beastly colloquies. of plagiarism and pluralism in two medieval disputations between animals and...

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Beastly Colloquies: Of Plagiarism and Pluralism in Two Medieval Disputations between

Animals and MenAuthors(s): Lourdes María Alvarez

Source: Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (2002), pp. 179-200

Published by: Penn State University Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40247345

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3/23

i8o COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

a figure of the stature of Ramon Llull (only with a better sense of humor),

Asin Palacios' condemnation of Turmeda's literary - and other - duplici-

ties seriously tarnished his reputation as a writer and framed all subsequent

discussion of his works.

The accusation of plagiarism is, of course, especially problematic when

applied to works created in the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages.

Some of Turmeda's defenders have simply dismissed the charge, arguing

that copying and "borrowing" were commonplace in that environment so

alien to our modern notions of intellectual property.6 Yet such a defense

functions as a tacit acknowledgement of the "crime," thus foreclosing a read-

ing which would highlight the radically different textual strategies and in-

terpretative contexts of each work.7 Moreover, in this case, which traverses

the culturally and politically fraught boundary between East and West, fur-

ther reflection is especially necessary on the question of how plagiarism (or

mere imitation) is to be distinguished from satire or intertextuality, or other

legitimated relationships with literary ancestors. How do we define the le-

gitimate or authentic "inheritors" of any literary, philosophical or cultural

tradition? Are those outside of that lineage simply usurpers, plagiarists or

servile copyists? Notwithstanding the fact that philological source studies,

catalogues of "influences," and the creation of literary genealogies, (so fash-

ionable among positivist historical critics) have been repudiated by most

medievalists, it is still the case that the "originality" of any literary, cultural

and scientific patrimony remains central to many discourses of national,

ethnic and religious identity.

Thus, the scholarly concerns of Asin Palacios, who focused on the

points of literary and religious contact between medieval Christian and

Islamic civilizations, remain central to current debates about Islamic au-

thenticity and the Arab world's relations with the "West." While he charged

Turmeda with plagiarism, in other cases he valued Islamic "influence" much

more positively. In his posthumous Sâdilïesy alumbrados he argues that the

sudden efflorescence of Spanish mysticism in the 16th century, emblema-

tized by two of Spain's greatest mystics: San Juan de la Cruz and Santa

Teresa of Avila, resulted from the convivencia with the inheritors of an Is-

lamic mystical tradition dating back to 13th century al-Andalus.8 Yet Asin's

efforts to bridge the distance between religions and world views that had

once intermingled more freely in Spain frequently led him to minimize real

differences; he often stressed what he saw as the "Christian" elements in the

Arabic-Islamic sources that had influenced European works. One need look

no further than the title he gave to his study of the i3th-century Andalusian



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6/23

Beastly Colloquies 183

The syncretic and esoteric aspects of the Brethren's thought have made

precise labeling of their political philosophy controversial. There is wide-

spread agreement that their thought is closest to that of the Ismàcilis, an

offshoot of Shicism which emerged from a dispute over succession to the

imamate, and that in the centuries following their composition that the

Rasà'il played a prominent role defining Ismàcïlï thought.15 However, their

self-distancing from the Fatimid (Ismâf ili) imâmate, their attack on all forms

of partisanship and sectarianism, and their embrace of "brotherhood" as a

concept of political organization have led several scholars to voice doubt

about their actual participation in an Ismàcili dacwa.16 In any case, the in-

fluence of the Ikhwân al-Safâ' extended far beyond the Ismacili minority,

for despite their heterodoxy, the Rasa il found their way into many hands.

In Islamic Spain, the Rasâïlwert actively promoted and disseminated by

mathematicians such as al-Majriti (d. 1007) and his student al-Kirmâni (d.

1066).17 Later, the "Dispute between man and animals" attracted the atten-

tion of the Jewish mathematician and parodist Qalonymos ben Qalonymos

(1286 - 1328), whose Hebrew translation of the work was reprinted numer-

ous times.18

The Epistles, which have been called the first true encyclopedia, out-

stripping earlier compilations in the breadth of their sources and areas of

interest, are directed to new initiates into the circles of the Brethren.19 The

Ikhwân believed that an enlightened understanding of the workings of the

cosmos and its creatures was a means to more fully apprehending the di-

vine; in this sense all branches of study contribute to and participate in

theosophy {hikma ilàhïyya). For them, this desire for knowledge was neither

arrogant nor self-promoting, for knowledge of God's limitlessness should

serve only to increase the seeker's humility. Spurred by that encyclopedic

impulse, an appetite for wide-ranging knowledge which the Ikhwân liken

to the body's appetite for food of different flavors, colors and scents (1: 266),

the sources of the Rasa il encompass both the Islamic tradition, strictly de-

fined, and much that lies outside of it - from Babylonian astrology to neo-

Platonism to gnosticism, Mazdaism and other Persian pre-Islamic

theosophies. The topics of the fifty-two chapters are organized according

to a teleological logic, progressing from mathematics - which the Breth-

ren, following Pythagoras, consider the foundation of all philosophical in-

quiry - to music, logic, the natural sciences, the rational sciences, and

theology.

Indeed, in addition to the detailed discussion on the organization of

the book that prefaces the Rasa il, its authors devote another chapter to the



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184 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

question of the categories of knowledge. It bears mentioning that the later

Western innovation of arranging encyclopedias alphabetically would not

have found favor with the Ikhwân for two reasons. First, because they hold

that human languages and the symbols that represent them are entirely

arbitrary, an alphabetical arrangement does violence to the harmonious re-

lationships between fields of knowledge. Second, the ability to quickly con-

sult individual subjects without regard to their relationship to the larger

structure of knowledge runs counter to their ethics of epistemology, which

stresses the interdependence and inseparability of all aspects of the created

world, including knowledge.20

Notwithstanding the exuberance of their encyclopedic project, the

Ikhwân are also wary of the dangers of making arrogant claims about their

own ability to represent, even if in a schematic and allusive fashion, the

magnificence and complexity of God's creation. Thus, superimposed on

the erudite polymathy of the text is an all-pervasive mystical element, a

concern with the hidden, supersensory world, which is reinforced in con-

cluding the treatise with a discussion of magic and miracles, that is, di-

vinely mediated suspensions of natural law: momentary tears in the orderly

fabric of the cosmos.

