Arabic and Islamic Studies

For the first time, the dramatic changes the Qur’anic code underwent during the Umayyad period (660-750 C.E.) are analysed and presented on the basis of a selection of material in good part unpublished. In Qur’ans of the Umayyads, François Déroche offers a chronology of the various developments which marked the period, in an approach combining philology, art history, codicology and palaeography. The conclusions he reaches challenge the traditional account about the writing down of the Qur’an and throw a new light on the role of the Umayyads in its handwritten diffusion.

A varying expanse of the Iberian Peninsula remained under Muslim control from 711 CE until the end of the 15th century. When the keys of the city of Granada were handed over to the Catholic Kings in 1492, Iberian Muslims were stripped of any political power. A few years later, Christian authorities even forced them to relinquish their identity: their religion, their cultural customs (clothing, food, feasts and creeds) as well as the use of the Arabic language, both spoken and written, were all banned.
However, in spite of these prohibitions, the books written in Arabic letters were still transcribed and circulating, especially the Qur’an. Within the Muslim communities where Arabic was no longer spoken or understood, as it happened in Castile or Aragon, the Mudejares developed a linguistic variant of the Castilian, the “Aljamia”, which had its own peculiarities and was usually written in Arabic letters. It came to full blossoming in the second half of the 16th century with the Moriscos.
Where were these books? How did they arrive to us? The aim of this lecture is to discover some of these secret libraries, these deposits of books, which have remained hidden for centuries until now

... We must not overlook Aristotle's attitude towards atomism and his opposition to explaining growth as an intermingling of parts. ... wrote a treatise on it entitled On Blending.59 Averroes was influenced by Alexander and Galen as well as by philosophers of his own Islamic tradition. ...

El artículo examina las tesis atribuidas por Algacel a los fi lósofos e investiga si estas tesis se encuentran en Avicena o no, y en segundo lugar, si Averroes acepta o rechaza éstas. Además, considera la crítica de Algacel y si Averroes acepta o rechaza ésta, y en qué medida tiene éxito cuando la rechaza.