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Aesthetics in Arabic Thought
from Pre-Islamic Arabia through al-Andalus
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In Aesthetics in Arabic Thought from Pre-Islamic Arabia through al-Andalus José Miguel Puerta VÃlchez analyzes the discourses about beauty, the arts, and sense perception that arose within classical Arab culture from pre-Islamic poetry and the Quran (sixth-seventh centuries CE) to the Alhambra palace in Granada (fourteenth century CE). He focuses on the contributions of such great thinkers as Ibn Ḥazm, Avempace, Ibn Ṭufayl, Averroes, Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ«, and Ibn KhaldÅ«n in al-Andalus, and the Brethren of Purity, al-TawḥīdÄ«, al-FÄrÄbÄ«, Avicenna, Alhazen, and al-GhazÄlÄ« in the East.
The work also explores literary criticism, calligraphy, music, belles-lettres (adab), and erotic literature, and highlights the contribution of Arab humanism to shaping the field of Aesthetics in the West.
The work also explores literary criticism, calligraphy, music, belles-lettres (adab), and erotic literature, and highlights the contribution of Arab humanism to shaping the field of Aesthetics in the West.
J.M. Puerta VÃlchez is Professor of Islamic Art and Aesthetics at the University of Granada. His publications include La aventura del cálamo. Historia, formas y artistas de la caligrafÃa árabe (2007), Leer la Alhambra (2010), The Poetics of Water in Islam (2011), and The Artistic Sense of Qurtuba (2015), as well as âArt and Aesthetics in the Work of Ibn Ḥazm of Cordobaâ in Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba, ed. C. Adang, M. Fierro and S. Schmidtke (Leiden: Brill, 2012). He co-directed the Biblioteca de al-Andalus (9 vols., 2003-2013) and curated the exhibit âArts and cultures in al-Andalus. The power of Alhambra (2013-2014).â
"This is an English translation of the major work on the topic in modern times, and is well worth having. It is an excellent translation, clear and fluent. [...] The book is an impressive size, over 900 pages and represents an impressive scholarly contribution to the area." - Oliver Leaman, University of Kentucky, in: Journal of Semitic Studies 64/1 (2019)
Preface to the English Translation
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction
1) Contemporary Historiography of Arab-Islamic Aesthetic Thought
a) Western Criticism
b) Arabic Criticism
2) Aesthetic Theory and Arab Andalusi Aesthetics
1. Beauty and the Arts in the Rise of Written Arabic Culture
1.1. Pre-Islamic Sensibility and the Vocabulary of Aesthetics
1.1.1. The Supernatural Origin of Artistic Creation
1.1.2. The Physical and Luminous Character of Beauty in Pre-Islamic Poetry. Woman as an Aesthetic Object and Agent
1.1.3. The Arts and Architecture in Pre-Islamic Poetry
1.2. The Great Message of Revelation and Its Aesthetic Dimension
1.2.1. Beauty and Absolute Perfection in the Word and the Divine Order
a) The Inimitability of the Quran
b) The Creator
c) Creation
1.2.2. Artistic Creation in the Sacred Texts
a) The Problem of Figurative Representation
b) Architecture and Sculpture in the Quran
c) Prophethood and Poetry
d) Music in the Hadīth
1.2.3. The Development of the Arts under the New Politico-Religious Order of Islam
2. The Arts on the Margins of Knowledge: Ideas and Concepts of Arts in Classical Arab Culture
2.1. The Arts in the Arab-Islamic Encyclopedia
2.1.1. The Arts in the Classification of Knowledge in the East
2.1.2. The Arts in the Classification of Knowledge in al-Andalus and the Maghrib