The largely straightforward exposition of the Epistles is itself inter-

rupted by the "Case of the Animals," the elaborate fable in that provided

direct inspiration for Turmeda, which is interpolated in the section on the

natural sciences, specifically the epistle devoted to the scientific description

and classification of animal species (Epistle 28). No source for the tale has

been identified, and although the use of talking animals was common in

tales of Indian origin such as Kalila wa Dimna (which is also cited in the

Epistles), this particular story may indeed have been devised by the Breth-

ren. They justify the insertion of the lengthy allegorical interpolation -

running over 170 pages in the standard Arabic edition, saying:

Throughout most of the Epistles we have illustrated the excellence

of mankind and its praiseworthy characteristics [. . .] In this Epistle

we want to mention something of the virtues of the animal king-

dom, its praiseworthy characteristics, its laudable nature and its fault-

less qualities and show something of mankind's tyranny and its

outrage, its transgressions against others subservient to him like live-

stock and animals in general. [. . .] For when Man is eminent in

goodness he is a generous angel, the best of creation, and when he is

evil, he is a cursed devil, the worst of creation. We have demon-

strated this using the speech of the animals, (translation is mine)21



8/23


At the close of the debate, the reader is enjoined to seek to understand the

deeper meaning of the debate and warned that the story is not "amusement

for children nor the prattlings of the Brethren," but rather a veil for truths

on three levels: plainly spoken (alfazan) expressed Çibarât) and symbolic

{'ishârât). (II: 377) Indeed, as we shall see, the complex hermeneutic estab-

lished between the "Case of the Animals" and the rest of the Rasa il makes

the search for that deeper meaning challenging.

The narration of the "Case of the Animals" is prefaced by an account

of the rise of humans and human society, and their domination over and

subjugation of the earth and its creatures. The debate takes place in the era

initiated by the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad in a remote Edenic king-

dom, where faithful (Muslim) jinn and beasts live peacefully under the rule

of a wise and just king following the precepts of natural law. Their idyll is

shattered by the arrival of the survivors of a shipwreck who immediately

seek to capture and enslave animals in accordance with their common prac-

tice. The animals flee and come before the king seeking justice and a guar-

antee of freedom from persecution. The king summons representatives of

the humans to answer the charges brought against them, and the stage is

set for a debate that will ultimately bring before the king and his counselors

representatives of seven nations of men and seven classes of animals.

In the animals' detailed and scientific rebuttal to arrogant assertions of

human superiority, the Ikhwân al-Safà' draw on several sources, most nota-

bly the monumental work of medieval Islamic zoology, al-Jàhizs Kitàb

al-Hayawân [Book of the Animals]}2 As in the ninth-century text by their

fellow Basran al-Jâhiz, the exposition of the diversity and intricate interde-

pendence of God's creation is above all a demonstration of the infinite power

and wisdom of the Creator. The animals soundly refute the claim advanced

by the humans early in the debate that the human form is the most beauti-

ful, that an upright carriage, keen senses and superior intellect constitute

proof of human pre-eminence. It is not that most animals are irregularly

built and misproportioned - as the humans maintain - but that the long

neck of the giraffe or the trunk of the elephant are perfectly adapted to

their individual needs and are, thus, testament to God s providence. Beauty

is relative, subordinate to the needs of each species to promote its own

reproduction; as the animal spokesman points out "our males are not aroused

by the beauty of your [human] females, nor our females by the charms of

your males." (58) Nor can humans claim superior intellect or senses when

"an ass or cow is frequently observed to return to its familiar home when its

master has led it away on a path it did not know and left it. Yet there are



9/23


men who may travel the same road any number of times and still stray from

it and lose themselves" (5c).23

In addition to the wealth of allegorical meaning in the "Case of the

Animals," which resonates with the philosophical and political thought elu-

cidated in the Rasâ'il as a whole, the text also documents and categorizes

the rich variety of the animal world, constructing a detailed scientific tax-

onomy and natural history. The sheer number of speakers, from humble

insects to powerful mythological creatures such as the griffin, offers a daz-

zling array of perspectives which destabilizes the uniqueness of human sub-

jectivity. The world viewed from the teleological standpoint of the animals

offers curious inversions that undermine anthropocentric systems of signi-

fication or hierarchies: for example, the animals complain that it is the ass

who is insulted when a human calls another an ass. The discussion of dogs

offers a salient example of inverted discourse. The animals reproach dogs,

not for the conventional Islamic view of their uncleanliness, but because of

their vile betrayal of their animal brethren. Their sloth, love of comfort, and

gluttonous appetite for human food lead them to live with men and aid

them in hunting down and murdering their fellow animals. In the eyes of

the other animals in the debate, dogs have wrongly rebelled against their

divinely assigned role in nature and have disturbed the harmony of a sys-

tem of carefully calibrated interdependence.

Much is made of the fact that the greatest and fiercest of creatures fear

the tiniest of creatures against which their mighty power offers no protec-

tion. When stung by a "tiny beast somewhat resembling a gnat or a mos-

quito" (133), the sea serpent s body is invaded by a poison which kills it,

whereupon the carcass is devoured by the same animals of the sea who had

once feared him. The circle of life, the ebb and flow of being in time-bounded

creaturely existence means that no hierarchy is absolute, all of life is inter-

dependent: "the corruption of one thing is the enhancement of another,

God said, These are the days whose revolutions I bring about for men.

