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Manifestations of Arab Thought in Western Islam
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
Extract
Do not believe that the philosophy that has reached us through the writings of Aristotle, Abû Nasr (al-Fârâbî), and the book of Healing (of Ibn Sinâ), will satisfy your longing; neither that any of the Andalusians has written anything adequate on this matter. For the men of superior understanding who lived in Andalusia before the spread of logic and philosophy in that country, devoted their lives to the mathematical sciences…; but could do nothing more…” Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzân, p. 12.
Much remains to be done by way of determining exactly the ways in which Arab thought penetrated Western Islam-I refer both to its sociological extension and the depth of its psycho-cultural effect. The question thus posed is of considerable historical importance, above all if one wishes to cover the whole period from the beginning of the Eighth Century (i.e. the end of the First/beginning of the Second Century of the Hegira), up to the present day. In fact, the spread of Arab thought to the Maghreb, and its penetration in depth, was accelerated again after the reconquest of the politically autonomous areas. This situation lends our research a certain topicality, whence spring both advantages and disadvantages: there is the advantage of historical knowledge not being limited to an erudite accumulation of facts about a past that has no links with any extant community; yet there is the problem that it is hard not to evoke the past in order to justify present ideological ventures.
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- Copyright © 1976 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 From the viewpoint of the Maghrebin thought that we are looking at, it is relevant to point out that certain recent publications by French scholars hardly escape the criticisms levelled at colonial learning; the authors have too great a tendency to hide their lack of Islamic culture and their fundamental ignorance of the Maghreb by stirring professions of the anticolonial creed! To avoid futile polemics, we prefer not to cite examples.
2 We distinguish between ideology and ideation: the first denotes the systematic and dogmatic use of unverifiable assumptions in order to legitimize the behaviour of a social group; it is a rationalisation of a half-truth that will arouse the latent and avowed desires of the greatest number; the second, on the contrary, denotes an attempt to multiply the number of subjects of reflection, to bring forth new ideas and to promote their development to every possible extent.
3 Cf. the work of the 7th seminar held at Tizi-Ouzou, in Al-multaqâ al-sâbi' li-l-ta'arruf ‘alâ-l-fikr al-islâmiyy, 3 vol., Constantine 1395/1975.
4 Cf. his articles and contributions collected in Inniyya wa asâla, Constantine 1395/1975.
5 Cf. W. Watt: Islam and the Integration of Society, London, 1961. The author does not give sufficient attention to the linguistic aspect of the integrative function of classical Islam.
6 Asâla is linked to the root a.s.l., which expresses the idea of origin-root-basis-foundation. The same root recurs in the plural usûl = foundations, or the sources of religion in the expression usûl al-dîn; or of the law, in the expression usûl al-fiqh. On these two fundamental branches of knowledge in Moslem thought, cf. M. Arkoun, La Pensée Arabe, Paris, P.U.F. 1975.
7 Literally ancestral; the salalî reformers claimed, in fact, kinship with ancestors (salaf) from the time of the foundation and spread of Islam. The translation "orthodox" is obviously only acceptable with reference to the so-called Sunnite Islam; the salaf are different, being hierarchical, but not in the same way as Shiite Islam.
8 On the important concept of S.A.H., cf. A. Touraine, Production de la Société, Seuil, 1973.
9 These difficulties are explicitly underlined by the unanimously voted recom mendations of the participants at each seminar. In this respect, it will be noted that the publications of the Algerian Ministry of Original Instruction are suffi ciently substantial and numerous to nurture important monographs on Islam in independent Algeria.
10 Cf. our Essais sur la pensée Islamique, Maisonneuve-Larose 1973, and La pensée arabe, op. cit.,
11 F. Wahl, Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme, Seuil 1968, p. 305.
12 On these concepts, cf. F. Braudel, Ecrits sur l'histoire, Flammarion 1969, p. 41. fl.
13 Cf. our essay, " Logocentrisme et vérité religieuse…," Essais, op. cit.
14 The Universe had existence and meaning before man's knowledge of the fact: the rift is therefore due to the obtrusion into the system of knowledge of facets of reality still not truthfully apprehended. Cf. for example, the way in which a medieval writer spoke of the plague: Ibn Majar al-'Asqallânî, Badhl al-mâ'un fî fawâ'id al-ta'ûn, analysed by J. Sublet, "La Peste prise aux rêts de la jurisprudence," Studia Islamica XXXIII.
15 The historian of thought should apply himself to rearranging the Greco-Semitic realm arbitrarily devised by the dogmatic theologies that have been reinforced by the academic history of philosophy in the West. To this very day, the history of philosophy continues to dismiss Arab-Islamic thought as of an alien " East," in favor of the irresistible rise of "the Western consciousness" of the Greco-Christian tradition. In all universities, the teaching of Arab philosophy is relegated to the "orientalist" departments, where they exist!
16 Let us remember, however, that these manipulations are necessary to the extent that the traditional theological languages, or the modernised theocentric language, continue to respond to psycho-social needs. In the case of Islam, it is psychologically vital to affirm the validity of a "specific" Islamic thought in the face of the radical challenges of modern thought.
17 Cf. M. Arkoun, La Pensée arabe, op. cit., ch. IV.
18 At the Tlemcen Seminar, an Iraqi poet, Walîd Al-A'zamî, still presented Ma'arrî as a destroyer of Arab-Islamic values.