a) The Arts in the áºahiri System of Knowledge
b) Ibn BÄjja: the Practical Arts and Classifications of Intellectual Knowledge in the Founding of Andalusi Falsafa
c) Ibn Ṭufaylâs Self-Taught Philosopher: Man in a state of Nature Neither Produces nor Conceives of the Arts
d) The Arts and Knowledge in Ibn Rushdâs Rationalist Scheme
e) The Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Study of Society
2.2. The Brethren of Purityâs Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic Concepts of Art, and al-TawḥīdÄ«âs School in Baghdad
2.2.1. The Brethren of Purityâs Pythagorean Theory of Art
a) The Geometric Order of the Universe
b) The Harmonious Concord of the Cosmos
c) Ideal Proportion, the Key to Artistic Perfection
d) The Manual Arts and Artistic Creativity
2.2.2. The Aesthetic Neoplatonism of al-TawḥīdÄ«âs School in Baghdad
a) Thought, Art, and inspiration
b) Artistic Form and the Unicity of God
c) Artistic Creation as the Emanation of the Soul and the Perfection of Nature
d) The Nature of Beautiful Form
e) The Language Arts: Prose, Verse, and Rhetoric
f) Musical Harmony and Its Affinity with the Soul
g) AbÅ« ḤayyÄn al-TawḥīdÄ«âs Treatise on Calligraphy and the Foundations of the Genre in Arabic
2.3. Calligraphy among the Sciences of Language in Ibn al-SÄ«d of Badajoz
2.4. Revelation, Morality, and Art in the Work of Ibn Ḥazm
2.4.1. The Divine Origin of the Arts and their Human Transmission
2.4.2. The Perfection and Immutable Order of Divine Creation
2.4.3. Manâs Works and Revelation: Architecture, Images, and Music in Ibn Ḥazmâs jurisprudence
a) Mosques in a Juridical Treatise from Tenth-Century Cordoba. A Moral Warning about Architecture
b) Religious and Lay images in Ibn Ḥazm
c) The áºahiri FaqÄ«h on Music
2.4.4. Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory and Criticism of Poetry
a) The Moral Character of Poetry
b) Poetic Concepts and Classes: Technique, Naturalness, and Skill
c) Ibn Ḥazmâs Rhetoric
d) The Quran is Radically Inimitable
2.5. Mimesis as the Definition of Art in Eastern Falsafa
2.5.1. The Origin and Development of the Concept of Mimesis in Classical Eastern Islam: MattÄ, al-FÄrÄbÄ«, and Ibn SÄ«nÄ
a) MattÄ and the Arabic Version of Mimesis
b) Mimesis in al-FÄrÄbÄ«âs Theory of Art: Ethics, Politics, and Imagination
c) Ibn SÄ«nÄ (Avicenna) and his translation of Aristotleâs Poetics
2.5.2. Mimesis as a Unifying Concept of the Arts in Eastern Falsafa
2.5.3. Artistic Fulfillment: Elements for an Aesthetics of Falsafa
2.6 The Theory of Artistic Mimesis in Andalusi Thought and Criticism
2.6.1 Rhetoric and Poetics in Ibn Rushdâs Ethical and Rationalist Thought
2.6.2 Ibn Rushdâs Poetics between Rhetoric and Ethics
a) Ibn Rushdâs TalkhÄ«á¹£ KitÄb al-ShiÊ¿r and Its Greek original
b) The Nature and Types of Arabic Poetry. The Averroist Concept of Mimesis
c) The Ethical Purpose of Poetry
d) The Components of Eulogy
e) Harmonious and Unified Composition
f) The Relationship of Poetry to Truth
g) Representation of Misfortunes and Defects
h) The Characters that Eulogy Should Represent
i) Modes of Imitation in Poetry
j) Rhetorical Elements: Extrinsic Aspects, Wordplay, and Taghyīr or Alteration
k) Criticizing Poetsâ Falsehoods
2.6.3 The Pleasures of Imitation as a Path to Ethical Education in Ibn Rushdâs Versions of the Rhetoric and the Poetics
a) The Various Mimetic Arts: Natural Disposition, Technique, and Faithfulness
b) The Enjoyment That Every Artistic Imitation Brings
c) The Pleasure of Poetry Should Serve its Ethical Goals
2.6.4 ḤÄzim al-Qará¹ÄjannÄ«: From the Theory of Mimesis to a Total Arabic Aesthetics