None understands but the wise' "(133). 24

The account of man's rise from initial fear of animals - due to his pal-

try numbers and comparatively weak physique - to the establishment of a

civilization predicated on the subjugation of animals marks the narrative as

a historical allegory. The story of the changing fortunes of the seven tribes

of Man and of the seven classes of beasts, a story of the rise and fall of

civilizations, can be read as z figura of Islamic history as seen from an Ismàcili

viewpoint. Ismâcïlï gnosis posits a cyclical history composed of seven eras,

each of which is announced by the arrival of a prophet who before his death



10/23


imparts the core of his teaching to a nâtiq or speaker who in turn reveals it

to proselytes in accordance with their capacities. The first six prophets are

Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Jesus' nâtiq was

Peter, to whom he entrusted the Church; Muhammad's was cAli. The sev-

enth and last prophet will fully reveal the inner {bâtin) meaning of religion.

As Halm explains: "[the seventh Imam] will not, however, produce any

new religion of law but will instead declare all the old ones obsolete, in-

cluding those of Islam. The 'repeal of the laws' {raf al-sharâ'f) will make

room for the paradisiacal original religion without cult or laws which was

practiced by Adam and the angels in Paradise before the Fall: the 'original

religion of Adam' {din Adam al-awwat) consists only in praise of the Cre-

ator and His recognition as the Only God {tawhld)."25 Their readings of

the workings of the natural world and of the cyclical movements of the

planets served to confirm their faith that the culmination of the current

cycle would restore the state of innocence that existed at the beginning of

the cycle of cycles initiated with Adam.

In the contest of the "Case of the Animals," in that allegorical space in

which the languages of man and beast are briefly mutually intelligible - in

what is, in a sense, a tear in fabric of the microcosm of the encyclopedia, the

beasts turn out to be nimble debaters, and time after time demolish the

arguments proffered by the humans. A central tenet of the animals' posi-

tion is that exoteric interpretations of Qur'ànic verses extolling the nobility

of humans are insufficient as proof of human mastery over animals: "The

heavenly books have interpretations which go beyond the literal and are

known by those whose knowledge is deep" (57).26 The Ikhwân's espousal of

esoteric readings of divine revelation {fa wit) challenges both political and

religious orthodoxy, and the religious sciences which served to legitimate

hegemonic power. The undermining or destabilization of the surface mean-

ing of the Qur'an was common to a number of minority currents in Islam,

including Muctazilites, whose Aristotelianism and strict rejection of an-

thropomorphic representations of the divine led them to reject a literal read-

ing of many passages of the revealed text, Shicites, who hold that the

inspiration required to correctly interpret religious texts is divinely granted

to religious leaders, and Sufis, whose mystical-symbolic interpretations are

guided by personal illumination. The exegetical strategy of the Brethren -

who share many commonalities not only with Shicites, but also with

Muctazilites and Sufis - locates in the revealed text and, as another instru-

ment of revelation, in the natural world, the confirmation that the future



11/23

i88 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

will bring down corrupt and abusive leaders and restore power to the just,

rightly guided philosophers.

While the beasts often function as mouthpieces for views that the au-

thors openly or covertly espouse in other parts of the Epistles, and as Marquet

points out, at times even represent the community of initiates, the "Case of

the Animals" resists any simple reductive reading.27 Its discourse is not

oppositional but is rather an evolutional and accretive dialectic: all of the

speakers contribute something of value. Likewise, certain positions upheld

in the "Case" seem at odds with other parts of the Rasa il. While some

commentators have explained the apparent contradictions in the work as a

whole as the result of its collective composition, I would argue that the

discrepancies are easily subsumed into their dialectical hermeneutic, that is

to say, they are productive when subjected to further interpretation (ta wit).

In this sense, the "Case of the Animals" might be read as an expression of

some of the tensions inherent in any effort at syncretizing disparate modes

of thought such as creationism and neo-Platonism.

The animals staunchly defend diversity, not only as the organizing prin-

ciple of the natural world, but also as a strategy for victory in the debate:

"For every kind [of animal] has its own virtues which belong to no other, its

own modes of good judgment and discrimination, and its own kind of elo-

quence. With enough helpers there might be hope of success and a chance

to save the day" (8i).28 If victory in the debate will come from bringing a

multiplicity of voices to the fore, so too do the Ikhwân (at least claim to) see

intellectual diversity of thought as a source of human progress. Thus, here

they seem to propose a radical solution to the problem of the fragmenting

Islamic polity and the competing interpretations of religious precepts that

were widely decried at the time. To those contemporaries who viewed Hel-

lenistic philosophy, or even mathematics, with great suspicion, who insisted

on a return to a pure Islamic doctrine, the Ikhwàn al-Safà' respond with

their mystically- tinged universalism. If generations of philosophers, most

famously Ibn Rushd, tried to prove the essential harmony between phi-

losophy and revealed religion, the Ikhwân seem to go even further in sug-

gesting that philosophy could be the principle that would lead to harmony

between religions and sects. For they observe that the conflicts among reli-

gions are rarely truly religious in nature, but rather tied to questions of

power. The problem of sectarianism results from the quest of individual

groups to impose hegemony, to create unity through force and intimida-

tion, rather than allowing brotherhood and the interchange of ideas to move

humanity to a more profound knowledge of the will of the Creator and

ultimately to salvation.



