Miguel Asín Palacios

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Miguel Asín Palacios (1871-1944) was a Spanish scholar (an Arabist), and a Roman Catholic priest. He is primarily known for suggesting Islamic sources for ideas and motifs present in Dante's Divine Comedy, which he discusses in his book La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia [Muslim Eschatology in the Divine Comedy] (1919). He wrote extensively on Al-Ghazali [Algazel]. His major book El Islam Cristianizado (1931) presents a study of Sufism through the works of Muhyiddin ibn 'Arabi [Mohidin Abenarabe] of Murcia.

Contents

[edit] Life

Miguel Asín Palacios was born in Zaragoza, Aragón, on July 5, 1871, into the modest commercial family of Don Pablo Asín and Doña Filomena Palacios. His older brother Luis, his younger sister Dolores, and he were little children when their father died of pneumonia. His mother the young widow continued in business with help and made ends meet with decorum but not as well as before. He attended the Colegio de El Salvador instructed by Jesuits in Zaragoza, all the while making life long friendships. He entered the Seminario Conciliar, singing his first Mass at San Cayetano in Zaragoza in 1895.[1]

At the Universidad de Zaragoza Asín had met and begun study under the Arabist Professor Julián Ribera y Tarragó.[2] In 1896 at Madrid he defended his thesis on the Persian theologian Algazel (1058-1111) before Francisco Codera y Zaidín and Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo.[3] All three professors guided his subsequent studies. Asín then developed his study of Al-Ghazali, and published it in 1901. Next he wrote on Mohidin Abenarabe. Thus Asín was running parallel with a then European-wide effort to understand Muslim inner spirituality.[4][5]

Professor Codera then retired from his chair in the Arabic Language at the Universidad de Madrid to make room for Asín; Ribera allowed Asín to assume this cátedra in 1903. Professor Asín lived in the same boarding house[6] as Codera, and was well received in the university. By 1905 Professor Ribera had also come to Madrid and with Asín founded the journal Cultura Española (1906-1909). Asín attended international conferences in Algeria (1905) and Copenhagen (1908), where he engaged other Arabists and academics in Islamic studies. In Madrid he continued to prosper, eventually being admitted to the royal court where he gained the friendship of Alfonso XIII.[7][8]

Asín, of course, is known for his academic work concerning the medieval Christian-Muslim interface of theology, mysticism, and religious practice, with particular attention to medieval Spain. Among the figures studied were Al-Ghazali, Ibn 'Arabi, Averroës (Ibn Rushd), Ibn Masarra, Ibn Hazm, as well as the rabbi Maimonides (all from Al-Andalus except al-Ghazali), and comparative work on Ramon Lull, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Blaise Pascal.

Asín's manner of approach was to stick to a theme, to keep circling over it, each time adding to the understanding. His method of work involved meticulous planning, conceiving the order of presentation in detail, then straight ahead, without a rough draft ("sin borrador"), redacted with each reference note on its proper page.[9]

In 1932 the journal Al-Andalus began publication under the direction of Asín Palacios; it was technically equipped to satisfy a readership of academic specialists. Asín himself was a frequent contributor. In the universities, a new generation of Spanish Arabists was emerging, such as Emilio García Gómez, influenced by Asín.[10]

The Spanish Civil War began in July of 1936, and caught Asín Palacios while with his nephew and family in San Sebastián. The horrors of this struggle remain very painful to contemplate regarding both sides; over four thousand priests were assassinated by extremist factions on loyalist side early in the conflict. Asín was in danger, yet that September nationalist forces captured San Sebastián. During the war he taught Latin and managed to obtain photocopies of Arabic texts.[11][12][13]

After the Civil War, Asín was able to return to his professorship in Madrid and to continue with his multi-volume study of Al-Ghazali.

Don Miguel Asín Palacios had intense black eyes, fine hands; photographs did not capture the totality of his expression. He was well dressed ("entre cardinal y torero"). Not ambitious but for the tranquility in which to work, he was a good and generous friend. His colleagues recognized in him an enduring innocence, so that he was not knowing in the mixed turbulence of the world.[14] He projected a brightness ("diafanidad"); his mentality was a great work of refinement. A pious priest, an admirer of John Henry Newman, "a child of 73 years" when he died.[15]

That was on August 12, 1944, in San Sebastián.

[edit] Works

Following early publications on Algazal (Al-Ghazali) and Mohidín Abenarabi (Ibn 'Arabi) as noted above, Asín Palacios discussed, edited and rendered into Spanish translation many Arabic writings, and composed books and essays on related themes, including an occasional piece in Latin, French, or Italian.[16]

[edit] Aquinas & Averroës

Asín Palacios researched Muslim influence on Tomás d'Aquino (c.1225-1274), which would come particularly from the philosopher Ibn Rushd or Averroës (1126-1198) of Córdoba, whether as protagonist or antagonist. The result was his 1904 article.[17] With respect to Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle, Asín infers the analogous religio-philosophic positions held by both Averroës and Aquinas, and as well by ben Maimon or Maimonides (1135-1204) the Jewish philosopher and talmudist, also from Córdoba.[18] Asín understood that it was with piety that Averroës used reason to interpret his Islamic faith, and probes this issue for the sake of distinguishing him from several of the Latin "Averroístas".[19] Asín also refers to medieval voluntarism (or asaries in Islam), in order to supply a contrast to the similarity in the rationalisms of Averroës and Aquinas.[20] Yet, many Thomists did not then accept without great controversy Asin's point of view.[21]

[edit] Ibn Masarra

In his 1914 book, Abenmasarra y su escuela. Orígenes de la filosofía hispano-musulmana,[22] Asín opens by describing the evolution of Islamic philosophy and cosmology at the center of Islamic civilization in the East, in comparison with its emergence and development in Muslim Iberia.[23] A brief biography of Ibn Masarra follows, describing acusations of heresy and that he early concealed his teachings.[24] Actually Asín's work is less about Ibn Masarra (883-931) of Cordova, than about his "school" of early Muslim mystics in al-Andalus.[25] With reference to their teachings and the religious context, Asín discusses the batini, the mutazili, the shi'a, and sufis, as well as Plotinus, and especially the pseudo-Empedocles.[26] Asín also mentions several times a perspective he favored, of eastern Christianity's early influence on the young religion before Islam's arrival in the west.[27] Asín traces the persistence of the philosophy of Ibn Masarra's school, and its eventual influence on Ibn 'Arabi, as well as on Ramon Lull and on Roger Bacon.[28]

