The Mystics of al-Andalus: Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth Century By
 Yousef Casewit
Publisher Cambridge University Press Pub Date 2017 Pub Location GB Isbn 0 Course(s)
   26

Description

The twelfth century CE was a turning point for mysticism in the Muslim West. In al-Andalus, the pioneers of this mystical tradition, the Mu'tabirun or 'interpreters', mixed Muslim scriptural sources with Neoplatic cosmological doctrines. Ibn Barrajan of Seville (d. 536/1141) mostly contributed in shaping this new intellectual approach, and Yousef Casewit's book also focuses on this topic. Ibn Barrajan's extensive account emphasises on the divine names and the Qur'an, the significance of divine signs in the nature, the Arabic bible as a means of interpreting the Qur'an, and the mystical transition from the divine vision to the unseen. Examining works of Ibn Barrajān and his contemporaries, Ibn al-'Arif and Ibn Qasi, as well as the wider socio-political and scientific context in al-Andalus, this book would be beneficial to researchers of the medieval Islamic world and the history of mysticism and Sufism in the Muslim West.