19 On the dialectic of strengths and residues present in all societies, cf. H. Lefèbre, Métaphilosophie, Paris, 1965.
20 A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la philosophie, Paris, P.U.F. 1960, (pensée).
21 A. Lalande, op. cit. (comprendre).
22 Respectively Sicily, Ifrîqiyâ denoted the eastern Maghreb, from Constanti nople to Tripolitania. Cf. Encyclopédie de l'Islam, (Ifrîqiyâ).
23 In La pensée arabe, op. cit. and "Comment lire le Coran?," Le Coran, trans. Kasimirski, Garnier-Flammarion 1970.
24 Cf. the works of J. Van Ess, A. Khoury, M.A. Shaban, M. Watt, A.D. Udovitch, Ch. Chéhata, etc.
25 In relation to this, the numerous works of T. Lewicki, for example, do not always reveal a fundamentally Berber social group under the "heterodox" Islamic garb.
26 Cf. H. Monès: "Le rôle des hommes de religion dans l'histoire de l'Espagne musulmane jusqu'à la fin du califat," Studia Islamica XX; R. Idris, "Réflections sur le mâlikisme sous les Omayyades d'Espagne," Atti del terzo congresso di studi arabi e islamici, Naples, 1967.
27 Cf. R. Idris, op. cit., and M. Talbi, "Kairouan et le mâlikisme Espagnol," Études dédiées à Lévi-Provençal, I, Paris, 1962; A. Turki, "La vénération pour Mâlik et la physionomie du mâlikisme andalou," Studia Islamica XXXIII.
28 Cf. Ch. Pellat, "Ibn Hazm, bibliographe et apologiste de l'Espagne musulmane," Andalus 1954/1. Also in the same trend, see: "La Risâla d'Al-Shaqundî," trans. A. Luya, Hespéris XXII, 1936.
29 Jihâd and mujtahid are derived from the same root j.h.d. which means effort; exerted in defense of "God's laws," this effort is holy war (jihâd); in understanding The Word of God, and in making his wishes explicit in the elaboration of the Law, in particular, this same effort is called ijtihâd, and that which achieves it mujtahid.
30 The adab is an extremely complex concept which in classical Arab thought designates general culture and the corresponding conduct of "the honest man" (adîb). Cf. M. Arkoun, L'humanisme arabe au IV-Xe siècle, Vrin 1970, p. 207 ff.
31 Cf. Ihsân ‘Abbâs, Ta'rîkh al-naqd al-adabîyy, Beirut 1972; Ch. Pellat, "Note sur l'Espagne musulmane et Al-Jâhiz," Andalus, 1956.
32 Peter Berger's expression, in La religion dans la conscience moderne, Centurion 1971, p. 85.
33 Thus viewed, it can be seen that our approach has to justify itself before two different audiences; one has to disarm the "professional historians," who are ready to reject anachronism without realizing that a learned history is of absolutely no help to an uninitiated public in understanding its own relation to the past; but at the same time one has to convince Arab-Moslem readers that the unravelling of the past does not necessarily mean its negation, still less its destruction.
34 Cf. J. Waterbury: Le Commandeur des croyants, P.U.F. 1975, and E. Gellner, Saints of the Atlas, London, 1969.
35 On Jihâd in Andalusia, cf. D. Urvoy, " Sur l'évolution de la notion de Jihâd dans l'Espagne musulmane," Mélanges de la Casa Velazquez, IX, 1973; this study implies many notations that corroborate our own presentation of thought; see also, by way of comparison: E. Sivan, L'Islam et la Croisade. Idéologie et propagande dans les réactions musulmanes aux Croisades, Paris, 1968.
36 Cf. M. Arkoun, "Présentation d'Ibn Tufayl," to appear in Jeune Afrique. This paper was conceived of as the application of the general method defined in this essay to the case of Ibn Tufayl.
37 Cf. Al-Yûsî. Problèmes de la culture marocaine au XVIIe siècle., Mouton 1958.
38 Cf. A. Abdesselem, Les historiens tunisiens des XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Paris, 1973; J. Lévi-Valensi, Fellahs tunisiens: l'économie rurale et la vie des campagnes aux XVIIe et XIXe siècles, Sorbonne thesis (to be published).
39 This is shown very clearly in an oral Kabyle tradition, that I have personally traced in my own native village of Taourirt-Mimoun (Ben i-Yenni), about the local saints: Sidi Ali Ouyahya, Sidi-I-Muhub Wall, and Sidi Yahya. The first, in particular, played a decisive role in the XVIIth century in the settling of conflicts that rent the rival tribes, and consequently in the spreading of Islam.
40 Cf. "Pour un remembrement de la conscience islamique," Mélanges H. Corbin, Teheran 1975.
41 Cf. Ch. Chéhata, Ètudes du droit musulman I, P.U.F., 1971, p. 11 fol.
42 A. Turki's recent thesis: Polémiques entre Ibn Hazm et Al-Bâjî sur les principes de la loi musulmane (unpublished) contributes valuable information, but the author is unacquainted with the notation of the system of thought that we are aiming at here.
43 On Ifrîqiyâ cf. Ch. Bouyahia, La vie littéraire en Ifrîqiyâ sous les Zirides, Tunis 1972. The same enquiry should also be undertaken into the thought that the author has unfortunately separated too much from literature, taken in the narrow sense.
44 Cf. L. Gardet, "La ‘théorie des oppositions' et la pensée musulmane," Revue thomiste 1975.