This volume represents the state of the art in research on the controversial Muslim legal scholar, theologian and man of letters Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba (d. 456/1064), who is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant minds of Islamic Spain. Remembered mostly for his charming treatise on love, he was first and foremost a fierce polemicist who was much criticized for his idiosyncratic views and his abrasive language. Insisting that the sacred sources of Islam are to be understood in their outward sense and that it is only the Prophet Muḥammad whose example may be followed, Ibn Ḥazm alienated himself from his peers. As a result, his books were burned and he was forced to withdraw from public life.
Contributors are: Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, Samuel-Martin Behloul, Alfonso Carmona, Leigh Chipman, Maribel Fierro, Alejandro García Sanjuán, Livnat Holtzman, Samir Kaddouri, Joep Lameer, Christian Lange, Gabriel Martinez Gros, Luis Molina, Salvador Peña, Jose Miguel Puerta Vilchez, Rafael Ramón Guerrero, Adam Sabra, Sabine Schmidtke, Delfina Serrano, Bruna Soravia, Dominique Urvoy, Kees Versteegh and David Wasserstein.
Camilla Adang is Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Her fields of specialization are interreligious contacts and classical Islamic thought. She has written extensively on Ibn Ḥazm and the Ẓāhirī school.
Maribel Fierro is Research Professor at the Centre of Human and Social Sciences at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC – Spain). Her research focuses on the religious and intellectual history of al-Andalus and the Islamic West, and on Islamic law.
Sabine Schmidtke is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ. She has published on topics ranging from intellectual history, the history of Oriental studies, and the Arabic Bible, including Martin Schreiner between Islamic Studies and “Wissenschaft des Judentums”: A Study of His Life and Work (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024).
"Ce n’est pas un livre, ni même un ouvrage collectif, c’est une véritable encyclopédie sur Ibn Ḥazm, un des plus grands penseurs du monde musulman médiéval, qu’ont élaborée C. Adang, M. Fierro et S. Schmidtke... On l’aura compris, la qualité des articles composant cet ouvrage, leur complémentarité, la rigueur de l’édition, la diversité des thèmes abordés par les meilleurs spécialistes contemporains de l’homme, de son oeuvre, de sa pensée et de son époque font d’Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba une somme où les étudiants trouveront un modèle historiographique, les chercheurs un outil irremplaçable et toute personne intéressée par la pensée musulmane dans son ensemble des informations passionnantes." – Pascal Buresi, in: Arabica 61/5 (2014)
"This volume offers a wealth of information to help us connect the dots on the thought of a controversial and complex figure — on his context but also his motives and, most significantly, how he fits into the overall legacy of Islam." – Paul L. Heck, in: The Marginalia Review of Books, 21 October 2013
Preface and Acknowledgements, Camilla ADANG, Maribel FIERRO, Sabine SCHMIDTKE
Part One: Life and Times of Ibn Ḥazm
Ibn Ḥazm: A Biographical Sketch, José Miguel PUERTA VILCHEZ
A portrait of the ʿālim as a young man: The formative years of Ibn Ḥazm, 404/1013-420/1029, Bruna SORAVIA
Ibn Ḥazm and the territory of Huelva: Personal and family relationships, Alejandro GARCÍA SANJUÁN
Ibn Ḥazm and al-Andalus, David WASSERSTEIN
Ibn Ḥazm and history, Gabriel MARTINEZ-GROS
Part Two: Legal Aspects
Ibn Ḥazm’s Literalism: A Critique of Islamic Legal Theory, Adam SABRA
Ibn Ḥazm et les condition d’aptitude pour être juge, Alfonso CARMONA GONZÁLEZ
Ibn Ḥazm’s doctrine on rape and its impact both in Mālikī jurisprudence and in contemporary legislation regarding sexual mores, Delfina SERRANO
Part Three: Ẓāhirī Linguistics
Ibn Maḍāʾ al-Qurṭubī as a Ẓāhirī linguist, Kees VERSTEEGH
Which curiosity? Ibn Ḥazm’s suspicion of grammarians ,Salvador PEÑA MARTIN
Part Four: Art and Aesthetics
Art and aesthetics in the work of Ibn Ḥazm ,José Miguel PUERTA VILCHEZ
Part Five: Theology, Philosophy and Ethics
Ibn Ḥazm’s sources on Muʿtazilism and Ashʿarism, Sabine SCHMIDTKE
Aristotle and Ibn Ḥazm. On logic of the Taqrīb, Rafael RAMÓN GUERRERO
Ibn Ḥazm’s logical pedigree, Joep LAMEER
Ibn Ḥazm on Sins and Salvation, Christian LANGE
Part Six: Interreligious Polemics
The Testimony of Reason and the Historical Reality: Ibn Ḥazm’s Refutation of Christianity, Martin-Samuel BEHLOUL
Le sens de la polémique anti-biblique chez Ibn Ḥazm, Dominique URVOY
Ibn Ḥazm and the Jewish zindīq, Maribel FIERRO
Part Seven: Reception
The early transmission of the works of Ibn Ḥazm, Camilla ADANG
Refutations of Ibn Ḥazm by Mālikī authors from al-Andalus and North-Africa, Samir KADDOURI
Elements of Acceptance and Rejection in Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Systematic Reading of Ibn Ḥazm, Livnat HOLTZMAN
Ibn Ḥazm selon certains savants shīʿites, Hassan ANSARI
On the use of Ibn Ḥazm’s Jamhara and Naqt in Arabic chronicles, Luis MOLINA
Part Eight: Bibliography
Inventory of Ibn Ḥazm’s Works: Editions and translations, José Miguel PUERTA VILCHEZ
Ibn Ḥazm – Bibliography of Secondary Sources, Leigh CHIPMAN
List of contributors
Index
All those interested in Islamic intellectual history (Arabists and Historians), the history of al-Andalus, the history of the Iberian Peninsula during Middle Ages, the history of Islamic theology and law, as well as interreligious relations.