Journal Article

Intellectualist Mysticism in al-Andalus

Ebstein, Michael

2025

Overview

The aim of this essay is to shed light on the possible background against which Ba@hya Ibn Paqūda wrote his famous Book of Guidance to the Commandments of the Hearts (Kitāb al-hidāya ilā farā’i@d al-qulūb; Heb.: Sefer torat @hovot ha-levavot), by highlighting the similarities between this work and the much less-known Al-gharīb al-muntaqā min kalām ahl al-tuqā (Selected extraordinary sayings of the God-fearing ones), by Abū ‘Abd Allāh Mu@hammad Ibn Sa‘īd Ibn Khamīs al-Yāburī (d. 503/1109–10). The analysis of various passages from these two works will demonstrate that the Jewish Ba@hya and the Muslim Ibn Khamīs, who both hailed from al-Andalus/Sepharad and were active in more or less the same period (the second half of the eleventh century), shared a very similar mystical worldview. Specifically, the Hidāya and the Muntaqā reflect an intriguing fusion between, on the one hand, theological and psychological-ethical teachings inspired by al-@Hārith al-Mu@hāsibī (d. 243/857), the well-known theologian-mystic from Baghdad, and, on the other hand, philosophical-Neoplatonic concepts, derived most likely from the renowned Rasā’il ikhwān al-@safā’ (The epistles of the sincere brethren/brethren of purity). This is yet another example of how vital the comparative reading of Jewish and Islamic sources is for reconstructing the history of Andalusī/Sephardic thought.

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Subject: 11th century / Comparative analysis / Comparative studies / Credibility / Islam / Literature / Mysticism / Phraseologisms / Quotations / Writers