The Mystics of Andalusia

Abstract

The Mystics of al-Andalus by Yousef Casewit, assistant professor of Qur’anicstudies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, tells the story of an overlookedmystical school of Andalusia, the Muʿtabirun (lit. “the contemplators”or “the practicers of iʿtibār”). The Muʿtabirun, as Casewit demonstrates, formulateda mystical teaching centered on contemplating God’s signs in creationand the Book, and that self-consciously distinguished itself from the Sufis of the East. This book details the ways in which Ibn Barrajan (d. 536/1141), Ibnal-ʿArif (d. 536/1141), and Ibn Qasi (d. 546/1151), the school’s main authors,contributed to Andalusi mystical thought and provided a link between IbnMasarra (d. 319/931) and Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 637/1240).This book comprises eight chapters. The first two frame Casewit’s interventioninto the historiography of Islamic spirituality in al-Andalus.Chapter 1, “The Beginnings of Mystical Discourse in al-Andalus,” providesa concise history of mystical discourse and practices from the Umayyadsto the end of the Murabitun (the seventh to the twelfth century). The majorprecursor of the Muʿtabirun was Ibn Masarra, whose Risālat al-Iʿtibār presentsan intellectual-cum-spiritual practice of contemplating God’s signs(āyāt) in the book of nature in order to ascend the ladder of knowledge todivine unity. Controversially, Ibn Masarra maintained that iʿtibār couldlead to the same truths as revelation. In 961, thirty years after his death, hisbooks were burned at the behest of the jurists and his followers were forcedto publicly disavow their master. His teachings, however, continued clandestinely ...