12/23


Despite the clear sympathy for the animals that is evoked in the awe-

struck descriptions of the natural kingdom, the injustices of their captivity

and oppression and the implied parallels with the subjugation of religious

minorities, the debate is resolved in favor of the humans. The conclusive

argument, that man is superior because he partakes of eternal life, and thus

enjoys an entelechy that is denied to the animals, brings to a head the ques-

tions of oppression and justice so central to the debate. Are we simply to

accept at face value the Ikhwan s declaration that the debate s purpose is to

act as a counterbalance to the anthropocentrism in the rest of the Rasâ'iR

Insofar as the animal speech in the debate provides a sort of rhetorical

cover for an Ismâcïli social and religious critique and is perhaps typical of

the tendency attributed to the Ismâcilïs by their critics: "instilling doubt

and leaving in suspense"29 the resolution of the debate seems to back away

from any revolutionary solution to the problem of injustice, entreating the

Brethren/animals to accept their lot with patience. Instead, the real revolu-

tion, the completion of the great cycle of historical cycles, is accomplished

with the arrival of the Ikhwan's ideal man, a figure who embodies the best

qualities of his predecessors and transcends their differences:

^yi\ cV~Jt ^jUb j*n'»H *U3l


13/23

iço COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

the text abandons a literary narrative and returns to a type of scientific

discourse that attempts to transcend the time-boundedness of material ex-

istence.

♦ ♦

Anselm Turmeda (i352?-i424?), a Mallorcan-born Franciscan friar, led a

life full of international political and religious intrigue, which included fleeing

to Tunis, repudiating both his religious order and his Christian faith, and

converting to Islam.30 Known there as cAbd Allah al-Tarjumàn, the trans-

lator, he wrote several works in Catalan for Christian readers, as well as an

influential work of anti-Christian polemic in Arabic, Tuhfat al-adibfi radd

cala ahlal-salïb [The Gift of the Writer towards the Rejection of the Partisans of

the Cross].31 He achieved no small measure of fame in Europe as a moraliz-

ing didactic poet, an astrologer and prophet; his cryptic Profecies conveyed

apocalyptic messages which attracted the attention of popes and monarchs.32

Even in death, Turmeda's true religious sentiments remain a mystery; ven-

erated as a Muslim saint, his tomb in Tunis became a site of pilgrimage.

Meanwhile in Catalunya, legend had it that Turmeda - perceived to be an

unwitting prisoner of circumstance - had seen a vision which led him to

publicly repudiate Islam and die a Christian martyr s death at the hands of

an angry mob. Turmeda's life story, his liminality and equivocal status as

convert and exile - indeed, even near-sainthood in two religions - is more

than a colorful footnote to his work. It has played an integral and inescap-

able part in determining the reception of his books, and has been used as a

tool used by his supporters and detractors - on both sides of the Mediter-

ranean - to neutralize his dangerous transgression of political and religious

borders.

One of the unfortunate effects of Asin's discovery of the relationship

between the Disputa and the earlier Arabic version of the tale has been a

shift away from discussion of the eclecticism of Turmeda's book. Not only

does the former Franciscan draw from multiple sources and literary tradi-

tions, he also makes use of his personal knowledge of the spheres of power

in Europe and life behind the monastery walls. The delightful a-centricity

of the work which brings together philosophical musings, dirty jokes, ad-

vice about the wiles of women, bawdy tales of clerical debauchery and trans-

gression, biting condemnations of abuses of power and cryptic prophetic

verse was, of course, what had initially attracted the attention of Catalan

scholars.

Like the "Case of the Animals," Anselm Turmeda's Disputa de VAse

takes up the question of man's place in God's creation, within the frame-



14/23


work of a verbal contest between men and animals. The first obvious nov-

elty in Turmeda's debate is that the animals are represented by the aAse

Ronyôs de la CuaTallada" [Mangy Ass with the lopped-offtail], a caustic

and sharp-witted debater (and a literary first-cousin to Lucius of The Golden

Ass or Burnel the Ass of Speculum Stultorum) who defends the dignity and

worth of all animal species. Anselm, an ironic antihero, is forced to answer

for humankind's transgressions against the animals. Here the balance has

shifted away sharply from the legal questions attendant on the relationship

between master and slave that are prominent in the Arabic text, away from

a philosophical examination of the idea of hierarchy and entelechy, away

from notions of self-determination and autonomy. Whereas the animals in

the Arabic debate condemn the physical and psychological aspects of their

oppression, carefully enumerating the shackles, chains, harnesses, whips and

other instruments of their torture, Turmeda's Ass charges man with the

verbal crime of unfounded boasting of his superiority. The Catalan case is

further marked as a purely rhetorical forum because it is being tried before

the king of the beasts, a party to the conflict, who would have no power to

enforce a judgment against Man. Thus the charges made by the Ass are a

showcase for Turmeda's critique of the small-mindedness and pettiness of

men and, in the most pointed cases, the abuses committed by individual-

ized historical actors. At the same time, the Ass remains an essentially

picaresque character and his critical stance, the authority with which he

condemns the pettiness of others, is often ironized and made subservient to

his pleasure in the act of storytelling. For example, the Ass (and Anselm)

rather enjoy the tale of how Fray Juliot tricked an innocent young bride

into "tithing" the carnal benefits of marriage, that is, giving the Church, in

the person of its representative Fray Juliot, ten percent of her unions with

her husband.

The Disputa de VAse is strikingly different from the "Case of the Ani-

mals" with regards to narrative strategy and self-awareness. First, the nar-

ration is presented as a dream, conveniently accounting for the suddenly

transparent communication between man and beast. Whereas the parties

in the Ikhwân s debate treat each other with enormous decorum - with a

plainspoken jinn occasionally stepping in to signal the logical flaws as they

appear in the dispute - in the Catalan work, the Ass' first line of rhetorical

defense against Anselm's claims is a verbal offense. The Ass taunts his op-

ponent mercilessly, belittling not only Anselm's logic, but Anselm himself:

u[U]s tenia en gran reputaciô i saviesa. Mes ara, trobant el contrari, us tine

per una ruda i llorda persona. Eh, horn de Déu! Sou fora de seny i

d'enteniment? Un infant de cine anys no deuria dir tais paraules, ans tenir

vengonya de pensar-les tan solament" ["I held you in great repute and wis-



15/23


dom. But now, finding the contrary, I hold you to be a coarse and dim-

witted person. Hey, good man! Are you out of your mind? A five-year old

child would not say such things, why he would be ashamed to even think

them ] (43).

