Muslim philosophers. Neoplatonism, aside from Isaac Israeli never prominent
among the Jews of the east, now came to the fore as a kind of trans-sectarian
faith. Ibn Gabirol set out a modified Neoplatonism in which every level of
emanation from the One consists of matter; matter is no longer taken as a
privation or evil at the bottom of the hierarchy (as in Plotinus), but is itself
the one created substance underlying all levels of the world hierarchy, the
spiritual and intelligible down through the lowest spatially extended corpore-
ality. This spiritual matter gives the basis for occult influences and correspon-
dences throughout the universe (Husik, 1969: 79). Ibn Gabirol’s Fountain of
Life contains no scriptural references, and the Latins were unable to tell
whether “Avicebrol” was Muslim, Christian, or Jew.
About the same time, Bahya ibn Paquda produced a popular manual of
piety reminiscent of the Sufis, downplaying ritual and scripture in favor of the
attitudes of the heart; he mixed in kalamite theological arguments while
expounding a Neoplatonic journey of the soul, aided by reason, toward union
with the Divine Light. On the other flank from these universalists there was
Ibn Hazm, an anti-metaphysical theologian and poet in Córdoba, who struck
a new note in attacking not only the rationalistic theologians of Islam (both
MuÀtazilite and others) but also the Christians and Jews (Hodgson, 1974:
2:31–32).
In the generations after 1100 this polarization in Spain erupted with full
force: at one extreme an ecumenical community of intellectuals cut loose from
particularistic elements, and at the other end an upsurge of nationalist particu-
larism on both Muslim and Jewish sides. These positions were themselves
subdivided: the universalistic intellectuals pursued various themes, which is
to say they show the contending structures which are characteristic of all
creative life. Among the Jews, Ibn Zaddik at Córdoba expounded a Neopla-
tonic doctrine of man as physical and spiritual microcosm of the world hier-
archy, and combined this with kalamite proofs of the existence and unity of
God, modified to preserve some traditional anthropomorphic features. Various
minor figures (Moses ibn Ezra, Abraham bar Hiyya) compiled and translated
an eclectic mixture of Neoplatonism, Aristotle, astronomy, astrology, and
mathematics.
In the same generation appeared Judah Halevi at Toledo and Córdoba,
mounting a nationalistic attack on the philosophers and rational theologians.
He was particularly concerned to refute the Rabbanite rivals, the Karaites, with
their adoption of Muslim kalam, their rejection of the Talmudic traditions, and
their allegorical interpretation of holy scripture. Halevi set out the superiority
of Judaism over philosophy, Christianity, and Islam alike; their endless disputes
show that reason can never settle anything. The only proof of God, Halevi
asserts in Kuzari, is the special revelation made to the Jews in the Hebrew
436 •^ Intellectual Communities: Western Paths