Montpellier מונפלייה
The university town where in 1232 the dispute over the Rambam's books began, and where they were burned.
Thirteenth-century Montpellier was a town of physicians and schools, open at once to Arabic and to Latin learning. The Jewish community lived by the same: physicians, translators, authorities in law.
From here in 1232 Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham and his students declared that the Moreh Nevuchim and the Sefer ha-Mada must not be given to the young. The other side answered with its own ban, the dispute spread through the communities from Provence to Baghdad—and a year or two later, in this very town, the Dominicans burned the Rambam's books. Both sides were appalled: an argument about what one's own should read had left the house and fallen into other hands.
The community of Montpellier survived that and did not survive the expulsion: in 1306 it was driven out with all Languedoc.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- The letters of the dispute over the Rambam's legacy — where the ban came from and how it was answered
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the burning of the books in Montpellier and the expulsion of 1306
Basis: documents and evidence.