a) Theory and Definition of Poetic Ideas
b) Poetryâs Perceptual and Intellectual Dimension
c) Truth is not an Issue in Poetry. Definition of Poetry
d) MuḥÄkÄt and TakhyÄ«l: A Profound Conception of the Imitative Arts
e) Toward a General Arabic Aesthetics: Imitation, Imagination, Astonishment, Pleasure. An Aesthetics of Light and Reflection
f) Harmonious Composition of the Qaṣīda. Critical Judgment
2.7 The History, Sociology, and Definition of the Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Muqaddima
2.7.1 The Arts in the Development of Human Civilization and as a Manifestation of Power
a) The Geographic Factor, and Moderation as the Physical, Moral, and Aesthetic Ideal
b) The Arts in the Nomadic-vs.-Sedentary Debate. Necessity and Opulence
c) The Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Semiotics of Power
2.7.2 Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Urbanism
a) Urban Life Follows the Rise of State Power
b) The Cityâs Site and Basic Services
c) The Ancient Arabs and Architecture
2.7.3 Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Definition of the Arts
a) The Arts Consist of Both Theory and Practice
b) The Art of Construction
c) The Art of Carpentry
d) The Art of Calligraphy
e) Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Concept of Poetry
3 Aesthetic Perception and the Definition of Beauty in Classical Arabic Thought
3.1 Theory of Knowledge and Definition of Beauty in the Thought of Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba
3.1.1 Reason versus Imagination. Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory of Knowledge
a) The Nature of the Human Soul
b) The Perceptive Structure of the Soul. Rational, Sensory, and Linguistic Knowledge
c) The Importance and Specificity of Visual Perception
d) Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory of Colors and Classical Arab Physics
3.1.2 Physical Beauty in Ibn Ḥazmâs Writings on Love
a) The Ethical Framework of Love
b) Conceptualization of Love and Beauty
c) Spiritual Affinity and Physical Forms
d) Love against Reason. Transformations in Aesthetic Judgment
e) Ibn Ḥazmâs Participation in the Aesthetics of Light
f) The Fleeting Nature of Beauty
3.1.3 The Metaphysical Meaning of Ibn Ḥazmâs Aesthetics
a) Beauty as a Spiritual Accident
b) The Divinity and Supernatural Beings Cannot be Defined in Aesthetic Terms
3.1.4 Ethical and Moral Beauty
3.2 Aesthetic Syntheses in Arabic Erotic Literature after Ibn Ḥazm
3.3 The Metaphysics and Perception of Beauty in Classical Arabic Falsafa
3.3.1 Aesthetic Principles and Concepts in the Arabic Version of Plotinusâs Enneads
3.3.2 Al-FÄrÄbÄ«âs Metaphysical Aesthetics
a) The Beauty and Perfection of the First Cause
b) The Perfection and Beauty of Non-Corporeal Substances and Heavenly Bodies
c) Perfection and Beauty of the Human Being Compared to Those of the First Cause
d) Modes of the Perception and Fulfillment of Beauty
3.3.3 Divine, Intellectual, and Physical Beauty in Avicennaâs Metaphysics
a) Definition of Divine Beauty and Goodness
b) Perception of Beauty in Ibn SÄ«nÄâs Theory of Knowledge
c) Metaphysical Perception vs. Sensory Perception: Pleasure and Appropriateness, the Ascent to Supreme Felicity
3.4 Theory of Perception and Aesthetic Contemplation in the Andalusi Falsafa of Ibn BÄjja and Ibn Ṭufayl
3.4.1 Ibn BÄjjaâs Theory of Perception
a) Faculties of the Soul and the Theory of Forms
b) Sense Perception. Vision and Color Theory. Acoustic Perception
c) Intermediate Faculties: Common Sense and the Imaginative
d) The Rational Faculty: Universals, Spiritual Forms, and Higher Knowledge