At first glance it might seem that the sometimes formulaic diction

employed in the Arabic original - as in, for example, the ritualistic diwàn

al-mazallam, the somber procedure of formally lodging the charges against

man, as one animal after another steps before the king and says "Had you

seen us, your Majesty, as prisoners in the hands of the sons of Adam with

chains on our feet and cables around our neck [. . . ] you would have pitied

us and wept for us, your Majesty" (62)33 - is analogous to the Ass* use of

proverbs or sayings in the sense that they both draw upon shared linguistic

conventions which are particular to the intended audience. But unlike the

formulaic repetition in the Ikhwan's text, which gestures toward "authentic"

legal records, the earthy proverbs spoken by the Ass carry the contradictory

burden of relating a tidbit of "wisdom" while calling attention to them-

selves.

The Ass's rhetorical strategy shifts as he engages Anselm in his stories

of clerical debauchery (wryly presented as serving the educational purpose

of illustrating the seven deadly sins). The jokes are pushed aside as he tells

of the flagrant abuses of the power of the Church. In one case, the Great

Abbot of Perugia brings vengeance against those fathers or husbands of

women that refuse to acquiesce to his desires. Accusing them of "havien

escrit lletres als enemies de la santa mare l'Església" ["having corresponded

with enemies of the Holy Mother Church"] (123), he has them imprisoned,

hung or drawn and quartered, satisfying his lust with their women and

children and then passing them on to his soldiers. When an upstanding

woman, eight months pregnant, hurls herself from a window to escape the

Abbot's advances, her outraged husband preserves the dead fetus in salt

and carries the jar with the gruesome evidence of the cleric's misdeeds to

the neighboring villages to rally their support. Here, the Church's desire to

choke off popular dissent by giving the Abbot uncontested power over the

citizens of Perugia became in itself the catalyst for revolt and the village's

reclaiming of its sovereignty. While the stories of the seven deadly sins

interrupt the immediate resolution of the contest between man and the

animals, they function as a clear illustration of the arrogance and unfounded

claims to sovereignty treated allegorically - and somewhat humorously -

in the discussion of man's relationship to the animals.

Like many other intellectuals of his time - and the Brethren of Purity

in theirs - Turmeda was interested in astrology's power to predict the end



16/23


of the injustices he denounced. The Disputa closes as the Ass comes to a

recitation of cryptic political and religious prophecies, similar in form and

content to the Profecies - largely concerned with the Great Western Schism

that divided the Church in a conflict between rival Popes - that had al-

ready brought Turmeda fame in Europe. Intrigued by the mysterious verses,

Anselm hastens to conclude the debate, for the Ass has promised that their

explanation awaits the resolution of their dispute. The debate, and the trans-

species dialogue, comes to a hasty conclusion as Anselm points out that

Jesus took human, not animal, form. A self-satisfied Anselm returns home,

having apparently forgotten the question of the meaning of the prophecies.

Thus they remain a mystery that presumably can only be deciphered in the

unfolding of time.

Turmeda's Disputa eliminates the multiplicity of perspectives present

in the earlier version. The Ass* viewpoint is occasionally interrupted by the

rabbit, or by some pesky insects, but the taxonomic impulse has been re-

placed with the pleasure of storytelling. The wide range of animals who

speak in the Arabic version, as each class of animal - birds, birds of prey,

aquatic animals, etc. - gathers to choose the most suitable spokesman, serves

a specific purpose there, but also slows down the narrative. Turmeda simply

does away with all that erudite detail. Likewise, the human representatives

of diverse faiths and races have been supplanted by Anselm. Turmeda dis-

penses with the elaborate steps in the preparation of the debate and the

speculation and strategizing of each party prior to the actual convocation

before the king. Many of the arguments are streamlined: for example, when

the humans argue that the fact that they buy and sell animals proves that

they are their property, the response in the Arabic text is:

a*!, fJJ\ *L,îj f jj\ ^ Ifj* #t*f J*h ^ iîj^j W 1$ j W î tj~* r+A* > *M c^jU»

raj ^ ri& cJisXl »b,t, jlUi *L*Îj 4JUU1 *bt JbU »b|f J*i* dUiTj

cJLÎ ctfy^ cj cÛ iJuLj p+A*> iJlySflj aijrtfïj V*yJ* t\4 J^é

(2:214) WyU-lf^jUjHltj



17/23


He argues that they buy and sell us. The same is done by Persians to

Greeks and Greeks to Persians when they conquer one another.

Which is the slave and which is the master? The Indians treat the

Sindians the same way and the Sindians the Indians; the Abyssinians,

the Nubians and the Nubians, the Abyssinians. The Arabs, Turks

and Kurds behave the same way toward one another. Which of them,

pray, are really the slaves and which the masters? (60)

By contrast, the Ass in the Catalan version speaks only of Christians and

Moors. This narrative simplification or streamlining is significant in a num-

ber of ways. Perhaps most obviously it reflects the difference in audience:

the Epistles were written in literary Arabic for a select readership that would

scrutinize the detailed inventory of animal species and the nuances of their

arguments with an eye to the hidden allegorical and esoteric levels of mean-

ing. Turmeda chose to write not in Latin, which was still the language of

philosophy and science, but rather in the Catalan vernacular, which at the

time competed with other Romance vernaculars to be a lingua franca around

the Mediterranean. The colloquial expressions and witty jibes, the mordant

humor, the off-color stories, and the plainspoken condemnation of oppres-

sion carried out in the name of the Church ensured the Disputas appeal to

a wide audience.

