Diana Lobel - A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya ibn Paqudas Duties of the Heart

A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue

JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS

Published in association with the Center for Advanced

Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania

David B. Ruderman, Series Editor

Advisory Board

Richard I. Cohen

Moshe Idel

Alan Mintz

Deborah Dash Moore

Ada Rapoport-Albert

Michael Swartz

A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.

Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paqdas Duties of the Heart

DIANA LOBEL

Copyright 2007 University of Pennsylvania Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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Published by

University of Pennsylvania Press

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lobel, Diana.

A Sufi-Jewish dialogue : philosophy and mysticism in Baya Ibn Paqdas Duties of the heart / Diana Lobel.

p. cm.(Jewish culture and contexts)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-3953-9

ISBN-10: 0-8122-3953-9 (alk. paper)

1. Baya ben Joseph ibn Pakda, 11th cent. Hidayh il farid al-qulb. 2. Jewish ethics-Early works to 1800. 3. Baya ben Joseph ibn Pakda, 11th cent.KnowledgeSufism. 4. JudaismRelationsIslam. 5. Sufism. I. Title.

II. Series.

BJ1287.B23H4935 2006

296.36dc22

2006042181

For Reb Moshe Holcer, zl

And for Albert, Francine, and Janet Lobel

You have taught meeach in a unique waythe meaning of duties of the heart

It was told of a pious man [asid] that he met some people returning from a great battle with an enemy. He said to them, You are returning, praised be God, from a smaller battle, carrying your booty. Now prepare yourself for the greater battle. They asked, What is that greater battle? and he answered, The battle against the instinct and its armies.

This anecdote about a pious person is quoted by one of the early masters of the Hasidic movement in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polonnoy.

How does a perennially popular manual of Jewish piety come to be quoting Islamic traditions about the Prophet Muammad? Muslim Spain of the tenth through twelfth century, known as the Golden Age of Hispano-Jewish poetry and letters, is a time of great convergence and cultural creativity. Jewish courtiers such as Samuel Hanagid are writing wine poetry; erotic Arabic poetry finds its way into the synagogue liturgy, even on the holiest days. Jewish philosophers are reading and writing philosophy in Arabic; Jews are studying with Sufi masters, integrating ascetic practices and mystical thought into their own spiritual creativity.

One of the founders of the contemporary study of religion, W. C. Smith, spoke of rare moments of interreligious creativity in world history that created international communities of discourse. Baghdad in the ninth and tenth century was one, in which the Caliph al-Mamn (81333) established a school for translation. The Renaissance of Islam saw the translation of Hippocrates, Galen, Plato, and Aristotle into Syriac and Arabic by Hunayn Ibn Isq and his disciples. The intellectual circles of tenth-century Baghdad show the influence of a wide variety of sects and schools: the orthodox school of the Asharite theologians; the Mutazilite theologiansknown as the freethinkers of Islamwho introduced allegorical interpretation of Scripture; the Eastern Christian John of Damascus, who was a strong influence on Christian kalm; and a panoply of Christian sects, which were well represented, as were Zoroastrianism, Manichaeanism, and Indian philosophy. The Muslim historian al-Humayd records the experience of a Spanish theologian, Ibn Sd, visiting Baghdad in the ninth century and attending an assembly of Islamic theology, kalm:

Yes, I attended twice, but I refused to go there for a third time for this simple reason, which you will appreciate: At the first meeting there were present not only people of various Islamic sects, but also unbelievers, Magians, materialists atheists, Jews and Christians, in short unbelievers of all kinds. One of the unbelievers rose and said to the assembly: we are meeting here for a discussion. Its conditions are known to all. You, Muslims, are not allowed to argue from your books and prophetic traditions since we deny both. Everybody, therefore, has to limit himself to rational arguments. The whole assembly applauded these words. So you can imagine, Ibn Sd concluded, that after these words I decided to withdraw.

It was during this time of religious cross-fertilization that Saadya Gaon (892942) wrote his Book of Doctrines and Beliefs to clarify Jewish belief in an age of intellectual ferment. Baya Ibn Paqda comes a century later in Muslim Spain, an era of similar cultural convergence.

We know very little about Baya Ibn Paqda; all we have from him is one manual of inner devotion and several devotional poems. He wrote his Judeo-Arabic classic Guidebook to the Duties of the Heart (al-Hidya il fari al-qulb) in Muslim Spain by 1080 at the latest; it was translated into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon in 1161 under the title ovot ha-levavot, the first work to be undertaken in the immense project of preserving Judeo-Arabic classics for the community of Provence, which was losing the ability to read Arabic. The Hebrew translation has have decisively established Bayas borrowings from Islamic literature and specifically Sufi texts.

We know that the Sufi movement flourished in Spain from the tenth century on. In his own eyes, each duty of the heart is vital to an integrated spiritual path.

It is ironic, then, that there has been a radical split in the image of Baya and a corresponding split in scholarship. Scholars have described three Bayas: the philosopher, the dialectical theologian, and the Sufi pietist. Scholars have seen the philosopher and the theologian in the First Gate and the Sufi pietist in the remainder of the work. So extreme is this split image that Georges Vajdas classic study tracing Sufi themes and sources in Bayas work does not address the First Gate at all, whereas David Kaufmanns philosophical study concentrates solely on the First Gate. In this study, I wish to draw a more complex portrait of Baya as an original thinker who defies easy categorization. Baya integrates elements from Neoplatonic philosophy, Mutazilite theology, rabbinic Judaism, and Sufi mystical piety in a unique and creative synthesis.

Amos Goldreich recently established that a small treatise of Musib, Questions Concerning the Actions of the Heart and the Limbs, is quite likely the source of Bayas title and terminology of Duties of the Heart. It is well documented that Musibs work was popular in eleventh-century Spain. I will add new evidence supporting Goldreichs thesis that Baya knew this treatise of Musibs, and provide new analysis establishing a literary connection between Baya and other early Sufi works.

Baya is unique in both Jewish and Islamic intellectual history in his integration of philosophical method and Sufi devotion. In my search for the sources of Spanish Sufism, I found many Sufi thinkers immersed in the language of theology (kalm) but not in philosophical My study analyzes the creative integration of philosophy, theology, Sufi mysticism, and rabbinic Judaism in his thought.