3.4.2 Parameters of Ibn BÄjjaâs Transcendental Aesthetics
a) Ibn BÄjjaâs Theory of Pleasure. Contemplative Aesthetic Delight
3.4.3 Ibn Ṭufayl and Gustatory Union with Divine Beauty
3.5 Sensibility and Intellection: Ibn Rushdâs Shaping of Aesthetics as a Conceptual Field
3.5.1 Ibn Rushdâs Theory of Sensibility. Visual Perception as the Nucleus and Paradigm of Sensory Knowledge
a) The Judicious Function of the Senses
b) Visual Perception and Color Theory
c) Sensibles in the Soul
3.5.2 Common Sense, Imagination, and Cogitatio: The Judgment of the Senses and Artistic Composition
3.5.3 Reason, Imagination, and Intellection
3.5.4 Nature, Art, and Knowledge. Ibn Rushdâs Aesthetic Order
3.6 Ibn al-Haythamâs Optics and the Creation of an Arabic and Universal Theory of Aesthetic Visual Perception
3.6.1 Visual Knowledge and Aesthetic Knowledge
a) The Distinctive Faculty and Its Syllogistic Visual Functions
b) The Innate and Experiential Nature of Aesthetic Knowledge
3.6.2 Ibn al-Haythamâs Theory of Aesthetic Perception
a) The Beauty of Individual Visible Properties
b) Beauty as a Combination of Visible Properties. Proportion and Formal Harmony
c) Ugliness as the Absence of Beauty
d) Circumstances and Alterations of Aesthetic Perception. General Moderation of Visual Factors
3.6.3 On Ibn al-Haythamâs Artistic Terminology
3.7 Al-GhazÄlÄ«âs Aesthetics between Theology (KalÄm) and Sufi Mysticism (Taá¹£awwuf)
3.7.1 Love for Both Sensible and Divine Beauty
3.7.2 Definition of Sensible and Artistic Beauty
3.7.3 The Superiority of Internal Beauty
3.7.4 Spiritual Faculties for Mystical Knowledge and Aesthetic Taste
3.8 Harmony and Appropriateness: Aesthetics in the Historical Evolutionism of Ibn Khaldūn
3.9 The Other Side of Reason. The Aesthetic Core of Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ«âs Sufism
3.9.1 Mystical and Universal Love
a) âGod Is Beautiful and Loves Beautyâ
b) âBeauty Reached in Thee Her Utmost Limit: Another Like Thee Is Impossibleâ
c) âGod Created Adam in His Own Imageâ
3.9.2 Imagination versus Reason
a) Theory of Gnostic Understanding
b) The Science of Imagination
3.9.3 Divine Beauty and Majesty. Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ«âs Aesthetics in the Dialectic of TanzÄ«h and TashbÄ«h
a) Tanzīh and Tashbīh: The Form of God
b) The Aesthetics of the One and the Many
c) Beyond Iconoclasm
d) Seeing God
e) Divine Majesty and Beauty in the Soul
3.10 The Aesthetic Vocabulary of the Poems of the Alhambra
3.10.1 The Divine Origin of Beauty
3.10.2 The Sovereign as Aesthetic Agent
3.10.3 The Aesthetic Narcissism of Architecture
Conclusion
1 Aesthetics at the Center of Arab Anthropology and Humanism
2 Arabic Aesthetic Concepts and Islamic Art
3 Arabic Aesthetic Thought in al-Andalus
Bibliography of Primary Sources
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Index
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction
1) Contemporary Historiography of Arab-Islamic Aesthetic Thought
a) Western Criticism
b) Arabic Criticism
2) Aesthetic Theory and Arab Andalusi Aesthetics
1. Beauty and the Arts in the Rise of Written Arabic Culture
1.1. Pre-Islamic Sensibility and the Vocabulary of Aesthetics
1.1.1. The Supernatural Origin of Artistic Creation
1.1.2. The Physical and Luminous Character of Beauty in Pre-Islamic Poetry. Woman as an Aesthetic Object and Agent
1.1.3. The Arts and Architecture in Pre-Islamic Poetry
1.2. The Great Message of Revelation and Its Aesthetic Dimension
1.2.1. Beauty and Absolute Perfection in the Word and the Divine Order
a) The Inimitability of the Quran