[edit] Dante Alighieri

Perhaps Asín Palacios is best known for his 1919 book,[29] which suggests Islamic sources for certain context and perspective used by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) in his famous poem in Italian, La Divina Commedia.[30] Specifically, Asín compares the Muslim religious literature surrounding Muhammad's night journey (from Mecca to Jerusalem and thence up with the prophets through the seven heavens), with Dante's story describing a spiritual journey in which he meets various inhabitants of the afterlife. Accordingly, Asín (I) discusses in detail the above night journey and similar Muslim literature,[31] (II) compares it to episodes in the inferno,[32] the purgatorio,[33] and the paradiso[34] of La Divina Commedia, (III) investigates Muslim influence on corresponding Christian literature predating the poem, and (IV) conjectures how Dante could have known directly of the Muslim literature in translation. Asín remarks that notwithstanding these Muslim sources, Dante remains a luminous figure and his poem retains its exalted place in world literature.[35] Asín's book inspired a wide and energetic reaction, positive and negative, as well as further research and academic exchanges.[36] Eventually two scholars independently uncovered a buried source, the Liber Scalae,[37] desribing Mohammad's night journey, which had been translated by a scribe (Abrahim Alfaquim) of Alfonso X[38] and which has been traced to the Italian milieu of the poet, Dante Alighieri.[39] Although this missing link was unknown to Asín, he had based his work on several similar accounts of Mohammad's ladder then popular in Al-Andalus.[40]

[edit] Ibn Hazm

Asín published two early works on Ibn Hazm (Abenházam) of Córdoba (994-1064),[41] who was a theologian, a jurist,[42] and a poet.[43] Then, from 1927 to 1932, Asín published his five volume study, featuring a translation of Ibn Hazm's long work on the history of religious ideas.[44] The first volume contains a biography and a critique of the medieval Spanish Muslim; the remaining four a translation of the Fisal.[45] The Fisal has six parts: 1. non-Muslims (in Asín's volumes II-III), 2. Muslim sects (III-IV), 3. Muslim faith and theology (IV), 4. constitutional questions of Islamic government (V), 5. Muslim heresies (V), 6. theology in 29 questions (V). In his Part One, Ibn Hazm gives a polemical description of Christian scriptures and doctrine, its putative errors and contradictions, showing familiarity with the texts; he also comments on Judaism, Brahmans, sophists, atheists, and polytheists. Asín's biography discloses Ibn Hazm as once vizier to the declining Umayyad caliphs before retiring to his study. A jurist of the Zahiri (or "literalist") school of law,[46] Ibn Hazm's work Ibtal on fiqh is mentioned.[47] In his Fisal Ibn Hazm addresses possible rebellion against an unjust Imam.[48] Later, writings of Ibn Hazm were discovered in the library of the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul, including legal responsa, to which Asin devoted an article.[49]

[edit] Ibn 'Arabi

Another well known work by Asín addresses the life and mystical philosophy of Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) from the city of Murcia. Asín Palacios wrote a number of studies and translations of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi,[50] but his major work was El Islam cristianizado. Estudio del sufismo a través de las obras de Abenarabe de Murcia (1931).[51] Following an introduction regarding sufism, this book presents three parts: first, a short biography of Ibn 'Arabi [31-118]; second, commentaries on his mystical teachings, and also on his place in sufism and his subsequent influence [119-274]; third, translations taken from seven works of Ibn 'Arabi [275-518].[52] Asín Palacios was a western pioneer in Sufi studies, particularly regarding Ibn 'Arabi.[53] Not surprisingly Asín assumes the viewpoint of a spiritually involved Christian academic; he sees in the works of Ibn 'Arabi many similarities with his own religion's mystical doctrines. Consequently Asín brings this spiritually informed consciousness to his discussion of the principles and practices taught by Ibn 'Arabi. For example, Asín mentions the purgative preparation required by Ibn 'Arabi in the four deaths: white, death to hunger; red, dying to passion; black, to endure suffering; green, to enter poverty.[54] While some see adjacent virtues clearly, other mystics take a hard path of trials and of sorrows, to be humbled in the wilderness,[55] yet later may enter transforming vision and mercifully receive a felicitous and loving unity.[56] In his introduction, Asín observes that while Christian Spain became deeply affected by Muslim mysticism, beforehand the oriental Church had equally affected early Islam,[57] which later arrived in the far occident where Ibn 'Arabi would be born. From the perspective of religious studies, it might be said that Asín Palacios at points presents us with a multidimensional text for comparative religion. In his other works on Sufi practice, Asín mentions precursors of Ibn 'Arabi in al-Andalus (i.e., the school of Ibn Masarra), as well as those who drew on his teachings afterwards (e.g., the Sadilies or xadilíes tariqah).[58] Here also, Asín refers to the many parallels between al-Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi.[59]

[edit] Varia

Among Asín's many articles are studies concerning the following subjects:[60]

  • Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and his notion of a wager concerning the afterlife, with respect to similar ideas in Al-Ghazali;
  • Alumbrados, a dissindent group in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries, similarities compared with the Sadili school.
  • Ramon Lull (1233-1315) who Asín discussed in his book on Ibn Masarra, and also with regard to Ibn 'Arabi;
  • Ibn al-'Arif (12th century) de Almería, mentioned by Ibn 'Arabi, arif meaning "contemplation", but his with quietist tendencies;
  • Ibn Bajjah (1106-1138) of Zaragoza, also known in Latin as Avempace, with regard to the philosopher Aristotle.

[edit] Al-Ghazali

In the 1930s, Asín began yet another study of Algazel (1058-1111),[61] expressly declaring it limited to a Christian interpretation.[62] His investigation focuses on themes of spiritual practice from the forty volume magnum opus of al-Ghazali, the Ihya 'Ulum ad-Din [Revival of the Religious Sciences].[63] A. J. Arberry in 1942 called it "by far the most important monograph on Ghazali so far written," but adversely noted the importation of foreign religious sentiments into Asín's work on the Muslim theologian.[64] After addressing Al-Ghazali the person, including a short biography, Asín analyses the teachings of his Ihya in four parts: 1) his purgative ascetics, e.g., how to overcome sensuality, idle talk, anger and hatred, envy, worldliness, greed, glory, hypocrisy, pride, vanity, and spiritual illusion (in volume I); 2) his path to unity, e.g., penance, patience, gratitude, hope and fear, voluntary poverty, renunciation of the world, trusting in God, and love of God (vol. II); 3) his way to perfection, e.g., the life plan, purity and sincerity, conscience, meditation, and the religious song (vol. III); 4) al-Ghazali's mystical doctrine, to which Asín also provides a Christian interpretation.[65] In the fourth, concluding volume, Asín translates selections from works by Al-Ghazali (21 titles other than the Ihya) and provides a brief analysis of each.[66]

[edit] John of the Cross

In 1933 Asín published in the first issue of the journal Al-Andalus an article about San Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591).[67] This work can be seen to be equally about the saint's suggested forerunner, the Muslim mystic Ibn Abbad (1332-1389) of Ronda, and about Ibn Abbad's own sources in the Sadili school (tariqah).[68] The doctrine shared[69] concerns the soul on the path toward union with the Divine; God, being unreachably transcendent, the soul's only approach is to renounce everything but God.[70] Thereby the soul enters a desolation in which he lives only for God, yet the desolation may become too severe, causing the soul to despair, so that the merciful Deity grants him inspiration, followed by a phase of elation; afterwards the soul returns to the way through desolation in order to move closer to God. The shared doctrine teaches that the soul passing through these alternating states of "night" (contraction) and "day" (expansion) may relinquish the charismata of God's inspiring favors, so as to pass more quickly beyond the difficult rhythm of "night" and "day", so finding a repose, wherein to await the transforming union.[71] Asín analyses the technical vocabulary used by the sadilis and by San Juan de la Cruz in order to further establish the connection.[72]

