AN EXCEPTIONAL SAGE AND THE NEED FOR THE MESSENGER: THE POLITICS OF FIṬRA IN A 12TH-CENTURY TALE

Abstract

AbstractThis paper argues that Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 1185) in his Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān offers a surprisingly intellectual reading of the term fiṭra (pl. fiṭar) and one that has significant consequences for our understanding of the story. We will see that at crucial junctures in the text, fiṭra emerges solely in an intellectual context, implying a gulf amongst humanity that defies common understandings of the term as egalitarian. This gulf, I argue, illuminates the political implications of the tale. For while he emphasizes the broad compatibility of the more established, revealed and the philosophical path recently arrived in Andalusia, Ibn Ṭufayl, with the help of fiṭra, shows that the philosophical life is one for the very few. Attention to Ibn Ṭufayl's use of fiṭra might thus explain one of his reasons for writing this tale for the court. Its overall message heightens the role of religion and tempers the political significance of philosophy in two ways: by arguing that only select individuals have the capacity to access truth independently from revelation; and by denying these exceptionally gifted the ability to communicate their findings to the masses.