ARABO-SPANISH ASCETIC-MYSTICAL WRITERS. — The long period of Islamic domination in Spain (more than seven centuries: 711–1492), with the consequent establishment of mutual relations between the Saracens and the native population, both in the social and cultural spheres, resulted in the formation of two well-defined cultures, quite distinct from one another although not without mutual influences: Christian-Arabic or Mozarabic culture (so called from the Mozarabs, Christians who lived among Muslims while practising their own religion), and Arab-Christian culture, or that of the Mudejars, Muslims living among Christians. The Mozarabs enriched Islamic culture with the Visigothic elements of which they were the heirs; the Mudejars brought to Hispanic Christian culture the contribution of Arab science and culture, the glory 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 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 well as of the others (with the partial exception of Al-Gazzālī, who was certainly influenced by Christianity), remained restricted to the philosophical sphere and culminated in pantheism. The doctrinal influence of the so-called Arab-Spanish mystics on the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and even later has been somewhat exaggerated in modern times.
Among those whose influence on Christian mystics is most strongly asserted, Ibn Abbāt de Ronda, who lived in the 14th century, must first be mentioned. The Arabist Miguel Asín Palacios calls this Muslim mystic a “precursor” of the Doctor of the Church, St John of the Cross, and considers his principal work, Commentaries on the Sentences of Ibn 'Ana Allah of Alexandria, a complete manual of asceticism and mysticism. He even claims to demonstrate Ibn Abbāt’s influence on the mysticism of St John of the Cross by setting out the doctrines of both in detail and pointing out striking coincidences not only in ideas but also in vocabulary.
Another notable Arab mystic was Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Alī, better known by the name Ibn al-'Arabī, born in Murcia around 1164, whose productivity as a writer is attested by more than 400 works. Louis Massignon says that his doctrine dominates the entire modern history of Muslim mysticism. Like Ibn Abbāt and other Muslim mystical writers, he presents singular doctrinal analogies with Christian mysticism. No less elevated is the work of his Egyptian contemporary Ibn al-Fārid (1182–1235).
Special mention must Lullo (v.), who died in 1315 and 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) presented the great mystical experiences in a manner very similar to that of the Christian mystical Fathers and Doctors.
Such analogies of concepts and even of experiences should not, however, cause surprise. They can be explained in part by considering that many Muslim mystics were in contact, first in the East and later in Spain, with the great monasteries and Christian monks, and that there was a mutual exchange between Islamic and Christian culture during the period of Arab domination in Spain. It should nevertheless be noted that, long before Muhammad, there had been great Christian writers on asceticism and mysticism who had already established the methods of this science. Many philosophical concepts, moreover, were common property among Arab and Christian mystics, since Platonic, Aristotelian, and Plotinian philosophies were studied with equal fervour in Spain by Arabs and Christians. From
these analogies, however, and from the mutual cultural influence, it would be erroneous to conclude that there was either an identity of doctrine or an identity of mystical experiences, as some would have II.
Silviero di S. Teresa