[edit] Teresa of Avila

In a posthumously published article, Asín discusses Santa Teresa de Ávila (1515-1582).[73] The similes and analogies she employed to communicate the experiences of her spiritual life[74] are discovered by Asín to parallel those previously employed by mystics of Islam. In this instance the image used is of seven dwelling places or castles, one inside the other.[75] Asín mentions the Tanwir[76] of the sadili Ibn 'Ata Allah; the Tayrid[77] of Ahmad al-Gazali (brother of Algazel); and, the anonymous Nawadir[78] compiled by Ahmad al-Qalyubi, with its seven concentric castles.[79] Asín draws out other mutualities in the matrix of symbols, e.g., the Divinity being in the central dwelling.[80] Luce López-Baralt further explores this association of images, tracing the parallel to a ninth century Islamic mystic of Baghdad, Abu-l-Hasan al-Nuri (d.907), whose Maqamat al-qulub [Stations of the Heart] describes seven castles, one inside the other, through which the soul travels toward God.[81] After quoting a passage in which Sta. Teresa describes her spontaneous acquaintance with the castle image,[82] López-Baralt infers that Sta. Teresa's acquisition of the Islamic parallel was indirect, probably a popular allusion that lay dormant within her for years, resurfacing later to help her communicate her mystical experiences.[83] Following related studies,[84] Catherine Swietlicki discusses Saint Teresa's Jewish heritage,[85] and her mysticism as filtered through the mutual presence of three faiths.[86] The Catholic writings of Santa Teresa de Ávila, widely recognized and revered, may accordingly be understood to reflect as well a generality of shared values among the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic faiths during those blessed periods of convivencia in medieval Spain.[87]

