ARABO-SPANISH ASCETIC-MYSTICAL WRITERS. — The long period of Islamic rule in Spain (over seven centuries: 711–1492), with the resulting establishment of mutual relations between the Saracens and the native population in both social and cultural spheres, led to the formation of two well-defined cultures, quite distinct from one another though not without mutual influence: the Christian-Arab or *monazabic* culture (so called from the *monazabis*, Christians living among Muslims while practicing their own religion), and the Arab-Christian culture of the *mudejares*, Muslims living among Christians. The *monazabis* 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 learning, the pride of the Spanish Arabs at a time when science in the East was in full decline.
Averroism (v.), the Arab-Spanish philosophical system, was also a theology with mystical aims (union with God through speculation or contemplation). Yet the mystical ideal of Alfarabi (d. 950), Avicenna (d. 1037), Avempace (Ibn Bājjah, d. c. 1138), Abu-Bakr (Ibn Tufayl), and Averroes, as well as that of others (with the partial exception of al-Ghazālī, who was certainly influenced by Christian thought), remained confined to the philosophical and pantheistic sphere. The doctrinal influence of the so-called Arab-Spanish mystics on the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and later has been somewhat exaggerated in modern times.
Among those whose influence on Christian mystics is most strongly asserted is Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda, who lived in the fourteenth century. The Arabist Miguel Asín Palacios has called this Muslim mystic the “precursor” of St. John of the Cross, the Doctor of the Church. His principal work, *Commentaries on the Sentences of Ibn ʿAṭā Allāh of Alexandria*, is regarded by Asín as a complete manual of asceticism and mysticism. Indeed, he claims to demonstrate the influence of Ibn ʿAbbād on the mysticism of St. John of the Cross by expounding in detail the teachings of both and highlighting striking coincidences not only of ideas but also of vocabulary.
Another notable Arab mystic was Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, better known as Ibn al-ʿArabī (b. Murcia c. 1164), whose prolific output is attested by more than four hundred works. Louis Massignon has stated that his doctrine dominates the entire modern history of Muslim mysticism. Like Ibn ʿAbbād and other Muslim mystical writers, he presents singular doctrinal analogies with Christian mysticism. Equally elevated is the work of his Egyptian contemporary Ibn al-Fāriḍ (1182–1235).
Special mention must be made of the Blessed Raymond Lull (v.), who died in 1315, on whom the influence of Aben Massarra is undeniable; his works influenced Spanish and Franciscan mystical literature.
According to Émile Dermenghem, the *ṣūfīs* (Muslim poets and holy men) have expressed the great mystical experiences in a manner strikingly similar to that of the Fathers and Doctors of Christian mysticism.
Such analogies of concepts and even of experiences should not, however, be surprising. They are partly explained by the fact that many Muslim mystics came into contact, first in the East and later in Spain, with the great Christian monasteries and monks, and there was mutual exchange between Islamic and Christian culture during the period of Arab rule in Spain. It must nonetheless be noted that asceticism and mysticism had already produced great Christian writers long before Muhammad, who had already codified the techniques of this science. Many philosophical concepts were likewise common to both Arab and Christian mystics, since the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonic philosophies were studied with equal ardor by both Arabs and Christians in Spain.
From these analogies and from cultural interchange, however, it would be erroneous to conclude that there was an identity of doctrine or mystical experience, as some would claim.