b) The Creator
c) Creation
1.2.2. Artistic Creation in the Sacred Texts
a) The Problem of Figurative Representation
b) Architecture and Sculpture in the Quran
c) Prophethood and Poetry
d) Music in the Hadīth
1.2.3. The Development of the Arts under the New Politico-Religious Order of Islam
2. The Arts on the Margins of Knowledge: Ideas and Concepts of Arts in Classical Arab Culture
2.1. The Arts in the Arab-Islamic Encyclopedia
2.1.1. The Arts in the Classification of Knowledge in the East
2.1.2. The Arts in the Classification of Knowledge in al-Andalus and the Maghrib
a) The Arts in the áºahiri System of Knowledge
b) Ibn BÄjja: the Practical Arts and Classifications of Intellectual Knowledge in the Founding of Andalusi Falsafa
c) Ibn Ṭufaylâs Self-Taught Philosopher: Man in a state of Nature Neither Produces nor Conceives of the Arts
d) The Arts and Knowledge in Ibn Rushdâs Rationalist Scheme
e) The Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Study of Society
2.2. The Brethren of Purityâs Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic Concepts of Art, and al-TawḥīdÄ«âs School in Baghdad
2.2.1. The Brethren of Purityâs Pythagorean Theory of Art
a) The Geometric Order of the Universe
b) The Harmonious Concord of the Cosmos
c) Ideal Proportion, the Key to Artistic Perfection
d) The Manual Arts and Artistic Creativity
2.2.2. The Aesthetic Neoplatonism of al-TawḥīdÄ«âs School in Baghdad
a) Thought, Art, and inspiration
b) Artistic Form and the Unicity of God
c) Artistic Creation as the Emanation of the Soul and the Perfection of Nature
d) The Nature of Beautiful Form
e) The Language Arts: Prose, Verse, and Rhetoric
f) Musical Harmony and Its Affinity with the Soul
g) AbÅ« ḤayyÄn al-TawḥīdÄ«âs Treatise on Calligraphy and the Foundations of the Genre in Arabic
2.3. Calligraphy among the Sciences of Language in Ibn al-SÄ«d of Badajoz
2.4. Revelation, Morality, and Art in the Work of Ibn Ḥazm
2.4.1. The Divine Origin of the Arts and their Human Transmission
2.4.2. The Perfection and Immutable Order of Divine Creation
2.4.3. Manâs Works and Revelation: Architecture, Images, and Music in Ibn Ḥazmâs jurisprudence
a) Mosques in a Juridical Treatise from Tenth-Century Cordoba. A Moral Warning about Architecture
b) Religious and Lay images in Ibn Ḥazm
c) The áºahiri FaqÄ«h on Music
2.4.4. Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory and Criticism of Poetry
a) The Moral Character of Poetry
b) Poetic Concepts and Classes: Technique, Naturalness, and Skill
c) Ibn Ḥazmâs Rhetoric
d) The Quran is Radically Inimitable
2.5. Mimesis as the Definition of Art in Eastern Falsafa
2.5.1. The Origin and Development of the Concept of Mimesis in Classical Eastern Islam: MattÄ, al-FÄrÄbÄ«, and Ibn SÄ«nÄ
a) MattÄ and the Arabic Version of Mimesis
b) Mimesis in al-FÄrÄbÄ«âs Theory of Art: Ethics, Politics, and Imagination
c) Ibn SÄ«nÄ (Avicenna) and his translation of Aristotleâs Poetics
2.5.2. Mimesis as a Unifying Concept of the Arts in Eastern Falsafa
2.5.3. Artistic Fulfillment: Elements for an Aesthetics of Falsafa
2.6 The Theory of Artistic Mimesis in Andalusi Thought and Criticism
2.6.1 Rhetoric and Poetics in Ibn Rushdâs Ethical and Rationalist Thought
2.6.2 Ibn Rushdâs Poetics between Rhetoric and Ethics
a) Ibn Rushdâs TalkhÄ«á¹£ KitÄb al-ShiÊ¿r and Its Greek original
b) The Nature and Types of Arabic Poetry. The Averroist Concept of Mimesis
c) The Ethical Purpose of Poetry
d) The Components of Eulogy
e) Harmonious and Unified Composition
f) The Relationship of Poetry to Truth
g) Representation of Misfortunes and Defects
