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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Medieval minds: Averroes and Maimonides
Skip forward a thousand years and Spain was still
importing most of its intellectuals. Many were Moors,
of whom Averroes, Andalusian-born but of Arabic
descent, was the big name (although his real name was
actually Ibn Rushd) in the 12thcentury. He studied
Aristotle and tried to rationalise faith with the growth of
scientific knowledge, certain that religion and reason
could advance together. Neither Islam nor Christianity
was particularly impressed but he remained pertinent
for four centuries as secular thought gathered pace
throughout Europe. Moses Maimonides, the other big
medieval name in Spanish philosophy, lived at the same
time as Averroes and held similar ideas, although came
at them from a Jewish perspective. He hoped to weave
the rationale of philosophy, notably Aristotelian thought,
with Judaism: hisDalalat al-ha’irin(c.1190) (orGuide
for the Perplexedas it’s also known) explained how.
He was roundly booed by Jewish theologians for a
good 200 years, but these days his work is considered
essential to the development of Jewish thought.
Golden Age thinkers
The Golden Age didn’t bequeath any monumental
philosophers.There was no Spanish Descartes, no
outpouring of reason to wind up the pious powers that
be. In fact, the cream of Spain’s intellectual crop were
theologians. A Majorcan poet called Ramon Llull set the
tone in the early 14thcentury with his efforts to convert
Muslims to Christianity via a series of logical, reasoned
steps. He even tried making a kind of machine that
would, using logic, lead you to spiritual truth. In the 16th
century the Salamanca School evolved, initiated by
Francisco de Vitoria.
Averroes and
Maimonides are
mentioned by James
Joyce inUlyssesas
‘dark men in mien and
movement’.
Córdoban brain cell
Both Averroes and
Maimonides were born
in Córdoba, in 1126
and 1135 respectively.
Maimonides and his
family were forced to
flee the city in around
1150 when the Almohad
dynasty took power and
began persecuting Jews.
He lived briefly in Fez,
Jerusalem and Hebron
before settling in
Alexandria.
