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Remembering Al-Andalus: Ṣūfī Pathways of Engagement Between Jews and Muslims in Israel and Their Contribution to Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation

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Remembering Al-Andalus: Ṣūfī Pathways of Engagement Between Jews and Muslims in Israel and Their Contribution to Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FOR THESIS Remembering Al-Andalus: Ṣūfī Pathways of Engagement Between Jews and Muslims in Israel and Their Contribution to Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation Katherine Randall Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Doctor of Philosophy March 2014 This doctoral thesis investigates the practice of Sufism and Ṣūfī inspired activities among Jews and Muslims in Israel and examines their potential contribution to peace and reconciliation by creating pathways of engagement between members of the two faith traditions. The history of the interreligious encounters between Muslim and Jewish mystics in medieval Al-Andalus and Fustāt, Egypt is presented as the narrative of a heritage common to Jews and Muslims practising Sufism together in contemporary Israel. The examples of Ṣūfī practice in Israel that are revealed in this study demonstrate the continuity of such exchanges. The narratives of Israeli-Jews who are engaging regularly with Israeli-Muslim-Ṣūfīs form the primary source material for the study. The narrators consist of those who identify themselves as Jewish-Ṣūfīs; those who have adopted Ṣūfī concepts and practices; those who have gained an insider perspective of Sufism but who do not define themselves as Ṣūfīs; and those who have taken hand with a Muslim Ṣūfī Shaykh in the traditional manner of the Ṣūfī orders. They all remain rooted in their own Jewish faith and see no dissonance in the adoption of traditionally Ṣūfī practices to pursue a path of spiritual progression. The focus of the investigation on the potential of Sufism in Israel to provide a channel of mutual engagement between Jews and Muslims situates the thesis within the discipline of Ṣūfī Studies while also constituting an original contribution to academic studies on conflict transformation and Jewish-Muslim relations. The investigation presents an original approach to the study of reconciliation in that those studied are not members of explicitly named peace groups. It establishes the reconciliatory potential of the Ṣūfī-based engagement between some members of the Jewish and Muslim faith communities in Israel and situates this within the wider context of grass-roots peace initiatives and constitutes the first examination of the Derekh Avraham Jewish-Ṣūfī Order. 1 LIST OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 1 LIST OF CONTENTS 2 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 PART ONE: PROCEDURE AND CONTEXTS OF THE RESEARCH 6 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 6 1.1 An Alternative Approach to the Study of Conflict Transformation 6 1.2 The Question and Its Contexts 13 1.3 Terms and their Elusive Definitions 14 1.4 Academic Theory and Ṣūfī Epistemology 20 1.5 Method and the Narratives from the Field 26 1.6 Chapter Outline 32 CHAPTER TWO: CONTEXTS OF THE INVESTIGATION 35 2.1 The Land Inscribed 35 2.2 Religious and Spiritual Narratives 42 2.3 Interfaith Dialogue and Conflict Transformation in Israel 47 2.4 Ṣūfī Ontology and Sūfī Hermeneutics on Self and Other 50 CHAPTER THREE: HISTORICAL ENCOUNTERS OF JEWISH AND ISLAMIC MYSTICISM: PRECEDENTS OF CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE IN ISRAEL 53 3.1 ‘Borrowings’ and Influences’ or Contextual Integrity? 53 3.2 The Jewish-Muslim Interreligious Encounters in Al-Andalus and Fustāt 55 3.3 Philosophy and Mysticism 62 3.4 Ibn Masarra, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Baḥya Ibn Paqūda, and Judah Ha Levi 65 3.5 Ibn ‘Arabī and Moses de Léon 68 3.6 Abraham Maimonides and the Jewish-Ṣūfīs of Egypt 70 3.7 Postscript on Contemporary Spain’s Attitude to its Judeo-Islamic heritage 73 PART TWO: READING THE FIELD NARRATIVES 78 CHAPTER FOUR: THE DEREKH AVRAHAM/ṬARĪQAT IBRAHIMIYYA AND ITS CONTEMPORARY RE-EMERGENCE IN ISRAEL 78 4.1 Introduction to Part Two 78 4.2 Reviving the Jewish-Ṣūfī Path 79 4.3 The Narratives of Derekh Avraham/Ṭarīqa Ibrahimiyya 82 4.3.1 Encountering Sufism and its Kinship with Jewish Mysticism 82 4.3.2 Ṣūfī Practice and Learning with Muslim Ṣūfīs 89 4.3.3 Interpretations of Ṣūfī Concepts and Practices 94 4.3.4 Conflict Transformation and Its Challenges 99 4.4 Conclusion 109 CHAPTER FIVE: BESHARA: LOVERS OF IBN ‘ARABĪ 112 5.1 Contemporary Students of the Shaykh al-Akbar 112 5.2 The Narratives of Members of the Beshara School in Israel 115 5.2.1 Joining Beshara 115 2 5.2.2 Practice and Study with Ibn ‘Arabī 117 5.2.3 Interpretations of Ṣūfī Concepts and Practices 119 5.2.4 Conflict Transformation and Its Challenges 121 5.3 Conclusion 126 CHAPTER SIX: EMBRACING THE ṢŪFĪ PATH AND THE DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE 130 6.1 Lovers and Academics 130 6.2 The Narratives of the Jerusalem Practitioners 