Asín Palacios, Miguel - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 114

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ASÍN PALACIOS, MIGUEL. — Spanish priest and Arabist, born in Saragossa on 5 July 1871, died on 12 August 1944. A member of the Royal Spanish Academy (president from 1943), the Academy of History, and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, for approximately four decades A. held the chair of Arabic at the University of Madrid, distinguishing it through the rigor and effectiveness of his method, of which a recent example 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 Arabic Studies of Madrid and Granada and of the journal Al-Andalus.

A.’s publications on Arab culture are exceedingly numerous, particularly on philosophical-theological and mystical culture, without excluding the fields of comparative literature, folklore, toponymy, etc. Works of great scope are those he devoted to al-Gazzàli: 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); and to Ibn 'Arabí, El Islam cristianizado (1931). The origins of Arabic philosophy in Spain were studied by A. in Abenmasarra y su escuela (1914). In addition to studies on Avempace, Ibn Tumlûs, and others,

Article illustration — (from Wilpert, Paintings) ASINO — Shepherd defending his flock from the attack of onagers. Vault of a cubiculum (3rd century) — Rome, cemetery of Pretestato.

A. published in 1940 the edition, with a Spanish translation, of the philosophical work of Ibn as-Sid of Badajoz (Al-Andalus, 5 [1940], pp. 45–155), and began the edition of the writings of Avempace. His highly original thesis, La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia (1919), was warmly admired and also debated: A. himself brought together the documents of the discussion in Historia y crítica de una polémica (1924), recently reprinted (1943) together with the Escatología. A. is also the author of important writings on the relations of Raimondo Lullo, s. Tommaso, s. Giovanni della Croce, and Pascal with Islam.

Among scholars of Arabism, A., with his acumen, extensive knowledge of the sources, command of theology and philosophy, and elegance of style, contributed greatly to making the rich Islamic cultural heritage known in the West, as well as its derivation from the Christian East and its influence on the origins of Scholasticism and on various fields of Christian mysticism.

BIBL.: G. Gómez, Don M. A., in Al-Andalus, 9 (1944), pp. 267–319; S. Lator, La scuola moderna degli arabisti spagnoli, in Civiltà Cattolica, 1942, II, pp. 220–27. For an extensive, though incomplete, bibliography, V. Enc. Univ. Ill. Europea-Americana, appendice, I, 921. Numerous articles by A. in Al-Andalus (1933–44).