WOMEN'S LENS - Un coup d'oeil féminin: Al Andalus: Philosophy Came Earlier for Jews Than Arabs

October 2, 2007

Al Andalus: Philosophy Came Earlier for Jews Than Arabs

Philosophy in Al-Andalus developed later among Muslims than among Jews, although both communities were nurtured by a common Oriental philosophical tradition in Arabic. The Muslim community was much larger and it defined the cultural space. The great figure of Medieval Judaism Shelomo Ibn Gabirol or Avicebron (1021-1058) was also a talented philosopher. He preceded, by over two generations, the first Muslim philosopher of Al-Andalus, Ibn Bajja (d. 1139). The reasons for the later development of philosophy in Muslim Al-Andalus, therefore, cannot be explained by the fact that the country was situated far away from that nurturing source.

The cause is likely that philosophy was never central to the Islamic intellectual constellation and that it flourished in peripheral areas, geographical as well as doctrinal. The greatest evidence is Ibn Sînâ (d. 1037) who lived in the Iranian provinces and in a Shiite environment. Al-Andalus was peripheral in geographical, but not in doctrinal, terms. The country followed Sunni orthodoxy and the Malekite school of law prevailed while Ash‛arite theology was weakly cultivated. When Abû l-Qâsim Sâ‘id Ibn Sâ‘id (d. 1070) devoted a chapter of his world history of the sciences and philosophy to Al-Andalus, his information about philosophy was significantly scarce (Sâ‛id, 1998, pp. 96-108; 1991, pp. 58-78). In spite of the circumstances, philosophy in Al-Andalus blossomed into maturity with Ibn Bajja.

Much more on Ibn Bajja

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Very little is known about the second exodus of North Africa's Jewish community from Egypt. Fewer people know that a thriving Jewish/European community existed in Egypt until the middle of the twentieth century. With this in mind, Women’s Lens was created to inform and present a woman's voice to the Diaspora. I explore anti-Semitism, Israel, socio-economic issues and their effect on women worldwide. We also look at culture, not only our own, but the ones that have had a great effect on our traditions. Since, for a lot of us, French was our native tongue, many posts on Women's Lens are in that language. Inevitably, there will also be narratives peppered with some Arabic, Spanish, Ladino and any other language that may have enriched our lives.

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