Search Results
Abstract
MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, is the only extant manuscript containing a complete copy of the Isḥāq/Ṯābit version of the Almagest. Paul Kunitzsch has underlined the close similarities between the marginal notes in the Tunis manuscript and those in Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of the Almagest, so that Kunitzsch has concluded that Gerard of Cremona had a manuscript close to the Tunis manuscript before him during the revision of his translation of the Almagest. A note in MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, points out that this manuscript was copied from a model owned by al-Arawšī, a bibliophile living in Valencia famous for the size of his library, a significant part of which was looted by al-Maʾmūn b. Ḏī l-Nūn and sent to Toledo, arguably shortly before Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī wrote his Ṭabaqāt al-umam. Based on MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, the present contribution explores the significance of al-Arawšī’s looted library as an important link between Umayyad Cordoba and Toledo. It also calls attention to the highly unusual paper of MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, made of woven fibers, maybe flax.
Abstract
During the celebration of the capture of Aleppo by Saladin on ṣafar 18th, 579/June 11th, 1183, the qāḍī Muḥyī l-Dīn b. Zakī l-Dīn al-Dimašqī recited a poem in which he ventured the possibility of conquering Jerusalem in the month of raǧab, as this was the case four years later in 583/1187. Muḥyī l-Dīn b. al-Zakī was asked about the source of his prediction and he answered that he found it in Ibn Barraǧān’s Commentary of the Koran in the beginning of sura al-Rūm (Kor 30, 1-4), where the predicted year of the capture was also right. Even though the prediction became well-known, there is no account of the particular way it was obtained, except for the text in Ibn Barraǧān’s Koranic commentary. Instead, we only have later authors stating that Ibn Barraǧān based his analysis upon astrology. Some time later, in his al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya, Ibn ʿArabī considered twice Ibn Barraǧān’s prediction and drew the same result by applying the science of letters to the same Koranic verses. However, Ibn ʿArabī pointed out that Ibn Barraǧān had committed an error and that his prediction was right by chance. This paper is devoted to the study of Ibn Barraǧān and Ibn ʿArabī’s methods applied to draw the prediction of the Muslim capture of Jerusalem in 583/1187. It supplies the translations of Ibn Barraǧān’s text in his Commentary of the Koran and those of Ibn ʿArabī in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya.
The aim of this paper is to call attention to Ramon Llull’s Cent noms de Déu, or The One Hundred Names of God, and its unique place in the history of medieval Christian-Muslim polemics. Llull (1232–1315) was a writer, logician, philosopher, theologian and mystic born in Mallorca shortly after it was conquered by Christians from the Muslims. Initially living the life of a troubadour, he experienced a religious conversion and committed himself, in turn, to convert the “infidels”. With his Cent noms de Déu, a versified book written under the influence of the Islamic tradition of the asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā, Llull aimed to refute Muslim claims regarding the inimitability of the Qurʾān (iʿjāz al-Qurʾān) which is believed to prove the divine origin of Islam’s sacred book. In addition, Llull sought to introduce an Islamic ethos into Christianity by suggesting a similar use in Christian daily worship to that of the Qurʾān in Muslim life, making his Cent noms de Déu a unique book in medieval Christian-Muslim polemics. I also provide a new dating and reevaluation of Llull’s intentions in writing this book.
Abstract
The Shūdhiyya is a Sufi strand that flourished in the south-east region of al-Andalus, particularly in the area of Murcia, in the late 6th/12th century until the second half of the 7th/13th century. It thus extended from the second half of the Almohad period to the early Naṣrid period. The Shūdhiyya is named after the enigmatic figure, al-Shūdhī (fl. 6th/12th c.), a Sufi saint linked to Tlemcen. Nevertheless, the two main figures of the Shūdhiyya were the theologians and Sufis, Ibn al-Marʾa (d. 611/1214) and Ibn Aḥlā (d. 645/1247). Faced with the advance of Christian forces in the region of Murcia, Shūdhīs relocated to the nascent kingdom of Granada and to the central Islamicate world where, as followers of Ibn Sabʿīn (d. 669/1270), they were known as the Sabʿīniyya. The Shūdhiyya flourished in al-Andalus at roughly the same time that Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) lived in al-Andalus. And, like Ibn ʿArabī, the Shūdhiyya ultimately came to be known for espousing the unity of existence although in a more radical, absolute way. Even though intellectual Sufism in al-Andalus is mostly associated with Ibn ʿArabī, his actual influence on his contemporaries in al-Andalus was rather scarce as he emigrated in his thirties to the East where he wrote his main works. However, in the field of intellectual Sufism, the Shūdhiyya was far more influential in al-Andalus than Ibn ʿArabī. Nevertheless, since the main representatives of the Andalusī Shūdhiyya did not relocate to the East, their works were not widely disseminated across the eastern and central Islamicate world and, consequently, except for Ibn al-Marʾa, most of their works are not known to be extant. Thus, the main witnesses are biographical and polemical literature. Despite the historical and intellectual relevance of the Shūdhiyya for the social, political and intellectual history of al-Andalus, only Massignon has devoted some attention to this Sufi strand. In this article the available sources on the Shūdhiyya in al-Andalus are surveyed and contextualized.