Ibn Hazm

The dove necklace. Manuscript from the Leiden library.

Abu Muḥammad ʿAli ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm (Arabic: أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم), better known as Ibn Hazm, although he was also called Abén Házam among Christians (Córdoba, November 7, de 994-Montíjar, Huelva, August 15, 1064), was an Andalusian philosopher, theologian, historian, narrator and poet, considered the "Father of Comparative Religion". (456 AH He was the only author who left some indications about the tribal groups that went to al-Andalus at the time of the conquest. His ancestors were Arabized Hispanics converted to Islam.

Biography

It was born in the last years of the X century and just before the crisis that would put an end to the Caliphate of Córdoba forever. He came from a muladí family that lived from the exploitation of a farm in Montíjar, near Huelva. Her grandfather moved to the Caliphate capital at the time when her fame spread throughout the world, although little is known about him. On the other hand, it is known that his father, Ahmad, was a cultured and skilful man, since, once he had entered the Cordovan political world, he gained the trust of both the caliph and the vizier, Almanzor, becoming named himself vizier and taking command when Almanzor was absent. Thus, his son Ali spent his childhood in the Cordovan court of al-Zahira.

Belonging to the Cordovan aristocracy, he experienced first-hand the outbreak of the Cordovan civil war, which broke his peaceful life. Ali's family sided with the Umayyad legitimist side, as opposed to those who supported the new Amiri lineage, that of his former protector Almanzor, and this led to his fall from grace. In 1012 his father Ahmad died, and Ali had to go into exile in Almería.

In Almería, accompanied by his friend and co-religionist Muhammad ibn Ishāq, they confronted the governor when he changed sides and supported a new suitor, and they ended up exiled again, this time in a town called Aznalcázar. While there, they heard that a new Umayyad pretender was raising an army in Játiva with which to reclaim the Caliphate, so they set out to join him. This, great-grandson of Abd al-Rahman III called "Abd al-Rahmān ibn Muhammad ibn" Abd al-Malik, decided to attack the Zirids of Granada before reaching the capital, and there they finished off his army. In this battle Ibn Hazm was taken prisoner. From there he retired to Játiva, where, when he was about 28 years old, he wrote The Dove's Necklace .

In 1023 the city of Córdoba elected the new Caliph, after the fall of the Hammudid Caliphate, being Abderramán V elected, who chose Ibn Hazm and his group of friends as the governing team, making them viziers; former Cordovan aristocrats, they were educated and prepared people, but nevertheless his government did not last more than a month and a half, after which time the Caliph was executed and Ibn Hazm put back in jail.

From there, our 'Ali renounced politics for good to dedicate himself entirely to legal and theological studies. He embraced the zahirí school, of which he gave courses together with his teacher Abū-l-Jiyār of Santarén in the Greater Mosque of Córdoba until in 1027 he was denounced by the common people of Córdoba for violating the official Maliki school. From that moment he renounced teaching and dedicated himself to wandering through the different taifa kingdoms as a polemicist and scholar. In 1039 he took refuge for a time in Majorca, protected by a magnate. He had heated disputes with many other wise men and kinglets of his time, among others, with al-Mutadid of Seville, which resulted in the burning of his books in the Seville taifa, and which inspired Ibn Hazm's famous verses of he:

دعنوني من من أحراقّة وكاازدّ

وقولوا بعلمم كيرى الناسة من يدري
فأن تحرقوا القرباسة لا تحرقوا المي
تضمو في صدري
ي سيرة معي حيث استقلثت ركائبي

وينززل إن أنززل ويدفنة فُي قبري

Stop burning for scrolls and papers,
and show your science to see who he knows.
And it's just that even if you burn the paper
You will never burn what it contains,
since I carry it inside,
always travel with me when I ride,
with me sleeps when I rest,
and in my grave will be buried later.

Translation by José Miguel Puerta Vílchez.

Thus, he maintained this life of a wandering wise man until the end of his days, when he finally retired to the Montíjar family farmhouse, with the only company of his children, and where he dedicated himself to writing and writing. Little is known, however, of his family life, since he speaks little of it in his works.

Work

It was a huge polygraph whose thousands of pages cannot be reduced to a brief explanation. He wrote historical works, such as Risāla fī faḍl al-Andalus ("Epistle in praise of al-Andalus") or Naqt al-ʿarūs ("Embroidery of the bride"), Jamharat ansāb al-ʿarab (known as Yamhara, “Arab Lineages”) and an important Al-faṣl fī-l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-l-niḥal ("Critical history of religions, sects and schools"), in which he outlines the features of philosophical systems contrary to positive religions, including anti-Islamic ones. These works they were only surpassed in the West in the 19th century.^{[citation needed]}

Of a didactic nature is Falsafat al-ajlāq («Characters and conduct»), translated into Castilian by Miguel Asín Palacios and of a controversial theological theme is Risālat fī radd ʿalà bni Nagrīla (Theological controversy with Ibn Nagrella).

His most famous work is Ṭawq al-ḥamāma or The Dove's Necklace in which he deals with the theme of love. It was written in Játiva around 1023. It is a book of reflections on the true essence of love, trying to discover what it has in common and immutable through the centuries and civilizations of Neoplatonic influence, known in Muslim culture as &# 34;udrí love", including autobiographical and documentary details. It also constitutes a diwan, or poetic anthology with a love theme, as it is paved with elegant and refined compositions.

Ibn Hazm was a man of deep religious convictions. He directed part of his criticism against the relaxation of customs in Al-Andalus, since his work is penetrated by the firm belief in God -Allah in Arabic- and in Islam as the only true religion, in addition to to consider that this was one of the fundamental causes of the decline of the Caliphate of Córdoba. Within his deepest religious thought, he establishes the pre-eminence of these four sciences: science of the Koran, science of translations, science of Law and science of Theology. This indicates the preeminence, as among many other authors of his time, of religion over speculative thought. In fact, he comes to recognize the impossibility of knowing the essence, attributes, and nature of God, thus placing faith above all other considerations. His most important work in this area was the Book of decisions on religions , in which he tries to unravel within the different religious movements what is the true Islamic doctrine, seeking the most literal and less allegorical.

He also wrote numerous philosophical works. His thought was based on Aristotle and he strives to distinguish the true from the false, which leads to a sixth sense or common sense by which truths are demonstrated. These truths are closely related to faith, so a thorough knowledge of philosophy can relate these truths to theology. In this way, he elaborates a natural theology approaching the postulates of Saint Thomas and developing the theme of essence and existence, concluding that they are identical only in God, but with a different meaning than the Thomistic doctrine.

But perhaps his most significant contribution is given by his testimony about the reason for man's activity, when he indicates that everything man does is done to avoid worry, to distract himself. Distract from what? Of death.^{[citation needed]}