Miguel Asín Palacios

A major book El Islam cristianizado (1931) presents a study of Sufism through the works of Muhyiddin ibn 'Arabi (Sp: Mohidín Abenarabe) of Murcia in Andalusia (medieval Al-Andalus).

Asín did comparative work vis-à-vis Islam respecting Ramon Lull, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Blaise Pascal.

His method of work involved meticulous planning, by first conceiving the order of presentation in detail, then straight ahead, without a rough draft ("sin borrador"), redacted with each reference note on its proper page.

[12] The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936, and caught Asín Palacios while in San Sebastián in the Basque country visiting his nephew and family.

[19] Following early publications on Al-Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi as noted above, Asín Palacios discussed, edited and rendered into Spanish translation many Arabic writings, and composed books and essays on related themes, including an occasional piece in Latin, French, or Italian.

[21] With respect to Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle, Asín infers that the religio-philosophic world inhabited by Averroës is analogous to that of Aquinas, and also to that of ben Maimon or Maimonides (1135–1204) the Jewish philosopher and talmudist, also from Córdoba.

[35][36] Due to a lack of extant works by Ibn Masarra of Córdoba available to Asín, his book treats the general context of the School and teachings of early Muslim mystics in al-Andalus.

[40][41] Mentioned several times by Asín is a perspective he favored: eastern Christianity's early influence on the young religion before Islam's arrival in the west.

[52][53] Asín points to the impact of these Muslim and Jewish thinkers of Spain regarding medieval Christian theology, for example, the long drawn-out struggle between the Aristotilean ideas of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) and those of Duns Scotus (1266–1308).

[76] Prior to Asín's La Escatologia it was assumed that Dante drew from the long poem the Aeneid by the ancient Roman poet Virgil for the inspiration to create the memorable scenes of the afterlife.

[82][83][84] Eventually two scholars, an Italian and a Spaniard, independently uncovered an until-then buried Arabic source, the 11th-century Kitab al-Mi'raj [Book of the Ladder (or of the ascent)],[85][86] which describes Muhammad's night journey.

[88][89] Evidently Dante's mentor Brunetto Latini met the Latin translator of the Kitab al-Mi'raj while both were staying at the court of king Alfonso X el Sabio in Castilla.

[103][104] The remaining four volumes comprise an incomplete yet lengthy translation of Ibn Hazm's Fisal,[105][106] a very long work on the history of religious ideas, its Arabic title being Kitab al-Fisal fi al-milal wa-al-ahwa' wa-al-nihal [Book of Separation.

In part 1 of the Fisal, Ibn Hazm gives a polemical description of Christian scriptures and trinitarian doctrine, its putative errors and contradictions, showing familiarity with the texts.

[123] After publication of Asín's 5-volume study, additional writings of Ibn Hazm were discovered in the library of the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul, including legal responsa, to which Asin devoted an article.

Asín Palacios had already written a number of studies and translations of Ibn 'Arabi, the revered (and controversial) mystic,[125] but his major work was El Islam cristianizado.

[129] Asín's brief biography describes Ibn 'Arabi's youthful 'conversion' to an inward path and first teachers,[130][131] his adolescent meeting with Averroës,[132] three of his visionary encounters with the 'maestro de verde' [green master] Jádir,[133] and his travels visiting various sufis in al-Maghreb (e.g., Fes, and Túnez).

[134] In 1201 Ibn 'Arabi traveled further east across North Africa in pursuit of his spiritual journey, to Meca, Bagdad, Mosul, Cairo, Conia, Medina, Jerusalén, Alepo, and Damasco, where he died and where his tomb now draws pilgrims.

[141] According to Prof. Alexander Knysh, Asín was one of the earlier western scholars of Ibn 'Arabi, a motivated European clergyman who was: "concerned with detecting the underlying affinities between Christian and Islamic theology with a view to advancing an Islamo-Christian dialogue.

[144] While some see adjacent virtues clearly when young, and others take first a hard path of trials and of sorrows ... eventually to meet a challenging paradox and become humbled in the wilderness;[145] yet each soul may mercifully receive a spiritual transformation, to become ultimately possessed by divine love in a felicitous vision of unity.

[171] In 1933 Asín published in the first issue of the journal Al-Andalus an article about San Juan de la Cruz (1542–1591) and a doctrine he shared with spiritual Islam.

[176] While not disputing these similarities as discussed by Asín, a subsequent scholar, José Nieto, remained critical of any implied linkage between the earlier teachings of the Sadili sufis and San Juan de la Cruz.

[188] Luce López-Baralt further explores this association of images, tracing the parallel to a 9th-century Islamic mystic of Baghdad, Abu-l-Hasan al-Nuri (died 907), whose Maqamat al-qulub [Stations of the Heart] describes seven castles, one inside the other, through which the soul travels toward God.

[191] Following other similar studies,[192] Catherine Swietlicki took a new but related direction, discussing Saint Teresa's Jewish heritage,[193] and her mysticism as filtered through the mutual presence of three faiths.

[194] The Catholic writings of Santa Teresa de Ávila, widely recognized and revered, may accordingly be understood to reflect as well a generality of shared values among the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic faiths during those blessed periods of convivencia in medieval Spain.

[195][196] The works of Asín Palacios are widely admired, notwithstanding criticism that his viewpoint was of a Christian priest while involved in the academic field of Islamic studies.

In his own country, the labors of the Spanish Arabists, to which he contributed greatly, has over the generations worked to favorably alter the view shared by many Spaniards concerning the Muslim period of their history.

Miguel Asín Palacios was instrumental in the open recognition by the Catholic Church of Islam as a legacy of Abraham, articulated in the Nostra aetate document of Vatican II (1962–1965).

But it is regrettable that he should have applied language and ideas befitting a Christian monk to a Sufi like Ibn 'Arabi; their vocations are different, and in employing such a method one runs the risk of blurring the originality of both types."

Corbin, L'imagination créatrice dans le Soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi (Paris: Flammarion 1958), translated by Ralph Manheim as Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (Princeton Univ.