Beziers) at the end of his Behinath Olam. 5 Whoever wishes to know more of these fables may gratify nis desire, if he knows Rabbinic, by reading Ibn Yahya s Shalsheleth Hakkabbalah ; if he understands German, by reading Jost s GeschicMe ; and if he understands only English, by reading Benisch, Two Lectures, &c., London, 1847, 8vo. 6 Note at the end of the author s commentary on 1. &., Jwt Hasshanah, by his grandson R. David (Hallebanon, ii. p. 60). 7 This work was translated from the Arabic into Hebrew by K. Mosheh Ibn Tibbon, and printed for the first time at Venice, K 4to. The third edition (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1761, 4to) has a c( mentary by Mendelssohn. oq 8 See the collection Dibere Hakhamim (Metz, 1849, 8vo), p. M. The translation is by R. Mosheh Ibn Tibbon.