h) The Characters that Eulogy Should Represent
i) Modes of Imitation in Poetry
j) Rhetorical Elements: Extrinsic Aspects, Wordplay, and Taghyīr or Alteration
k) Criticizing Poetsâ Falsehoods
2.6.3 The Pleasures of Imitation as a Path to Ethical Education in Ibn Rushdâs Versions of the Rhetoric and the Poetics
a) The Various Mimetic Arts: Natural Disposition, Technique, and Faithfulness
b) The Enjoyment That Every Artistic Imitation Brings
c) The Pleasure of Poetry Should Serve its Ethical Goals
2.6.4 ḤÄzim al-Qará¹ÄjannÄ«: From the Theory of Mimesis to a Total Arabic Aesthetics
a) Theory and Definition of Poetic Ideas
b) Poetryâs Perceptual and Intellectual Dimension
c) Truth is not an Issue in Poetry. Definition of Poetry
d) MuḥÄkÄt and TakhyÄ«l: A Profound Conception of the Imitative Arts
e) Toward a General Arabic Aesthetics: Imitation, Imagination, Astonishment, Pleasure. An Aesthetics of Light and Reflection
f) Harmonious Composition of the Qaṣīda. Critical Judgment
2.7 The History, Sociology, and Definition of the Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Muqaddima
2.7.1 The Arts in the Development of Human Civilization and as a Manifestation of Power
a) The Geographic Factor, and Moderation as the Physical, Moral, and Aesthetic Ideal
b) The Arts in the Nomadic-vs.-Sedentary Debate. Necessity and Opulence
c) The Arts in Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Semiotics of Power
2.7.2 Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Urbanism
a) Urban Life Follows the Rise of State Power
b) The Cityâs Site and Basic Services
c) The Ancient Arabs and Architecture
2.7.3 Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Definition of the Arts
a) The Arts Consist of Both Theory and Practice
b) The Art of Construction
c) The Art of Carpentry
d) The Art of Calligraphy
e) Ibn KhaldÅ«nâs Concept of Poetry
3 Aesthetic Perception and the Definition of Beauty in Classical Arabic Thought
3.1 Theory of Knowledge and Definition of Beauty in the Thought of Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba
3.1.1 Reason versus Imagination. Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory of Knowledge
a) The Nature of the Human Soul
b) The Perceptive Structure of the Soul. Rational, Sensory, and Linguistic Knowledge
c) The Importance and Specificity of Visual Perception
d) Ibn Ḥazmâs Theory of Colors and Classical Arab Physics
3.1.2 Physical Beauty in Ibn Ḥazmâs Writings on Love
a) The Ethical Framework of Love
b) Conceptualization of Love and Beauty
c) Spiritual Affinity and Physical Forms
d) Love against Reason. Transformations in Aesthetic Judgment
e) Ibn Ḥazmâs Participation in the Aesthetics of Light
f) The Fleeting Nature of Beauty
3.1.3 The Metaphysical Meaning of Ibn Ḥazmâs Aesthetics
a) Beauty as a Spiritual Accident
b) The Divinity and Supernatural Beings Cannot be Defined in Aesthetic Terms
3.1.4 Ethical and Moral Beauty
3.2 Aesthetic Syntheses in Arabic Erotic Literature after Ibn Ḥazm
3.3 The Metaphysics and Perception of Beauty in Classical Arabic Falsafa
3.3.1 Aesthetic Principles and Concepts in the Arabic Version of Plotinusâs Enneads
3.3.2 Al-FÄrÄbÄ«âs Metaphysical Aesthetics
a) The Beauty and Perfection of the First Cause
b) The Perfection and Beauty of Non-Corporeal Substances and Heavenly Bodies
c) Perfection and Beauty of the Human Being Compared to Those of the First Cause
d) Modes of the Perception and Fulfillment of Beauty
3.3.3 Divine, Intellectual, and Physical Beauty in Avicennaâs Metaphysics
a) Definition of Divine Beauty and Goodness
b) Perception of Beauty in Ibn SÄ«nÄâs Theory of Knowledge