[edit] Perspectives

The works of Asín Palacios are widely admired, notwithstanding criticism that his view point was of a Christian priest while involved in the neutral academic field of Islamic studies. In his own country, the labors of the Spanish Arabists, to which he contributed greatly, has over the generations worked to favorably alter the view shared by many Spaniards concerning the Muslim period of their history. His spiritual insights into Islamic mysticism illuminated formerly obscure figures and hidden connections. Perhaps, too, along with Louis Massignon and others, it can be said that the Professor Rev. Miguel Asín Palacios was instrumental in the open recognition by the Catholic Church of Islam as a legacy of Abraham, articulated in the Nostra Aetate documents of Vatican II (1962-1965).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Emilio García Gómez, "Don Miguel Asín (1871-1944) Esquema de una biografía" in Al-Andalus 9: 266-291, 269 (1944).
  2. ^ Asín would later write the long introduction to the jubilación for Prof. Ribera, Disertaciones y Opúsculos (Madrid: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre 1928), 2 volumes, at I: xv-cxvi.
  3. ^ Emilio García Gómez, "Homenaje a Don Francisco Codera: 1836-1917" in Al Andalus at 15: 263-274 (1950).
  4. ^ José Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios. Mística cristiana y mística musulmana (Madrid: Ediciones Hiperión 1992) at 19-25, 66.
  5. ^ James T. Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship (Leiden: Brill 1970) at 176.
  6. ^ This boarding house was well known for its residents and visitors, past (e.g., Sanz del Rio) and current. The tertulia (discussion group) of Menéndez y Pelayo met there, as did a variety of politicians and their supporters, and the young Duque de Alba (hence Asín's entrée to royalty). Emilio García Gómez, "Don Miguel Asín" in Al-Andalus 9:266-291 at 274-275 (1944).
  7. ^ Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 175-178, 129.
  8. ^ Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 25-27, 68.
  9. ^ Emilio García Gómez, "Don Miguel Asín" in Al-Andalus 9:266-291 at 284, 287 (1944).
  10. ^ See, e.g., the Continuations section below.
  11. ^ Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 34-35.
  12. ^ Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarhip at 192.
  13. ^ Emilio García Gómez, "Don Miguel Asín" in Al-Andalus 9:266-291 at 284-285 (1944).
  14. ^ García Gómez affectionately commented that Asín sometimes would appear "un poco en la luna". "Don Miguel Asín (1873-1944) Esquema de una biographía" in Al-Andalus 9:266-291 at 289 (1944).
  15. ^ Emilio García Gómez, "Don Miguel Asín (1873-1944) Esquema de una biographía" in Al-Andalus 9:266-291 at 287-289 (1944).
  16. ^ See "Selected Publications" section below. For descriptions of different critiques of Asín's works generally, see Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 147-175; also the "Selected Commentary" section, infra.
  17. ^ "El Averroísmo teológico de Santo Tomás de Aquino" (1904), reprinted in Huellas del Islam (1941), at 11-72.
  18. ^ Asin Palacios, Ibid. (1904), in Huellas del Islam, e.g., cf. section VI at 63-64.
  19. ^ Ibid. (1904), in Huellas del Islam, III at 43, 45-46, 49. Earlier Asín quotes extensively from Averroës, II at 21-41.
  20. ^ Ibid. (1904), in Huellas del Islam, IV at 52, V at 57-60.
  21. ^ P. Chalmeta Gendrón, "Asín Palacios, Miguel" in Gran Enciclopedia Rialp [GER] (1991) GER. As a medieval tactician, St. Thomas did write his De Unitate Intellectus Contra Averroistas or On the Unity of the Intellect against the Averroists (Marquette Univ. 1968); cf., Etienne Gilson, The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy (New York: Scribners 1936) at 176-178, 182-183. Nonetheless, what Asín presents here may be considered a modernist view point through a wide-angle lens, a philosophical anthropology.
  22. ^ Translated by Douglas and Yoder as The Mystical Philosophy of Ibn Masarra and his Followers (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1978).
  23. ^ The Mystical Philosophy (1914, 1978), Chapters I [1-14] and II [15-29].
  24. ^ The Mystical Philosophy (1914, 1978), Chap. III [30-42], at 33, 35, 38, 40-42.
  25. ^ In 1914 Asín thought that not a single work of Ibn Masarra nor any fragments survived [The Mystical Philosophy at IV:43]. Asín inferred his school's original teachings based on, e.g., medieval biographers (al-Faradi, al-Dabbi, Ibn Khaqan, and al-Maqqari [III:32,n.6]), two Iberian commentators (Ibn Hazm, and Sa'id of Toledo [IV:43]), and on the writings of his followers (in particular Ibn 'Arabi) [IV:43-44] and of his adversaries. Two manuscripts of Ibn Masarra have now been located (Kitab al-huruf [Book of Letters], & Kitab al-tabsira [Book of Clear Explanation]); very recently both have been translated into Spanish by Pilar Garrido. Asín knew of these titles only from references to them by others, e.g., Ibn Hazm [III:41,n.23].
  26. ^ Asín's theory that the pseudo-Empedocles was a source for Ibn Masarra himself has been challenged. Cf., Claude Addas, her Ibn 'Arabi ou La quéte du Soufre Rouge (Paris: Editions Gallimard 1989), translated by Peter Kingsley as Quest for the Red Sulphur. The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society 1993) at 57-58, and the article by S. M. Stern cited there at note 113.
  27. ^ Abenmasarra y su escuela (1914), translated as The Mystical Philosophy of Ibn Masarra and his Followers (1978), e.g., at 2-3, 12-13, 28, 88-89, 91 (and in Asín's prior works referenced at 12, footnote 25). Cf., R.C.Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (Univ.of London 1960; reprints: Schocken 1969, Oneworld 1994) at 86-87, 92, 112.
  28. ^ Asín, The Mystical Philosophy (1914, 1978) at 73-82, 123-143, 173-183 (Ibn 'Arabi); at 136-144, 173-183 (Ramon Lull); at 134-137, 144 (Roger Bacon). All three lived during the 13th century. Independently, Henry Corbin in his L'imagination créatrice dans le Soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi (Paris: Flammarion 1958), translated as Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (Princeton Univ. [Bollingen] 1969), citing Asín at 25-26 & 48-49, "saw" connections through the alam al-mithal [subtle world] [35-36], between the school of Ibn Masarra via Ibn 'Arabi and the mystical philosophy of Muslim Iran, e.g., Suhrawardi's Ishraq [light]. For Asín's Abenmasarra (1914) in general, see: Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 107-114; Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 180-182; Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur at 57-59.
  29. ^ La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia. See below, Selected Publications.
  30. ^ Asín refers to his own precursors, e.g., Bruno Nardi. La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia (Madrid-Granada: Escuelas de Estudios Árabes, segunda edición, 1943) at 4; & 397-399, 452; cf. Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 199. In general, see Valdivia Válor, at 118-120, 150-160; Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 182-184.
  31. ^ Asín, Escatologia at Part I, 9-120, and also Appendix I, 425-443. The Mi'raj or night journey [mi'ray in Spanish] is briefly mentioned in the Qur'an at the sura so named (XVII, 1-2), and perhaps alluded to twice more (LIII,1; LXXXIV, 19). The Mi'raj is described authoritatively in Hadith, e.g., of Sahih Muslim, whose text in English can be found in Ealry Muslim Mysticism edited by Michael A. Sells (Paulist Press 1996) at 49-53. The Mi'raj is also described by Ibn Ishaq (A.H. 85-151) in his "biography" of the prophet, in Alfred Guillaume (ed.), The Life of Muhammad. A translation of Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah" (Oxford University 1955) at 181-187.
  32. ^ Asín, Escatologia at 133-175.
  33. ^ Asín, Escatologia at 175-191.
  34. ^ Asín, Escatologia at 192-266.
  35. ^ Asín Palacios, La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia (2d ed., 1943), e.g., at 420 (el "inspirado" florentino que por "su poema inmortal" alcanzó "enamorados de la belleza de su arte exquisito").
