Maimonides’ Erben. Der jüdische Sufismus und die philosophisch-mystischen Denkräume des Islam

Abstract

In this article, Dirk Hartwig deals with an intellectual-historical trend that the historical study of Sufism has so far hardly taken notice of, namely »Jewish Sufism«, as it has been called by some researchers. Hartwig locates the genesis of this spiritual trend in Egypt in the 13th century and states that it disappeared at the beginning of the 15th century. Accordingly, »Jewish Sufism« emerged from the work of Moses Maimonides, who lived in the 12th century AD. In his primary work, Maimonides dealt, among other things, with the perfection of the human being, elaborating stages of perfection of the human intellectual potential. According to Maimonides, perfection is only achieved when the law and the understanding of that law agree. This correct understanding, however, is granted only to a part of the elect. The teachings of Maimonides were further developed and expanded to include a spiritual and mystical dimension. This is »proto-Kabbalistic mysticism«, which however has no relation to the Kabbalah, which is what usually comes to mind concerning Jewish mysticism. Rather, a form of a rationally oriented ascetic spirituality emerged from Maimonides’ religio-philosophical rationalism. A particularly close connection to Sufism can be found in Abraham Maimonides (1186-1237), who, according to Hartwig, clearly followed the Sufi path in the tradition of Ab¯uT. ¯alib al-Makk¯ı. Abraham Maimonides is also to be regarded as the founder of a school of thought that integrated Jewish ideas and strove for perfection. According to Hartwig, many similarities between Judaism and Islam can be discovered within »Jewish Sufism «. In his article, he makes it clear that this trend probably presented the most far-reaching merging of Jewish and Islamic beliefs.