ASÍN PALACIOS, MIGUEL. - Spanish priest and Arabist, b. in Saragossa on 5 July 1871, d. on 12 Aug. 1944. A member of the Royal Spanish Academy (president from 1943), of the Academy of History and of that of Moral and Political Sciences, for about four decades A. held the chair of Arabic at the University of Madrid, distinguishing it by the rigor and effectiveness of his method, of which a recent proof is the Crestomatía de árabe literal con glosario y elementos de gramática (1939). From 1932 until his death he was director of the School of Arab Studies of Madrid and Granada and of the journal Al-Andalus.
The publications of A. on Arab culture, especially philosophical-theological and mystical, are very numerous, without excluding the field of comparative literature, folklore, toponymy, etc. Works of great vigor are those he devoted to al-Ghazālī: Algazel: dogmática, moral, ascética (1901), El justo medio en la creencia (1929), La espiritualidad de Algazel y su sentido cristiano (1934-40); to Ibn Hazm, Abenházam de Córdoba y su Historia crítica de las ideas religiosas (1927-32); to Ibn 'Arabī, El Islam cristianizado (1931). The origins of Arab philosophy in Spain were studied by A. in Abenmasarra y su escuela (1914). Besides studies on Avempace, Ibn Tumlūs and others, in 1940 A. gave the edition with Spanish translation of the philosophical work of Ibn as-Sīd of Badajoz (Al-Andalus, 5 [1940], pp. 45-155), and began that of the writings of Avempace. His highly original thesis on La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia (1919) was keenly admired and also debated: A. himself gathered the documents of the discussion in Historia y crítica de una polémica (1924), reprinted recently (1943) together with the Escatología. A. is also the author of important writings on the relations of Raymond Lull, St. Thomas, St. John of the Cross, and Pascal with Islam.
Among the cultivators of Arabism, A., with sagacity, vast knowledge of the sources, mastery of theology and philosophy, and elegance of style, contributed much to making known to the West the rich Islamic cultural heritage, its derivation from the Christian East and its influence on the origin of scholasticism and on various sectors of Christian mysticism.