Evolution in the positions of Spanish Arabists

Abstract

This study attempts to describe the evolving positions of the Spanish Arabists in their studies and researches that took as a subject the Islamic Andalusian Heritage. I tried in the beginning to monitor the premises of the first Spanish arabist movement in the Andalusian Islamic history using some references of contemporary Muslim scholars and some Spanish researchers. The main aim was not so much to redraw the history of the movement, our purpose was to examine the intellectual vision formulated by the Spanish Arabists with Catholic tendencies in some kind of revenge on the Islamic phase in Andalusia. Hopefully, this situation soon began swinging and falling apart with the rise of a new direction, introducing a new vision under the title "Muslim Spain" led by "Pascual de Gayangos y Arce", "Francisco Codera Zaidín", "Julián Ribera", "Miguel Asín Palacios" and "Emilio García Gómez". They have worked on the rehabilitation of the Islamic heritage in Andalusia, and were able to establish a school with new concepts. Their students will continue to consolidate this new Arabist approach with a lot of seriousness and perseverance. They will also have the greatest impact on the movement of Spanish contemporary poetry with "Federico García Lorca" and his fellow poets in the so-called "Generation 27". That way, Spanish Arabists could adopt advanced positions in the culture of dialogue and cultural exchanges among civilizations and peoples and religions, regardless of militant nationalism and religious fanaticism.