The requirements of a storytelling model as opposed to an encyclope-

dic model dictated that the idealized types of the Ikhwân be replaced with

characters. The shift from the abstractly symbolic to the particular, how-

ever allegorical, heralds the stunning contrast between the rhetoric ofexem-

plarity of these two texts. In the Arabic "Case of the Animals" the frog who

represents the aquatic animals is a perfectly abstracted neo-Platonic type.

His exemplarity, as representative of the aquatic kingdom, lies not in a truth

located in his specificity, but in his resemblance to the animals he repre-

sents. He exhibits no peculiar trait that would render him different from

any other frog. It is thus with all the animals and humans who populate the

narrative. By contrast, Turmedas characters are marked by their idiosyn-

crasies and their flaws. The Mangy Ass with the Lopped-Off Tail is a par-

ticular, individualized Ass: scruffy, sometimes arrogant, often sarcastic. While

he represents all animals in the debate, he most decidedly retains his own

particularities. So too with Anselm: his past marks him as a historical actor;

he is smug, sometimes base, and no less silly than his interlocutor. The

motivations of Turmeda's characters are a far more complex mix than the

sincere earnestness of those in the Ikhwàns tale: loyalty to ones own kind,

competitiveness, sometimes curiosity, hypocrisy and fear. Thus we see in



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Turmeda s adaptation of the story the same shift in the rhetoric of exem-

plarity that we see in Renaissance literature more generally. Each monk in

his tale has a name, is attached to a particular monastery - whether those

details are real or fictional, the stories derive their power from the appear-

ance of realism.

Within the Rasa il the "Case" functions as a sort of rhetorical micro-

cosm that represents and refracts both the Ikhwàn's natural philosophy and

historical teleology. However, it differs somewhat from the microcosm that

Foucault sees as operative in the premodern period:

As a category of thought, it [the microcosm] applies the interplay of

duplicated resemblances to all the realms of nature; it provides all

investigation with an assurance that everything will find its mirror

and its macrocosmic justification on another and larger scale; it af-

firms inversely, that the visible order of the highest spheres will be

found reflected in the darkest depths of the earth.34

The constantly turning cycles, those revolutions understood only by

the wise, complicate the macrocosmic conception of the Ikhwàn and un-

dermine the "assurance" of a simple chain of reflections described by Fou-

cault. Turmeda's much more limited project of satire and social critique

appropriates the setting of a debate between animals and man not as a

grand historical allegory or a microcosm but rather as a narrative frame, not

unlike those of the 1001 Nights or the Sendebar or any number of Oriental

frames. Just as in Kali/a wa Dimna, or Cervantes* picaresque story of talk-

ing dogs, aEl coloquio de los perros," the use of talking animals offers op-

portunities to make ironic observations about human (mis)conduct.

Clearly the question of cultural competition, authenticity and plural-

ism is central in the Arabic text. As the Greek scholar points out: "we did

take the major part of our sciences from other nations, just as they have

taken the bulk of their sciences from us. For men do acquire the sciences

from one another. Otherwise, where would the Persians have acquired as-

tronomy and cosmology as well as the use of astronomical instruments, if

not from the people of India?" (126). As members of a dissident Islamic

political group whose claim to authority was neither a pure Arabic lineage

nor a grammatical exegesis of the Quryâny but conversely, the heterogeneity

and universality of their intellectual inspiration, the Ikhwàn al-Safà' cham-

pioned a radical antisectarianism (speaking from the weak side), for they

saw in the divisions between races and religions arbitrariness, false pride

and barriers to intellective and spiritual progress.



19/23


If the vast program of scientific, philosophical and religious synthesis

proposed by the Ikhwân was an integral part of their epistemology, credit-

ing their sources gave their vision greater authority. By contrast, Turmeda s

argument, which is pointedly political, rather than doctrinal, would cer-

tainly not have been strengthened by citing his Islamic source. The syn-

cretic tendencies of the Ikhwân - and the Ismacilis in general - responded

to a crisis within Islam and not to intolerance between religions. Even if

the Hanbalites and their allies, reacting to the dangers posed by the Helle-

nizing tendencies of Muctazilites and others, insisted on trying to craft an

"authentic" Islam based solely on the Quran and sunna, it must be remem-

bered that from its inception, Islam preached tolerance - if not respect -

for the "people of the Book," that is, the members of the three monotheistic

faiths. Thus most of the important urban centers of medieval Islam fea-

tured a rather cosmopolitan population. The pluralistic and universalizing

vision of the Brethren is seen as a solution for an increasingly fractious

polity.

By contrast, early in the fifteenth century, Spain was well into a pro-

gram of building a Christian identity, erasing the traces of its Muslim and

Jewish heritage. It would be a long process - never fully realizable - despite

the extreme measures of forced conversions, wholesale deportations (of Jews

in 1492, of the Morisco population in 1609). The erasures took myriad forms:

architectural, linguistic, clothing, literary, etc. Monuments were especially

vulnerable (destruction is a one-time proposition). Whereas many of the

great mosques of Muslim centers had, upon their fall into Christian hands,

been initially "purified" and consecrated as Christian churches, by the be-

ginning of the 15th century few of these mosques had been preserved. Gone

were the mosques of Huesca, Palma de Mallorca, Murcia, Toledo, Valencia,

and Zaragoza, all built over with splendid cathedrals.35 Many of the

Arabisms widely employed in Spanish in earlier centuries began to be dis-

carded; aljdfarwas replaced by perla, trujamàn became interprète and so on.36

Turmeda, who in his Cobles de la divisid delRegne de Mallorques [ Verses

on the Division in the Kingdom of Mallorca] praised the interreligious har-

mony and cooperation he claimed flourished in Mallorca under Islamic

rule, and condemned the forced conversion of the Moriscos in his Profecies,37

found in the writings of the Ikhwân al-Safà' a universal and pluralistic vi-

sion: humanistic, tolerant, intellectually adventurous. As the Brethren of

Purity had themselves done, he took what he found useful in their work,

adapted it to his own message and his intended audience. If we misread the

relationship between the two texts, it is perhaps because the Brethren s no-



20/23


tion of a world in which knowledge and culture have no race or creed re-

mains a dream imaginable only in edenic spaces where animals and man

converse without hindrance.