c) Metaphysical Perception vs. Sensory Perception: Pleasure and Appropriateness, the Ascent to Supreme Felicity
3.4 Theory of Perception and Aesthetic Contemplation in the Andalusi Falsafa of Ibn BÄjja and Ibn Ṭufayl
3.4.1 Ibn BÄjjaâs Theory of Perception
a) Faculties of the Soul and the Theory of Forms
b) Sense Perception. Vision and Color Theory. Acoustic Perception
c) Intermediate Faculties: Common Sense and the Imaginative
d) The Rational Faculty: Universals, Spiritual Forms, and Higher Knowledge
3.4.2 Parameters of Ibn BÄjjaâs Transcendental Aesthetics
a) Ibn BÄjjaâs Theory of Pleasure. Contemplative Aesthetic Delight
3.4.3 Ibn Ṭufayl and Gustatory Union with Divine Beauty
3.5 Sensibility and Intellection: Ibn Rushdâs Shaping of Aesthetics as a Conceptual Field
3.5.1 Ibn Rushdâs Theory of Sensibility. Visual Perception as the Nucleus and Paradigm of Sensory Knowledge
a) The Judicious Function of the Senses
b) Visual Perception and Color Theory
c) Sensibles in the Soul
3.5.2 Common Sense, Imagination, and Cogitatio: The Judgment of the Senses and Artistic Composition
3.5.3 Reason, Imagination, and Intellection
3.5.4 Nature, Art, and Knowledge. Ibn Rushdâs Aesthetic Order
3.6 Ibn al-Haythamâs Optics and the Creation of an Arabic and Universal Theory of Aesthetic Visual Perception
3.6.1 Visual Knowledge and Aesthetic Knowledge
a) The Distinctive Faculty and Its Syllogistic Visual Functions
b) The Innate and Experiential Nature of Aesthetic Knowledge
3.6.2 Ibn al-Haythamâs Theory of Aesthetic Perception
a) The Beauty of Individual Visible Properties
b) Beauty as a Combination of Visible Properties. Proportion and Formal Harmony
c) Ugliness as the Absence of Beauty
d) Circumstances and Alterations of Aesthetic Perception. General Moderation of Visual Factors
3.6.3 On Ibn al-Haythamâs Artistic Terminology
3.7 Al-GhazÄlÄ«âs Aesthetics between Theology (KalÄm) and Sufi Mysticism (Taá¹£awwuf)
3.7.1 Love for Both Sensible and Divine Beauty
3.7.2 Definition of Sensible and Artistic Beauty
3.7.3 The Superiority of Internal Beauty
3.7.4 Spiritual Faculties for Mystical Knowledge and Aesthetic Taste
3.8 Harmony and Appropriateness: Aesthetics in the Historical Evolutionism of Ibn Khaldūn
3.9 The Other Side of Reason. The Aesthetic Core of Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ«âs Sufism
3.9.1 Mystical and Universal Love
a) âGod Is Beautiful and Loves Beautyâ
b) âBeauty Reached in Thee Her Utmost Limit: Another Like Thee Is Impossibleâ
c) âGod Created Adam in His Own Imageâ
3.9.2 Imagination versus Reason
a) Theory of Gnostic Understanding
b) The Science of Imagination
3.9.3 Divine Beauty and Majesty. Ibn Ê¿ArabÄ«âs Aesthetics in the Dialectic of TanzÄ«h and TashbÄ«h
a) Tanzīh and Tashbīh: The Form of God
b) The Aesthetics of the One and the Many
c) Beyond Iconoclasm
d) Seeing God
e) Divine Majesty and Beauty in the Soul
3.10 The Aesthetic Vocabulary of the Poems of the Alhambra
3.10.1 The Divine Origin of Beauty
3.10.2 The Sovereign as Aesthetic Agent
3.10.3 The Aesthetic Narcissism of Architecture
Conclusion
1 Aesthetics at the Center of Arab Anthropology and Humanism
2 Arabic Aesthetic Concepts and Islamic Art
3 Arabic Aesthetic Thought in al-Andalus
Bibliography of Primary Sources
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Index
This work will be of interest to historians of art and aesthetics, historians of Andalusi and Islamic art, philosophers, and Arabists. It is directed to university professors and students in the fields of Arabic studies, history of art, and philosophy.