  36. ^ See the "Commentary" sections listed below, i.e., Massignon, G. Gabrieli, Guillaume, Arnold, Levi della Vida, Cerulli, Muñoz Sendino, F. Gabrieli; see also Asín's response, "Historia y crítica de una polémica" (1924). Cf., Valdivia Válor at 150-160.
  37. ^ I.e., Book of the Ladder. José Muñoz Sendino, La Escala de Mahoma, tradución del árabe al castellano, latín y francés, ordenada por Alfonso X el sabio (Madrid 1949); and concurrent work by Enrico Cerulli, Il "Libro della Scala" e la questione della fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia (Vatican 1949). Both refer to translations from the Arabic of the Kitab al-mi'raj [Book of the ladder (or of the ascent)]. Generally, cf. Geo Widengren, Muhammad, the Apostle of God, and his Ascension (Uppsala 1955) at 96-114.
  38. ^ Regarding this royal scriptorium of Alfonso X el Sabio (r.1252-1284), cf., Escuela de Traductores (in English).
  39. ^ Francesco Gabrieli, "New lignt on Dante and Islam", in East & West, IV: 173-180 (Rome 1953) at 175-176. This article reviews the prior scholarship of Cerulli and Muñoz Sendino.
  40. ^ Asín Palacios, La Escatologia Musulmana en la Divina Comedia (2d ed., 1943), especially in Part I at chapters 2 & 3, and translations in the first Appendix; regarding Ibn 'Arabi: his derivative work, at 76-77, 79-84, 181-184, Asín's comparison of him with Dante, at 399-412, 417-418, and Asín's epilogue, at 418-421.
  41. ^ Los caracteres y la conducta, tratado de moral práctica por Abenházam de Córdoba (Madrid 1916), a work on his ethics; and, El Cordobés Abenházam, primer historador de las ideas religiosas (Madrid: Estanislao Maestre 1924).
  42. ^ Ibn Hazm was then a leading Zahiri jurist. Cf., Knut S. Vikor, Between God and Sultan. A History of Islamic Law (Oxford Univ. 2005) at 117-119.
  43. ^ For his poetry, see the annotated translations by Asín's former student, Emilio García Gómez, El collar de la poloma, tratato sobre el amor y los amantes de Ibn Hazm de Córdoba (Madrid 1952); also the English translation of A. R. Nykl, The Dove's Neck-Ring (Paris 1931). Such medieval Arabic poetry influenced the troubadours. Ramón Menéndez Pidal, España, Eslabón entre la Christiandad y el Islam (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe 1956, 1968) at 17-18 (citing Asín).
  44. ^ Abenházam de Córdoba y su historia crítica de las ideas religiosas. For a contemporaneous review (by Ángel González Palencia), see Al Andalus at I: 213-214 (1933).
  45. ^ Or, Kitab al-Fasl fi al-milal wa-al-ahwa' wa-al-nihal [Book of the Separation concerning Religions, Heresies, and Sects].
  46. ^ Cf., Ignaz Goldziher, Die Zâhiriten (Leipzig 1884), translated by W.Behn as The Zahiris. Their Doctrine and their History (Leiden 1971), who refers to "Ibn Hazm who distinguishes himself by his fanatical enmity against everything non-Islamic." Ibid. at 56; also at 60, "his personal fanaticism against followers of other religions." Yet Goldziher also recognizes Ibn Hazm: "Among the champions of the Dawudi [Zahiri] school this remarkable man is known as the most famous by far." Ibid. at 109.
  47. ^ Or, Ibtal al-qiyas wa-al-ra'y wa-al-istihsan wa-al-taqlid wa-al-ta'wil [Refutation of analogy, judge's opinion, public good, scholarly authority, and text interpretation]; in Asín's biography (vol. I). The Zahiris rejected the use of analogy, etc., in legal method.
  48. ^ At part 4 of the Fisal, on the "Necessity of the Imam" (Asín's volume V, at 7-51), in chapter 4, at 34-43. There Ibn Hazm distinguishes between not obeying an unjust order and taking action to overthrow an unjust ruler.
  49. ^ "Un Códice inexplorada de Cordobés Ibn Hazm" in Al Andalus, 2: 1-56 (1934).
  50. ^ Six prior articles of Asín are listed in El Islam cristianizado at 6 note 1, as well as discussion of Ibn 'Arabi in his 1919 book on Dante. Several later articles by Asín are given in Al Andalus, V: 239-241, 240 (1940), where Asín reviews the book of A.E.Affifi, The Mystical Philosophy of Muhyid Din Ibnul Arabi (1939); therein Asín refers to Ibn 'Arabi as "profound, knowledgeable and erudite, complicated and subtle, well versed in all the Islamic systems of thought." Ibid. at 241.
  51. ^ See "Selected Publications by Asín" below, under "Books". For discussion: Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 127-136, 162-174; Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 188-189; Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur at 1-10.
  52. ^ Tohfa, Amr, Tadbirat, Cunh, Mawaqui, Anwar, and Fotuhat.
  53. ^ Claude Addas, her Ibn 'Arabi ou La quéte du Soufre Rouge (Paris: Editions Gallimard 1989), translated by Peter Kingsley as Quest for the Red Sulphur. The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society 1993) at 1, and generally 1-10, in which Asín the pioneer undergoes a critique. Yet the Addas text at 40, note 24, apparently mistakes Asín's at 37, notes 1 & 2, which cites and quotes the Fotuhat [III:311 & I:363]. The very lengthy al-Futuhat al-makkiyya is the major work by Ibn 'Arabi; selections are translated in The Meccan Revelations (New York: Pir Press 2002 & 2004 [2 volumes]), edited by Michel Chodkiewicz [first published in French and English as Les Illuminations des la Mecque (Paris: Sinbad 1998). The other major work by the very prolific Ibn 'Arabi is the Fusus al-hikam translated by R.W.J.Austin as The Bezels of Wisdom (Paulist Press 1980).
  54. ^ El Islam cristianizado at 163 (& 339), citing Ibn 'Arabi's work Amr at 109, selections of which Asín translated (at 300-351) as Amr. La regla taxativa que fija las condiciones que deben cumplir los que siguen el camino de Dios [Restictive measures setting conditions to be fulfilled by those on the way of God].
  55. ^ Cf., El Islam cristianizado at 254-255 (& 390-392), which cites Ibn 'Arabi's Mawaqui [Mawaqi' al-nujum] at 193. Asín translated it in part (at 378-432) as Mawaqui. Descenso de los Astros y Ascensiones de los Místicos. Asín comments: "Para Abenarabi, ... la tristeza espiritual es la llave de las gracias de oración y contemplación, sin la cual el alma cae en la vanidad e ilusión de espíritu." [Suffering is key to the graces, else the soul becomes vain by spiritual illusions]. Ibid., at 254-255.
  56. ^ A characteristic doctrine of Ibn 'Arabi is wahdat al-wujud (the "unity of being"). Wm. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge. Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination (SUNY 1989), at 79 (yet cf. 226). The ultimate abode on the mystic path is "love", mahaba. El Islam cristianizado, at 200; cf. Capítulo XIII, "El Amor de Dios".
  57. ^ Miguel Asín Palacios, El Islam cristianizado (Madrid: Editorial Plutarco 1931; reprint Ediciones Hiperión 1990), e.g., at 12-13. The same year Margaret Smith described this Christian influence in some detail in her Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East (London: Sheldon Press 1931; reprint Oneworld 1995) at chapters VI, VII, and XI (reissued in 1976 as The Way of the Mystics, reprint Oxford Univ. 1978).
  58. ^ El Islam cristianizado at 171-174; cf. "Selected Publications" below (e.g., Abenmasarra y su escuela, and Sadilies y alumbrados). Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 132-133; Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 180-181, 193-194.
  59. ^ El Islam cristianizado, at 263 note 1, itemizing several with reference to the Fotuhat, and noting that Ibn 'Arabi gave public courses at Mecca on the Ilya of al-Ghazali.
  60. ^ Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 114-116 (Lull), 116-118 (Pascal), 125-126 (Ibn al-'Arif), 137-145 (Juan de la Cruz, Ibn 'Abbad of Ronda, Teresa of Avila, Sadilies and Alumbrados); Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 190-191, 193-194; cf. Luce López-Baralt, her "Estudio introductorio" to Asín's Sadilies y Alumbrados (1990), regarding St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, as well as the Sadilies (a major Sufi tariqah located mainly in Northern Africa) and the Alumbrados; & her Islam in Spanish Literature (1985, 1992) on the two saints (chapters III and IV); and as well her San Juan de la Cruz y el Islam (1985, 1990); and her "Saint John of the Cross and Ibn 'Arabi" (2000).