Catholic University of America

Notes

1. Valenti Almirall, Lo catalanisme [1886] (Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1979) 22-23. For a suc-

cinct introduction to (and select bibliography on) the subject of the RenaixenÃ§a and Catalan

nationalism see: Inman Fox, La invenciÃ´n de Espana (Madrid: CÃ¢tedra, 1997) 66-87, for a

more detailed treatment see JosÃ© Trias Vâ‚-yzi2XiO> Almirall y los origenes del catalanismo (Madrid:

Siglo XXI, 1975).

2. See R. FoulchÃ©-Delbosc, "La disputation de l'Asne (Anselm Turmeda)," Revue

Hispanique 24 (1911): 358-479 and Armand LlinarÃ©s,^Â«Wm Turmeda, Dispute de l'Ane (Paris:

J. Vrin, 1984). For Lluis Deztany's reconstruction of the original Catalan from the French,

see Llibre deDisputacio de Vase contra frare Encelm Turmeda (Barcelona: [ J. Horta], 1922). The

more accessible and widely available Catalan edition is that of MarÃ§al Olivar Ã©d., Disputa de

Vase (Barcelona: Editorial Barcino, 1993). An English translation is provided in an appendix

to Zaida I. Giraldo, "Anselm Turmeda: An Intellectual Biography of a Medieval Apostate,

including a translation of the Debate between the Friar and the Ass," Ph.D., CUNY, 1975.

3. On the Catalan hostility to the Inquisition, see Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition:

a historical revision (New Haven: Yale UP, 1998) 166.

4. Asin Palacios, M. "El original arabe de la Disputa delasno contra fray Anselmo Turmeda.19

Revista defilolovia espanola (1914) 1-51.

5. The standard Arabie edition Butrus BustÃ¢ni, Ã©d., RasaillkhwÃ¢n al-Safa wa khilÃ n al-

wafa. 4 Vols. (Beirut: DÃ¢r SÃ¢dir, [n.d.]). Ail citations of the Arabie original refer to this

edition. Lenn Evan Goodman has translated the section of the RasÃ¢'ilthat most concerns us

here: The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn (Boston: Twayne, 1978).

His lengthy introduction and notes focus on the ethics of the story, which he calls an "Eco-

logical Fable." Emilio Tornero Poveda translates the same section of the Rasa il into Span-

ish, promoting it as "the Arabic source for Turmeda's Dispute of the Ass? See La disputa de los

animales contra elhombre (Madrid: Editorial de la Universidad Complutense, 1984). The two

most important English-language studies of the IkhwÃ¢n are Seyyed Hossein Nasr,^Â» intro-

duction to Islamic cosmological doctrines: Conceptions of nature and methods used for its study by

the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina (Boulder: Shambhala, 1978); and Ian Richard

Netton, Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought of the Brethren of Purity

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1991). See also Yves Marquet, La Philosophie des Ihwan al-Safa

(Algiers: SociÃ©tÃ© Nationale d'Edition et de Diffusion, 1975).

6. Everette E. Larson examines AsÃ®n Palacios accusation, providing careful comparisons

of the passages in Turmeda's text that closely parallel the earlier Arabic source. The article

provides detailed documentation of the textual similarities, while at the same time brushing

aside the plagiarism charge. See "The Disputa of Anselmo: Translation, Plagiarism or Em-

bellishment?," Josep Maria Sola Sole: Homage, homenaje, homenatge: MiscelÃ¢nea de estudios de

amigos y discipulos, eds. Antonio Torres AlcalÃ¢, Victorio Aguera, and B. Smith Nathaniel

(Barcelona: Puvill, 1984) I: 285-296. Martin Riquer also excuses Turmeda on the basis that

"aquest tipus de "hurt literari" era molt frequent a la Etat Mitjana" ["this type of literary

thievery was very common in the Middle Ages"]. See "Anselm Turmeda," Histbria de la

literatura catalana (Barcelona: Ariel, 1980) 2: 265-308, here 283.



21/23


7. Several recent studies have addressed the question of influence and literary models in

medieval and early modern works. See Jacqueline T. Miller, Poetic License: Authority and

Authorship in Medieval and Renaissance Contexts (New York: Oxford UP, 1986) and Rachel

Jacoff, "Models of Literary Influence in the Commedia* Medieval Texts and Contemporary

Readers, ed. Laurie A. and Martin B. Schichtman Finke (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987) and

Thomas Greene, The Light at Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry (New Ha-

ven: Yale UP, 1982).

8. Miguel Asin Palacios, Sadifiesy alumbrados (Madrid: Hiperiôn, 1990).

9. Miguel Asm Palacios, El Islam cristianizado; estudio del "sufismo" a trave's de las obras de

Abenarabi de Murcia (Madrid: Editorial Plutarco, 1931). Asin Palacios was by no means

alone in his portrayal of Ibn al-cArabi as a freethinker deeply marked by Christian teaching.

More recently, scholars such as Michel Chodkiewicz and William Chittick have attempted

to rectify this misreading, portraying him as a figure much closer to the mainstream of

Sunni Islam. For a concise review of Western scholarly approaches to the Greatest Master

see Alexander D. Knysh, Ibn cArabi in the Later Islamic Tradition (Albany: SUNY Press,

19 99 ) : 18-24.

