The Mystics of al-Andalus: Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth Century : Yousef Casewit

The twelfth century CE was a watershed moment for mysticism in the Muslim West. In al-Andalus, the pioneers of this mystical tradition, the Mu'tabirun or 'Contemplators', championed a synthesis between Muslim scriptural sources and Neoplatonic cosmology. Ibn Barrajān of Seville was most responsible for shaping this new intellectual approach, and is the focus of Yousef Casewit's book. Ibn Barrajān's extensive commentaries on the divine names and the Qur'ān stress the significance of God's signs in nature, the Arabic bible as a means of interpreting the Qur'ān, and the mystical crossing from the visible to the unseen. With an examination of the understudied writings of both Ibn Barrajān and his contemporaries, Ibn al-'Arif and Ibn Qasi, as well as the wider socio-political and scholarly context in al-Andalus, this book will appeal to researchers of the medieval Islamic world and the history of mysticism and Sufism in the Muslim West. Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Mystics-al-Andalus-Barraj%C4%81n-Cambridge-Civilization-ebook/dp/B06XTSP8LW?ref_=ast_author_mpb

Contents PDF https://assets.cambridge.org/97811071/84671/frontmatter/9781107184671_frontmatter.pdf

Dr. Yousef Casewit's Biography :Professor Casewit is a Qur’anic studies scholar at University of Chicago. His research interests include intellectual history of North Africa and al-Andalus, Muslim perceptions of the Bible, and medieval commentaries on the ninety nine divine names. He has several publications, most recently The Mystics of al-Andalus: Ibn Barrajān and Islamic Thought in the Twelfth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2017), a study on Ibn Barrajan’s life and teachings. He is also the author of a critical edition of a Qur’an commentary by Ibn Barrajan (Brill, TSQ Series, 2016). Source:https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/yousef-casewit