  61. ^ Asín Palacios, La espiritualidad de Algazal y su sentido cristiano (Madrid-Granados: Escuelas de Estudios Arabes, 1934-1941). Nine of his prior works on al-Ghazali are cited by Asín, Ibid. at I: 20-21. Several of these are addressed by Valdivia Válor in Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 97-102, 116-118, 120-123, and La espiritualidad de Algazal at 123-125, 147-150.
  62. ^ Asín states that he will purposely omit discussion of Muslim influence on al-Ghazali because already adequately covered by other scholars, e.g., Goldziher, Macdonald, Massignon, and Nicholson [Prologue at 9-10]. Monroe in his Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship at 191-192, 194-195, probes this approach by Asín, and censures what it may infer, citing a blanket critique of orientalists ("dry and sterile") made by [Seyyed] Hossein Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (Harvard Univ. 1964) at 156n1 (to text at 83).
  63. ^ Only a few volumes of al-Ghazali's Ihya have been translated into English, e.g., The Book of Knowledge or Kitab al-'ulm by Nabih Amin Faris (Lahore: Asraf 1962); and Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife or Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa ma ba'dahu by Timothy J. Winter (Cambridge: Islamic Text Society 1989).
  64. ^ A. J. Arberry, An Introduction to the History of Sufism (Oxford 1942) at 53; cited by Monroe at 192. Cf. Valdivia Válor at 161. Asín saw Islam as manifesting some similarity to a Christian heresy in its doctrines, given its espoused heritage, e.g., refering to Ramadan and Lent [Prologue at 15-16]. Asín repeatedly noted the subsequent mutual influence between the religions, hence his perceived bona fides in a Christian approach to al-Ghazali. González Palencia, "Necrologia: Don Miguel Asín" in Arbor II: 179-206 (1944), e.g., at 193-194, 198; cited by Valdivia Válor at 162-164. In this regard, Asín in his Prologue (La espiritualidad de Algazal at I: 18-19) refers to the Syrian Christian theologian Bar 'Ebraya (1226-1286), his Book of the Dove, in the annotated translation by Wensinck (1919). Another Syrian Christian theologian, Joannis Damascenus (676-749), in his Concerning Heresies discusses the "Heresy of the Ishmailites" at chapter 100 (attribution questioned), Muslims being called after Ishmael [Ismail] son of Abraham [Ibrahim].
  65. ^ Discussion of the mystical is in Asín's third volume, at chapters 30 [211-268] and 31 [269-289].
  66. ^ Included are selections from his well-known Tahafut al-falasifa, or The Incoherence of the Philosophers.
  67. ^ "Un precursor hispano musulman de San Juan de la Cruz", which was later reprinted in Huellas del Islam (1941), at 235-304. An English translation was made by Douglas and Yoder as Saint John of the Cross and Islam (New York: Vantage 1981).
  68. ^ Over half of Asin's article is selected translations of a text by followers of the tariqah's founder, Abu'l-Hasan ash-Shadhili (1196-1258), i.e., the Maxims [Kitab al-Hikam] of Ibn 'Ata Allah of Alexandria (d.1258), with a commentary thereon by Ibn Abbad of Ronda.
  69. ^ José Nieto, while not disputing the similarities discussed by Asín, is critical of any implied linkage between the earlier teachings of the Sadili sufis and those of San Juan. For Nieto this mystical doctrine functions at a level of generality such that it will arise spontaneously. Nieto, Mystic Rebel Saint. A study of Saint John of the Cross (Geneva: Droz 1979) at 25-27. Cf., Swietlicki, Spanish Christian Cabala (1986) at 184.
  70. ^ Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios at 137-139, 138, citing Asín, Ibid. in Huellas del Islam at 249 [Saint John of the Cross and Islam at section II, pages 12-13].
  71. ^ Asín Palacios, Saint John of the Cross and Islam at section II, 11-13.
  72. ^ Asín, Saint John of the Cross and Islam at section III, 24-27. For further research which develops the work of Miguel Asín Palacios, see Luce López-Baralt's book, San Juan de la Cruz y el Islam (1985, 1990).
  73. ^ In Al Andalus XI:263-274 (1946), later reprinted in a collection of Asín's related articles (introduced by López-Baralt), Sadilies y Alumbrados (1989) at 179-190. Asín had left it untitled (López-Baralt, ibid., at xviii); now called: "El símil de los castillos y moradas del alma en la mística Islamica y en Santa Teresa" ["The figure of castles and dwellings of the soul in Islamic mysticism and in Saint Teresa"].
  74. ^ Specifically in Teresa's book Las Moradas o Castillo interior (1577), [The Dwellings or interior Castle], translated as Interior Castle by Kavanaugh in Saint Teresa of Avila (Paulist Press 1979), and by Peers (Sheed & Ward 1943, reprint Doubleday [Image Books] 1961).
  75. ^ López-Baralt, Huellas del Islam en la literatura española (1985), translated as Islam in Spanish Literature (1992), at 107-113 (commenting on Asín's article). For St. Teresa's image of the soul as seven concentric castles: López-Baralt, Ibid., at 93; Interior Castles (Image 1961) at 11-13 [Peers' Introduction], and Santa Teresa's text at 28, 29, 37, etc.; also cf., E. Allison Peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics (London 1927-1930), at I: 162-191. Santa Teresa previously used like imagery in her Camino de perfección of 1566, at chapter 67 (cited by Asín at 185).
  76. ^ Kitab al-tanwir fi isqat al-taqdir, cited by Asín at 179, 180, 183, 186; as well as his Miftah, at 183n1.
  77. ^ Kitab al-tayrid, or Libro de la desnudez espiritual [Book of spiritual nakedness], Asín at 181, 188.
  78. ^ Kitab nawadir, redacted in 16th century from older material [183], cited by Asin at 183, 185, 186, 187, 190.
  79. ^ Asín, at 183, 186; parallel in number and array.
  80. ^ At 182, 184, 186 in Asín. Among other coincidences: the demonic dog lurking outside, trying to enter [181, 183, 186].
  81. ^ Luce López-Baralt, Huellas del Islam en la literatura española (Madrid: Hiperión 1985), translated as Islam in Spanish Literature (Leiden : E.J.Brill 1992) at 110; for Santa Teresa generally, Chapter Four, 191-142. López-Baralt later translated al-Nuri into Spanish (Madrid 1999). Also: López-Baralt, The Sufi Trobar Clus and Spanish Mysticism (Lahore 2000, as translated by Huxley) re St. Teresa and al-Nuri at 75-85, while she refers to Asín's work at 79-82, 85-87.
  82. ^ López-Baralt, Islam in Spanish Literature (1985, 1992) at 91-92 text, and at note 2.
  83. ^ López-Baralt, Islam in Spanish Literature at 91, note 2; she discounts a possible "Junigian" dimension to the symbolic similarities.
  84. ^ E.g., Francisco Marquez Villanueva, "El símil del Castillo interior: sentido y génesis" in Acta del Congreso Internacional Teresiano (Univ. Pontifica de Salamanca 1983); J.A.Carpenter and Come Carpenter, "La experiencia y la escatología mística de Santa Teresa y sus paralelos en el Islam medieval de los sufis" at 159-187 in Actas del I Congreso Internacional sobre Santa Teresa y la Mística Hispanica edited by Manuel Criado de Val (Madrid 1984).
  85. ^ Santa Teresa's father, Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda, was pius and learned; his father (her grandfather) was a "New Christian" or Jewish converso. Cf., Swietlicki, Spanish Christian Cabala (1986) at 49-51.
  86. ^ Catherine Swietlicki, Spanish Christian Cabala. The Works of Luis de Leon, Santa Teresa de Jesus, and San Juan de la Cruz (Univ. Missouri 1986), i.e., St. Teresa and the Cabala generally at 51-81, re Sufis and the seven castles at 62-66; Swietlicki cited by López-Baralt, Islam in Spanish Literature at 127-131, 134.
  87. ^ "Convivencia" signifies "living together" in Spanish, and may refer to a early medieval Golden Age ideal, in which the three faiths would share their cultures in peace. Prof. Asín contributed to the reification of the third pillar.

