Sobre las supuestas inclinaciones mu`tazilíes de `Abd al-Ḥaqq Ibn `Aṭiyya (Granada, m. 541/1147). Acusaciones medievales y exoneraciones contemporáneas

Abstract

This article is aimed at improving our present understanding of two questions that are in much need of attention: on the one hand, the method, contents, and significance of `Abd al-Ḥaqq Ibn `Aṭiyya’s (Granada, d. 541/1147) commentary of the Coran, and the circulation of Mu`tazili doctrines in al-Andalus, on the other. To that end, we first present a review of available information about the author and his al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz (i.e. the title of the commentary). Subsequently we discuss the contents of a relevant publication on Ibn `Aṭiyya’s exegetical method by the Egyptian expert in Islamic theology `Abd al-Wahhāb `Abd al-Wahhāb Fā'id. In the third chapter of his Manhaŷ Ibn `Aṭiyya fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-karīm, `Abd al-Wahhāb Fā'id analyses a number of accusations of Mu`tazilism levelled against Ibn `Aṭiyya by some well-known Muslim scholars after his death (although the accusations may already have emerged in Ibn `Aṭiyya’s lifetime) and wonders whether they resist a comparison with the theological doctrines Ibn `Aṭiyya presented and discussed in his Muḥarrar. Though the publication of `Abd al-Wahhāb Fā'id’s monography is not recent (1973), to the best of our knowledge, it has not found echo among students of either Mu`tazilism, heresy or the development of Coranic sciences in al-Andalus.