A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue : : Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya ibn Paquda's "Duties of the Heart" / / Diana Lobel.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package Complete Collection
• VerfasserIn: Lobel, Diana,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2013]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Jewish Culture and Contexts
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (376 p.)

Written in Judeo-Arabic in eleventh-century Muslim Spain but quickly translated into Hebrew, Bahya Ibn Paquda's Duties of the Heart is a profound guidebook of Jewish spirituality that has enjoyed tremendous popularity and influence to the present day. Readers who know the book primarily in its Hebrew version have likely lost sight of the work's original Arabic context and its immersion in Islamic mystical literature. In A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue, Diana Lobel explores the full extent to which Duties of the Heart marks the flowering of the "Jewish-Arab symbiosis," the interpenetration of Islamic and Jewish civilizations.Lobel reveals Bahya as a maverick who integrates abstract negative theology, devotion to the inner life, and an intimate relationship with a personal God. Bahya emerges from her analysis as a figure so steeped in Islamic traditions that an Arabic reader could easily think he was a Muslim, yet the traditional Jewish seeker has always looked to him as a fountainhead of Jewish devotion. Indeed, Bahya represents a genuine bridge between religious cultures. He brings together, as well, a rationalist, philosophical approach and a strain of Sufi mysticism, paving the way for the integration of philosophy and spirituality in the thought of Moses Maimonides.A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue is the first scholarly book in English about a tremendously influential work of medieval Jewish thought and will be of interest to readers working in comparative literature, philosophy, and religious studies, particularly as reflected in the interplay of the civilizations of the Middle East. Readers will discover an extraordinary time when Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers participated in a common spiritual quest, across traditions and cultural boundaries.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Bah̩ya's Work in Its Judeo-Arabic Context -- 1. Philosophical Mysticism in Eleventh-Century Spain: Baḥ'ya and Ibn Gabirol -- 2. On the Lookout The Exegesis of a Sufi Tale -- 3. Creation -- 4. The One -- 5. Speaking about God: Divine Attributes, Biblical Language, and Biblical Exegesis -- 6. The Contemplation of Creation (l'tibār) -- 7. Wholehearted Devotion (lkhlāṣ ): Purification of Unity (lkhlāṣ al-Tawḥi ̄d), Purification of Intention in Action (Ikhlāṣ al-'Amal) -- 8. Reason, Law, and the Way of the Spirit -- 9. The Spirituality of the Law -- 10. Awareness, Love, and Reverence (Murāqaba, Mah̩abba, Hayba/Yir'ah) -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments