ARAB-SPANISH, ASCETIC-MYSTIC WRITERS. - The long period of Islamic domination in Spain (more than 7 centuries: 711-1492), with the consequent establishment of mutual relations between the Saracens and the native population, both in the social and in the cultural sphere, had as its effect the formation of two well-defined cultures, quite distinct from one another although not devoid of mutual influences: the Christian-Arabic or Mozarabic culture (so called from the Mozarabs, Christians who lived among the Muslims practicing their own religion), and the Arab-Christian culture or that of the mudejares, Muslims living among the Christians. The Mozarabs enriched Islamic culture with the Visigothic elements of which they were the heirs; the mudejares brought to Hispanic Christian culture the contribution of Arabic science and culture, the pride of the Spanish Arabs at a time when in the East science found itself in full decadence.
Averroism (v.), an Arab-Spanish philosophical system, was also a theology with a mystical purpose (union with God through speculation or contemplation). But the mystical ideal of Alfarabi (d. 950), Avicenna (d. 1037), Avempace (Ibn Bāǧah, d. ca. 1138), Abubacer (Ibn Ṭufajī) and Averroes, as of the others (with the partial exception of Al-Ghazālī, who certainly underwent Christian influence), is restricted to the philosophical sphere and issues in pantheism. The doctrinal influence of the so-called Arab-Spanish mystics on Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and even later has in our own day been somewhat exaggerated.
Among those whose influence on Christian mystics is most strongly asserted to have been the case, Ibn Abbāt of Ronda, who lived in the 14th century, is first of all to be noted. By the Arabist Miguel Asín Palacios this Muslim mystic is called a "precursor" of the Doctor of the Church St. John of the Cross, and his principal work, Commentaries on the sentences of Ibn 'Ana Allah of Alexandria, is by him considered a complete manual of ascetics and mysticism. He even claims to show the influence of Ibn Abbāt on the mysticism of St. John of the Cross, setting out in detail the doctrine of both and noting surprising coincidences not only of ideas but also of vocabulary.
Another notable Arab mystic was Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Alī, better known by the name of Ibn al-'Arabī, b. at Murcia around 1164, of whose fecundity as a writer more than 400 works bear witness. Louis Massignon says that his doctrine dominates the whole modern history of Muslim mysticism. Like Ibn Abbāt and other Muslim mystical writers, he presents singular analogies of doctrine with Christian mysticism. No less elevated is the work of his Egyptian contemporary Ibn al-Fārid (1182-1235).
Special mention deserves Blessed Raymond Lull (v.) d. 1315, on whom the influence of Aben Massarra is undeniable; his works influenced Spanish and Franciscan mystical literature.
According to Emile Dermenghem the ṣūfī (Muslim poets and holy men) expounded the great mystical experiences in a manner very similar to the Christian mystical Fathers and Doctors.
Such analogies of concepts and also of experiences must not, however, cause astonishment. They are explained, in part, by considering that many Muslim mystics were in contact, in the East first, then in Spain, with the great monasteries and with Christian monks, and there was mutual exchange between Islamic and Christian culture during the period of Arab domination in Spain. It should be noted in any case that in ascetics and mysticism there had been, long before Mohammed, great Christian writers, who had already fixed the technique of that science. Many philosophical concepts, moreover, were the common patrimony of Arab and Christian mystics, since the Platonic, Aristotelian and Plotinian philosophies were studied with equal ardor in Spain by Arabs and by Christians. From these analogies, however, and from the mutual cultural influence it would be erroneous to conclude to an identity either of doctrine or of mystical experiences, as some would wish.
Bibliography14 works
Silviero di S. Teresa