[edit] Selected Publications by Asín

[edit] Books

  • Algazel, dogmática, moral y ascética (Zaragoza 1901), with prologue by Menéndez y Pelayo at vii-xxxix.
  • Abenmasarra y su escuela. Orígenes de la filosofía hispano-musulmana (Madrid 1914, Impressa Ibérica 1917); reprint Hiperión, 1991.
  • La Escatologia musulmana en la "Divina Comedia", (Madrid: Real Academia Española 1919; Editoria Plutarco, Madrid 1931); in the second edition (Escuelas de Estudios Árabes de Madrid y Granada, 1943), the text (468 pages) is followed by his Historia y crítica de una polémica of 1924, augmented (143 pages); third edition (Madrid: Instituto Hispano. Árabe de Cultura 1961); reprint 1984, by Hiperión.
  • Dante y el Islam (Madrid 1927), preliminary note by Emilio García Gómez who edited this shorter version.
  • Abenhazam de Córdoba y su Historia crítica de las ideas religiosas (5 volumes, Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia; Madrid: Revista de Archivos 1927-1932).
  • El justo medio de la creencia. Compendio de teología dogmática de Algazel. Traducción española (Madrid: Mestre 1929).
  • El Islam cristianizado. Estudio del sufismo a través de las obras de Abenárabi de Murcia (Madrid: Editorial Plutarco 1931); reprint 1981, 1990 by Ediciones Hiperión, Madrid, 543 pages. An abridgement [containing Part I biography, and selections from Part III translations]: Amor humano, amor divino: Ibn Arabi (Córdoba: Ediciones El Amendro 1990).
  • Vidas de santones andaluces, la "Epistola de la santidad" de Ibn 'Arabi de Murcia (Madrid 1933), a translation of the Ruh al-Quds. Cf. R.W.J.Austin's own translation: Sufis of Andalusia. The Ruh al-Quds & al-Durrat at-Fakhirah (1971, 2002), at 18.
  • La Espiritualidad de Algazel y su sentido cristiano (4 volumes, Madrid 1934-1941).

[edit] Collected Articles

  • Huellas del Islam. Sto. Tomas de Aquino, Turmeda, Pascal, S. Juan de la Cruz (Madrid: Espana-Calpe, 1941), 307 pages. A collection of five articles, the fifth being on revelation in Islam and the Christian Scholastics.
  • Obras escogidas (3 volumes, Madrid 1946-1948). Collection from books and articles.
  • Sadilies y Alumbrados (Madrid: Ediciones Hiperion, 1989), 452 pages. The posthumously published articles, with a critical introduction by Luce López-Baralt at ix-lxviii.
  • Tres estudios sobre pensamiento y místico hispano-musulman (Madrid: Ediciones Hiperión, 1991). A collection of: Ibn Masarra (1914), Abu-l-Abbas (1931), San Juan de la Cruz (1933).

[edit] Articles

  • "Mohidin" in Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid: Suarez 1899) at II: 217-256.
  • "El filósofo zaragozano Avempace" in Revista de Aragón, numbers 7, & 8 (1900), numbers 10, & 11 (1901).
  • "Bosquejo de un diccionario téchnico de filosofía y teología musulmana" in Revista de Aragón, III: 50-56, 385-392 (Zaragoza 1902); V: 179-189, 264-275, 343-359 (Zaragoza 1903).
  • "El averroísmo teológico de Santo Tomas de Aquino" in Homenaje a D. Francisco Cadera (Zaragoza 1904), at pages 271-331.
  • "El Lulismo exagerado" in Cultura Española (Madrid 1906), at 533.
  • "La psicología de extasis en dos grandes místicos musulmanes, Algazel y Mohidin Abenarabi" in Cultura Española I: 209-235 (1906).
  • "Sens du mot Tehafot dans les oeuvres d'el-Gazali et d'Averroes" in Revue Africaine nos. 261 & 262 (Algeria 1906).
  • "La moral gnomica de Abenhazam" in Cultura Española XIII: 41-61 (Madrid 1909).
  • "La mystique d'Al-Gazzali" in Melanges de la Faculte oriental de Beyrouth VII (Beirut 1914).
  • "Logia et agrapha Domini Jesu apud moslemicos scriptores, asceticos praeserim, usitata" in Patrología Orientalis (Paris: Didot), XIII/3: 335-431 (1916, 1919); reprint: Editions Brepols, Turnhout (Belgium), 1974; under the Latin name of Michaël Asin et Palacios.
  • "Los precedentes musulmanes del Pari de Pascal" in Boletin de la Biblioteca Menéndez y Palayo (Santander), II: 171-232 (1920).
  • "Influencias evangelicas en la literatura religiosa del Islam" in A Volume of Oriental Studies edited by Thomas Arnold and Reynold Nicholson (Cambridge Univ. 1922).
  • "La escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia, Historia y crítica de una polemica" appearing concurrently in Boletin de la Real Academia Española (Madrid 1924), Il Giornale Dantesco (Florence 1924), Litteris (Lund, Sweden 1924); "Influence musulmane dans Divine Comedie, Histoire et critique d'une polemique" in Revue de Litterature comparee (Paris 1924).
  • "Una sinopsis de la ciencia de los fundamentos juridicos segun Algazel" in Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 2:13-26 (1925).
  • "El místico murciano Abenarabe" in Boletin de la Academia de la Historia (1925-1928).
  • "El místico Abu-l Abbas Ibn al-'Arif de Almeria y su Mahasin Al-Mayalis" in Boletin de la Universidad de Madrid III: 441-458 (1931).
  • "Un precursor hispano musulman de San Juan de la Cruz" in Al-Andalus I: 7-79 (Madrid-Granada 1933).
  • "Por qué lucharon a nuestro lado los musulmanes marroquies" in Boletín de la Universidad Central (Madrid 1940), written in 1937.
  • "Ibn-Al-Sid de Badajoz y su Libro de los cercos" in Al-Andalus V: 45-154 (Madrid-Granada 1940).
  • "La Carta de Adiós de Avempace" in Al-Andalus VIII: 1-87 (Madrid-Granada 1943).
  • "Sadilies y alumbrados" in Al-Andalus IX-XVI (Madrid-Granada 1944-1951).
  • "El símil de los castillos y moradas en la mística islámica y en Santa Teresa" in Al-Andalus XI: 263-274 (Madrid-Granada 1946).

[edit] Books and Articles in English

  • Asín Palacios, Islam and the "Divine Comedy", translated and abridged by Harold Sunderland (London: John Murray, 1926); reprint 1968, Frank Cass, London.
  • Asín Palacios, The mystical philosophy of Ibn Masarra and his followers, translated by Elmer H. Douglas and Howard W. Yoder (Leiden: E.J.Brill 1978).
  • Asín Palacios, Saint John of the Cross and Islam, translated by Elmer H. Douglas and Howard W Yoder, (New York: Vantage 1981).
  • Alfred Guillaume, see Commentary: Articles (1921).
  • Thomas Walker Arnold, see Commentary: Articles (1921).
  • Arthur Jeffery, see Commentary: Articles (1945).
  • Francesco Gabrieli, see Commentary: Articles (1953).
  • James T. Monroe, see Commentary: Books (1970).
  • Catherine Swietlicki, see Commentary: Continuations (1986).
  • Luce López-Baralt, see Commentary: Continuations (1992 & 2000).

