My contention is that Maimonides extracted the ideas about the ninth orb from a cosmological work ascribed to Māshāʾallāh, an early Abbasid astrologer, or from some later work derived from Māshāʾallāh’s cosmology. I begin with the approach to the ninth orb in the Laws of the Foundation of the Torah, where it is presented as a starless orb divided into twelve signs named for the twelve zodiacal constellations. Maimonides addressed this topic in two of his works: first, in the third chapter of the Laws of the Foundation of the Torah, part of his code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah and, at a later date, in the Guide of the Perplexed. This paper is mainly concerned with the reception of the theory of a starless ninth orb by Maimonides (1138–1204).
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