10. Miguel Asin Palacios, La escatologia musulmana en la Divina Comedia; Historiay critica

de una tolémka, 3rd. ed. (Madrid: Institute Hispano- Arabe de Cultura, 1961) 420.

11. All translations here are mine, except when otherwise indicated.

12. See Llibre de bons amonestaments i altres obresy 9-49.

13. Ikhwân al-Safa, Risâlat Jamïat al-jâmïah, ed. cArif Tamir ([Beirut]: Dâr al-Nashr

lil-Jamnyin, 1959). Despite the numerous references in the Rasa il to the existence of the

separate volume called the Jâmïa, there has been some controversy about its authorship.

Scholars have attributed it to a) al Majriti (d. 1007), the mathematician credited with bring-

ing the Risail to Muslim Spain, b) his student al-Kirmânï, who continued to promote the

Rasa% and c) the Ismà^lï imam Ahnad b. cAbd Allah. See Fu'àd Macsûm, Ikhwân al-Safa:

falsafatuhum wa-ghâyatuhumt (Damascus: Dâr al-Madâ, 1998): 106-111.

14. Basra and Baghdad were noted for a vibrant intellectual atmosphere that encouraged

the "free flow of ideas across boundaries of religions and creeds" and witnessed "assemblies

attended by the representatives of various schools of thought and religions, including Jews,

who freely debate religious questions, on the condition that the discussion be based solely on

rational arguments." See H. Ben-Shammai, "Jewish Thought in Iraq in the Tenth Century,"

Judeo-Arabic Studies, ed. Norman Golb (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1997) 15-^32, here 20.

15. On the Ismjfïlîs see Farhad Daftary, ed., Mediaeval Ismaili history and thought (Cam-

bridge: Cambridge UP, 1996), and Henry Corbin, Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis (London:

Keegan Paul International, 1983).

16. Samuel Stern was the first to raise doubts on this point. See The Authorship of the

Epistles of the Ikhwân as-Safa'," Islamic Culture 20 (1946): 367^372; and "New Information

about the Authors of the "Epistles of the Sincere Brethren"," Islamic Studies 3.4 (1964): 405-

28, reprinted in: Studies in Early Ismâcilism (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983) 155-176. See also the

discussion in Nasr, Introduction to Islamic Cosmological 25-33, and Netton, Muslim Neoplatonists

95-104. For a defense of the view that the Brethren were Ismàcïlis see: Yves Marquet, "Ikhwân

as-Safa'" El2.

17. A number of prominent medieval Arab scholars have been accused of either plagiariz-

ing or being heavily influenced (secretly, of course) by the group. The Arabic historian and

polymath, Ibn Khaldun was recently accused of plagiarizing the Rasa Urn Mahmùd Ismàcïl,

Nihâyat ustûrah: nâzariyatlbn Khaldûn: muqtabasa min Rasa il Ikhwân as-Safa (al-Qâhirah:

Dàr Qiba, 2000). It should be noted however that the book's strident and polemic tone

detracts from its message.

18. See Qalonymos ben Qalonymos ben Meir, Igeret baale hayim (Mantua: 1557; Hanau:

1718; Vilna: 1878; Warsaw, 1879).

19. As the Ikhwân explain in several places, the work is not meant to be exhaustive, but

rather an introduction for students: "We produced these Epistles - keeping them succinct in



22/23


23/23

OO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES

25. Heinz Halm, Shiism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1991), 169.

(2: 210) .pJUIl ^ Ùj*-^ *UJUJl

27. See Marquet La philosophie 117; 186-187.

4CUJij C^UJI ^ jU;V» jJS" lib g*aJl >*j ûUij a>.Ui3ij

(2:238).>Jlj

29. Ibn Tahir al-Bagdâdi,^/-i^ry bayna al-Fimq, (Cairo: Maktabat Ibn S_na, 1988).

30. Turmeda's life-story is explored in Agustfn Calvet, FrayAnselmo Turmeda: Heterodoxo

espanol (Barcelona: Casa Editorial Estudio, 1914); J. Miret i Sans, "Vida de fray Anselmo

Turmeda," Revue Hispanique 24 (1911) 261-296; and Mikel de Epalza, "Nuevas aportaciones

a la biografïa de fray Anselmo Turmeda (Abdallah riL-Taichumzn)" Ana/ecta Sacra Tarraconesia

38 (1965) 87-158.

31. Mikel de Epalza, FrayAnselm Turmeda (Abdallah al-Taryuman) y su polémica islamo-

cristiana (Madrid: Hiperiôn, 1994).

32. The various Profecies are collected in Anselm Turmeda, Llibre de bons amonestaments i

altres obres, ed. Mikel de Epalza (Palma de Mallorca: Editorial Moll, 1987).

(2: 216) . villil W U* '^^J VJ C-'jj Ui- ) [-..] \*Uj

34. Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York:

Vintage, 1994) 31.

35. The two noteworthy exceptions were Cordoba and Sevilla, where the mosque itself

was destroyed but the Giralda, converted from almuezin to belltower, was retained. See

Carlos Sarthou Carreres and Pedro Navascués Palacio, Catedrales de Espanat 11 ed. (Madrid:

Espasa-Calpe, 1994), and José Pefia Martinez, Catedrales de Espana (Madrid: Rueda, 1995).

36. See John Kevin Walsh, "The Loss of Arabisms in the Spanish Lexicon," Ph.D., Uni-

versity of Virginia, 1967, and Felipe Maillo Salgado, Los arabismos del castellano en la baja

edad media: Consideraciones histôricasyfilolôgicas (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1991)

beastly colloquies. of plagiarism and pluralism in two medieval disputations between animals and...

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