Imaginary spaces of devotion in Andalusi mystical poetry: Christian monks and monasteries in a qaṣīda by al-Shushtarī

Abstract

The Maghreb Review, Vol. 45, 4, 2020 © The Maghreb Review 2020 This publication is printed on FSC Mix paper from responsible sources IMAGINARY SPACES OF DEVOTION IN ANDALUSI MYSTICAL POETRY: CHRISTIAN MONKS AND MONASTERIES IN A QAṢĪDA BY ALSHUSHTAR Ī ANNA AYSE AKASOY* It is my pleasure to contribute this article in honour of Ronald Nettler and in appreciation of our conversations about religious dialogue, Jewish–Muslim relations and Sufism. In the 1960s, the Spanish tourism industry sought to attract visitors by declaring that ‘España es diferente’, ‘Spain is different’ – a phrase which can be traced back at least to the Spanish War of Independence in the early nineteenth century. Different, one assumes, from other destinations of northern European tourists, different, one assumes as well, on account of its history of religious, ethnic and cultural diversity. Different here amounts to exotic.1 Inside Spain as well, the declaration has been used for regional purposes.2 Inspired by this slogan, historians too have been considering this difference of Spain. Social, political and cultural patterns which have been identified for other regions of the European continent are sometimes seen as not applying to Spain. The question about Spain’s difference, however, predates the time when Spain became Spain. For related, or for entirely different reasons, al-Andalus, the area of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule, was already different. Within the Islamic world, the most obvious difference of al-Andalus is that it did not remain part of this political and indeed religious sphere but was the only major landmass conquered during the first century or so of Islamic history that did not stay under Islamic rule. Other differences too come easily to mind. It was in al-Andalus, for example, that the Umayyad dynasty survived after its fall to the Abbasids in the mid-eighth century. As the Abbasids moved their capital eastward from Damascus to Baghdad, it was arguably geographical distance which allowed a second bloom of Umayyad rule in the West. The continuity of Umayyad rule in Iberia had further consequences, such as the almost uniform dominance of the Maliki legal school of Sunni Islam; this in turn had further consequences,3 * The Graduate Center, City University of New York An earlier version of this essay was presented at the Mediterranean Seminar in April 2017. I would like to thank Sharon Kinoshita and Brian Catlos as well as the participants for their comments. 1 For the commodification of Spain’s difference see Simon R. Doubleday and David Coleman (eds), In the Light of Medieval Spain. Islam, the East, and the Relevance of the Past (New York, 2008). 2 Eric Calderwood, ‘“In Andalucía, there are no Foreigners”: Andalucismo from Transperipheral Critique to Colonial Apology’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 15/4 (2014), 399–417. 3 For an account of some of these developments in Islamic law see Maribel Fierro, ‘Proto- 722 ANNA AYSE AKASOY extending perhaps even to the absence of hospitals, which may have been a consequence of Maliki regulations for pious endowments (awqāf). Although the presence of hospitals in North Africa – likewise subject to Maliki law – suggests that an explanation might be better sought elsewhere, the very fact that hospitals or other institutions (such as madrasas) did not develop in al-Andalus until much later than elsewhere in the Islamic world remains noteworthy.4 Opportunities for identifying difference as it was recognised by contemporaries emerge from encounters between Andalusis and Mashriqis (‘Easterners’). Easterners found their way into the West comparatively rarely, but Westerners more or less frequently travelled to the East. Their motivations ranged from the pilgrimage and education to trade and diplomacy. Occasionally the sources produced in relation to such journeys provide us with glimpses into mutual perceptions of Easterners and Westerners within the Arabic-speaking world and beyond.5 They reveal different religious doctrines and practices, different political views, different Arabic vocabularies as well as different customs in clothing or eating. While some of these differences were noticed with curiosity, others resulted in judgement. Although the extent of social segregation and cultural identity remains unclear, Andalusis or Westerners in the Eastern Mediterranean appear to have constituted in some ways a recognisable community, especially...