132 6.2.1 Encountering Sufism and its Kinship with Jewish Mysticism 132 6.2.2 Jewish-Ṣūfī Interfaces 138 6.2.3 Conflict Transformation and Its Challenges 146 6.3 Conclusion 152 CHAPTER SEVEN: JEWISH AND MUSLIM PEACEMAKERS 157 7.1 Introduction 157 7.2 Peacemaker Narratives 157 7.3 Other Grass-roots Peace Initiatives with a Religious Base 166 7.4 Conclusion 168 CHAPTER EIGHT: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION AND PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE RESEARCH PROCESS 169 8.1 Introduction 169 8.2 The first field study 172 8.2.1 Prologue 172 8.2.2 Initial impressions 175 8.2.3 Abraham Tour of Jerusalem 176 8.2.4 A Ṣūfī Conference 180 8.3 The second field study 182 8.3.1 Prologue 182 8.3.2 Praying and Studying 182 8.3.3 Jerusalem 183 8.4 Conclusion and final reflections 185 8.4.1 Emic and etic perspectives on researching and writing about Sufism in Israel 8.4.2 Residing in the barzakh 186 PART THREE: CONCLUSION 189 CHAPTER NINE: THE OTHER VOICE 189 9.1 Recurrent Themes 189 9.1.1 Identity as a Ṣūfī and as a Jewish-Israeli 191 9.1.2 The Jewish-Muslim Heritage in the Middle East 199 9.2 Gathering the Yeast: Sara’s Words and the Other Voice 202 9.3 Further Research and Practical Suggestions 205 APPENDICES Appendix I: Participants’ Narratives 208 Appendix II: Excerpts from the Olam Qatan Newsletter 298 GLOSSARY 303 BIBLIOGRAPHY 304 3 No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. 4 Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Anna King and Dr. Paul Hedges, for their encouragement, their invaluable help, and their generous guidance throughout the writing of this thesis. I am indebted to the St. Ethelburga’s PhD Studentship for Reconciliation and Peace for the funding which enabled me to embark on my research and to the Guerrand-Hermes Foundation for Peace for their additional help. I am deeply grateful for the invaluable comments on this study made by Professor Reuven Firestone, Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi, and Dr. Andreas Andreopoulos, each of whom inspired me to give greater emphasis to different aspects of the work and to see more clearly through a complex undertaking. My special thanks go to my interviewees for their enthusiasm and hospitality, their generosity and not least, their eloquence which provided the primary text on which this study is based. Finally, I thank my children whose confidence in my ability to complete this work has been a constant source of support and encouragement. 5 PART ONE: PROCEDURE AND CONTEXTS OF THE RESEARCH CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 An Alternative Approach to the Study of Conflict Transformation This study pursues an interdisciplinary approach to instances of interreligious encounter between Jews and Muslims in Israel and evaluates their relationship to historical precedents in the Middle East and their contribution to contemporary reconciliation and conflict transformation. The encounters studied arise through Ṣūfī and Ṣūfī inspired practice by Jewish-Israelis with some attention given to the Muslim-Israeli Ṣūfīs with whom they study and engage in various projects and events. The title indicates the historical component and then moves forward in time to explore the link between Ṣūfī practice and the struggle for a solution to the one hundred year conflict of territorial, political, and religious interests within the stretch of land now known as Israel and the Occupied Territories of the Palestinian people.1 The conflict and all its concomitant complexities is such that an attempt to name the geographical area on which differing narratives promote incompatible descriptions of actual and desired political boundaries becomes a matter of debate, often with violent consequences. The historical component of this study is considered relevant as a contextual exercise in terms of the historical figures, thought, practice, and interreligious exchanges that inform contemporary practitioners of Ṣūfī oriented spiritual paths in Israel. The specific history of the interest that Jews and Muslims have shown in each other’s traditions of mysticism in Al-Andalus and in Fustāt, Egypt is therefore a locus of grounding and a precedent of present day engagement. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, David M. Freidenreich notes that, ‘Conceptual affinities between Islam and Judaism were recognized by early Muslims themselves, who saw both religions as the products of divine revelation and who consciously appealed to traditions of reportedly Jewish origins about pre‐Islamic religious history (isrā'īliyyāt).’2 These purported origins, the ‘isrā'īliyyāt’, find mention in the interview narratives presented in Part Two of this study but of greater import is Freidenreich’s observation that although, ‘Academic scholars once commonly explained parallels between Islam and Judaism in terms of ‘borrowing’ by the former from the latter,’3 this has changed to an approach that acknowledges the exchange of ideas in the context of a shared space and Freidenreich 1 Henceforth referred to as the OTP.
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