The beginnings of rational theology in Al-Andalus : Ibn Masarra and his refutation of Al-Kindī’s on first philosophy
(2020) Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes — Vol. 41, n° 2, p. 323-371 (2020)
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Bellver Martinez, José 
- Abstract
- The main source on Ibn Masarra’s thought be-fore 1972 was Ibn Ḥazm, who briefly de-scribed some key elements of Ibn Masarra’s theology. In 1972, Muḥammad Kamāl Ibrāhīm Jaʿfar attributed two treatises to Ibn Masarra, Risālat al-Iʿtibār and Kitāb Khawāṣṣ al-ḥurūf, extant in a manuscript held in the Chester Beatty Library. The contents of these two works differ from previous descriptions of Ibn Masarra’s thought in primary sources, which overwhelmingly regard him as a the-ologian that upheld Qadarī-like tenets, such as al-waʿd wa-l-waʿīd and istiṭāʿa. In light of the two works ascribed to Ibn Masarra by Jaʿfar, subsequent scholarship has criticized the bulk of primary sources on Ibn Masarra as inaccu-rate and either biased or uninformed, and has dismissed them. However, the most illuminating source on Ibn Masarra, Ibn al-Uqlīshī’s al-Inbāʾ fī sharḥ ḥaqāʾiq al-ṣifāt wa-l-asmāʾ, appears to have passed unnoticed to scholarship until recently. On the basis of the infor-mation provided by Ibn al-Uqlīshī, this paper suggests attributing a work already edited and published under a different author, al-Radd ʿalā l-Kindī or Refutation of al-Kindī’s On First Philosophy, to Ibn Masarra. This text was formerly attributed to Ibn Ḥazm. The lat-ter work coincides with descriptions of Ibn Masarra found in primary sources other than the two works Jaʿfar attributes to Ibn Masarra. © 2020 CSIC.
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Citations
Bellver Martinez, J. (2020). The beginnings of rational theology in Al-Andalus : Ibn Masarra and his refutation of Al-Kindī’s on first philosophy. Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes, 41(2), 323-371. https://doi.org/10.3989/alqantara.2020.009 (Original work published 2020)