[edit] Selected Commentary

[edit] Articles

  • Menéndez y Pelayo, his prologue to Asín's Algazel (1901), at vii-xxxix.
  • Louis Massignon, "Les recherches d'Asín Palacios sur Dante" in Revue du Monde Musulman XXXVI (Paris 1919); reprinted in Opera Minora I: 57-81 (Beirut 1963).
  • Julián Ribera y Tarragó, "El arabista español" (Real Academia Española, 1919); reprinted in Ribera, Disertaciones y Opusculos (Madrid: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre 1928) at I: 457-488.
  • Giuseppe Gabrieli, "Intorno alle fonti orientali della Divina Comedia" in Arcadia III (Roma 1919); "Dante e l'Islam" in Scritti vari pubblicati in occassione del VI centario della morte di Dante Alighieri (Varallo Sessia, 1921).
  • A. Nallino, article in Revista degli Studi Orientali (Roma 1921) at VIII/4.
  • Alfred Guillaume, "Mohammedan Eschatology in the Divine Comedy" in Theology (London, June 1921).
  • Thomas Walker Arnold, conference lecture given at the University of London, in Contemporary Review (London, August 1921).
  • Emilio Garcia Gomez, "Don Miguel Asín, 1871-1944. Esquema de una biografia" in Al-Andalus, IX: 267-291 (1944); a bibliography by Pedro Longas follows at 293-319.
  • Angel Gonzalez Palencia, "Necrologia: Don Miguel Asín Palacios" in Arbor II/4-5: 179-206 (1944).
  • Henri Terrasse, "Necrologie. Miguel Asín Palacios" in Hesperis XXXII/19: 11-14 (Rabat 1945).
  • Louis Gardet, "Hommage a Don Miguel Asín Palacios" in Ibla 229-243 (Tunes 1945).
  • Arthur Jeffery, "Miguel Asín" in The Muslim World 35: 273-280 (1945).
  • Giorgio Levi della Vida, "Nuova luce sulle fonti islamiche della Divina Commedia" in Al-Andalus XIV: 376-407 (1949).
  • Francesco Gabrieli, "New Light on Dante and Islam" in East and West IV/3: 173-180 (Roma 1953).
  • Enrico Cerulli, "Dante e l'Islam" in Al-Andalus XXI: 229-253 (1956).
  • Wunderli, "Zu Auseinander-setzungen. Uber die muselmanische Quellen der Divina Commedia. Versuch einer kritischen Bibliographie" in Romanistiches Jahrbuch, XV: 19-50 (1964).
  • Ignazio M. L. Sa'ade, "Adwa' 'ala al-mustasriq al ispani Asín Balaziyus wa-l hiwar bayna al Masihiyya wa-l Islam" in Al-Masarra (Lebanon, February 1968).
  • Rafael Lapesa, "En el centario del nacimiento de Don Miguel Asín, I, linguista" in Al-Andalus XXXIV: 451-460 (1969), and in Boletin de la Real Academa Española 51: 393-402 (1971).
  • Mikel de Epalza, "Massignon et Asín Palacios: une longue amitie et deux aproches differentes de l'Islam" in Cahiers de l'Herne 13: 157-169 (Paris 1970).
  • Luce López-Baralt, her critical introduction to Asín's Sadilies y Alumbrados (1989), at ix-lxviii.
  • Andrea Celli, "Miguel Asín Palacios, Juan de la Cruz e la cultura arabo-ispanica" in Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, XLIII (2007).

[edit] Books

  • Rafael Lapesa and Emilio García Gómez, En el centario del nacimiento de don Miguel Asín (Madrid: CSIC 1969).
  • James T. Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship. Sixteenth century to the present (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970), at Chapter VII, "Philosophy: Miguel Asín Palacios" at 174-195.
  • José Valdivia Válor, Don Miguel Asín Palacios. Mística critiana y mística musulmana (Madrid: Ediciones Hiperión 1992), 213 pages.
  • Andrea Celli, Figure della relazione: il Medioevo in Asín Palacios e nell'arabismo spagnolo (Roma: Carocci 2005).

[edit] Continuations

  • Jose López Ortiz, Derecho musulmán (Barcelona 1932); Augustinian.
  • Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Poesía Árabe y Poesía Europea (Buenos Aires 1941, 1943, 1946); España, Eslabón entre la Christiandad y el Islam (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe 1956, 1968). University of Madrid.
  • Isidro de las Cagigas, Minorías étnico-religiosas de la edad media española, I Los mozárabes (Madrid 1947-1948, 2 volumes), II Los mudéjares (Madrid 1948-1949, 2 volumes); historian, Spanish diplomat.
  • Enrico Cerulli, Il "Libro della Scala" e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia (Vaticano 1949); Nuove ricerche sul "Libro della Scala" e la conoscenza dell'Islam in Occidente (Vacticano 1972).
  • José Muñoz Sendino, La escala de Mahoma, traducción del árabe al castillano, latín y francés, ordenada por Alfonso X el sabio (Madrid 1949), text independently discovered and published concurrently with the first of Cerulli above.
  • Jaime Oliver Asín, Historia del nombre "Madrid" (Madrid 1952). Nephew of Miguel Asín Palacios.
  • A. Huici Miranda, Colección de crónicas árabes de la Reconquista (Tetuán 1952-1955) 4 volumes.
  • Juan Vernet Ginés, Los musulmanes españoles (Barcelona 1961); Professor, University of Barcelona.
  • Darío Cabanelas Rodríguez, Juan de Segovia y el problemo islámico (Madrid 1952); El morisco granadino Alonso de Castillo (Granada 1965); Ibn Sida de Murcia, el mayor lexicógrafo de Al-Andalus (Granada 1966); Franciscan.
  • Miguel Cruz Hernández, Filosofía hispano-musulmana (Madrid 1957), 2 volumes; Professor, University of Salamanca.
  • Cristóbal Cuevas, El pensamiento del Islam. Contenido e Historia. Influencia en la Mística española (Madrid: Ediciones Istmo 1972), 328 pages, at Parte II "Influencias Islámicas en la Mística Española" pages 217-312.
  • Salvador Gómez Nogales, La política como único ciencia religiosa en al-Farabi (Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabi 1980).
  • Catherine Swietlicki, Spanish Christian Cabala: The Works of Luis de León, Santa Teresa de Jesús, and San Juan de la Cruz (Columbia: University of Missouri Press 1986).
  • Luce López-Baralt, her San Juan de la Cruz y el Islam (Colegio de México and Universidad de Puerto Rico 1985; Madrid: Hiperión 1990); Huellas del Islam en la literatura española (Madrid: Hiperión 1985, 1989), translated as Islam in Spanish Literature (Leiden: E.J.Brill 1992); "Saint John of the Cross and Ibn 'Arabi: The Heart or Qalb as the Translucid and Ever-Changing Mirror of God" in Journal of the Muhyiddin ibn 'Arabi Society, XXVIII: 57-90 (2000); also her long introduction to Asín's Sadilies y Alumbrados (1989).

[edit] Journal

The Instituto Miguel Asín continues to publish the journal Al-Qantara. Revista de Estudios Árabes, in conjunction with the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones científicas. Volume one of Al-Qantara [The Arch] was issued in 1980 at Madrid.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also