• The Christian Aragón
• The District of Huesca
  

III.- THE CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE INTERCULTURAL COEXISTENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL ARAGÓN

IV.-THE PHILOSOPHY IN THE MEDIEVAL ARAGÓN

• The Philosophical School of Zaragoza:

  -Muslim Philosophy: AVEM PACE
  -Jewish philosophy: IBN PAQDA

   

• The influence of the Muslim thought on the Christian Scholasticism and the Spanish Mysticism.

V.-CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION
    When we decide to take part in COMENIUS Action, we had clearly in mind that we had to pay attention to three aspects and write about Europe, philosophy and us.
   If 25 European countriea are going to live together in the short term, and we want this coexistence to be profitable and lacking conflicts, we have to start by introducing ourselves, saying who we are, in order to make our mutual knowledge easier. But at the same time, Europe is well in the depths of a global world and it neither can nor must be an isolated "monad", unaware od the other cultures and of its own and surrounding conflicts like those derived from immigration, nationalism ot the struggle between the Palestinians and the Jewish
, to give just an example. Besides, since it was an academic essay on philosophy, its appearance was a need. This has been our scheme for this essay in broad outline.
   Einstein said that "The wise person does not say everything he is thinking about, but he thinks about everything he says". However, we frequently start talking before thinking over, which means that when we talk about "the other one", who do it without foundation but with prejudice and steretypes, and thus we get missunderstanding.so it is fundamental, first of all to get to know each other, and for that, it is basic not to prejudge and try to understand and respect diversity, otherwise we run the risk of breaking a promising process.
   To help in our own way to this purpose, we think it is worth knowing where we come from and where we are going. That is the reason why we want to show a flourishing moment of the western philosophe, which blossomed in our region during 11th and 12th centuries in a framework of intercultural coexistence,  worthy of a renaissance in present Europe.

II.-ARAGON AND EUROPE IN THE PAST:A BIT OF HISORY
A.-The Muslim and Jewish Aragón
   One of the most brilliant cultural periods in history of Zaragoza is the one that took place from 1035 to 1118, when the Christian troops of Alfonso I occupied the city. Acording to professor Lomba, Zaragoza was, in the islamic period, the capital of the administrative region (Marca Superior) in the northern part of Al Andalus and it comprised the following provinces: Zaragoza, Huesca, Barbitaniya,Tudela and Lérida. During the Christian occupation, Zaragoza was considered the most relevant city of what is known as Aragón at present.
   A magnificent school of thought, known as the "Philosophical School of Zaragoza", appeared in this period and we mean the Spanish Islamic period and not the period of the "Islamic authority" since those men were as Spanish as we are, and they were perfectly inegrated after several centuries of living together. Besides the Muslims, there were minoritary groups of christians and jews, the latter ones well adapted to living with the predominant Muslims.
   Anyway, philosophy doesn't spring up by spontaneous generation, and this great flourishing of philosophy was preceded by a thorough preparation of the ground. At that time, the Taifa of Zaragoza (independent kingdom) was one of the most peaceful, prosperous and welcoming region of Al Andalus, which caused to be the home not only for adventurers and exiled but for intelectuals, thinkers, scientists, jurists, mathematicians, physicians and poets, who prosecuted in the south took refuge in the North of the Peninsula. As a result, an unprecedented cultural atmosphere appeared in our region which turned the Palace of the aljaferia in Zaragoza into one of the most distinguished courts in Europe at that time.
   In addtion to all that, the Muslim Kings were not only the real patrons for this intellectual movement but kings and wise men themselves. in their court, the Aljaferia,  a cultural centre appeared.On the other hand taken into account their origins (south of Arabia) these people united orthodoxy with the widest intellectual openmindness, accepting intellectuals from other religion and ideology as their assistants, which explains why Muslims and Jews lived together in the Islamic culture in Zaragoza.
   Considering all we have said so far, we can state there is only one joint culture with two inseparable facts: The islamic and Jewish. The same culture with two different religions with agreeing doctrianal points. 

The Christian Aragón
     Aragón in the Middle Ages was animportant crossroad between the Muslim world and the Westen one. the central Pyrinees was the most important spreading route towards Europe. The enriching cultural exchange was a two ways one.
   With the birth of the Kingdom of Aragón, the territory stengthened its sense of belonging to Europe. Sancho Ramirez set up tight and special links with the Holy See and French Earldoms. He allowed the settlement of monks, who spread liturgy, repopulated his territory and favourd pilgrims to pass over Santiago de Compostela, which stimulated the cultural exchange with Europe.
   After the conquest of Zaragoza by the Christians things got worse. The Christians not only put an end to the Muslims but withered the unitarian and growing cultural splendour which did not have any comparison before nor after this golden period. Though the Jewish who remained in Zaragoza extended that intellectual activity until they were expelled in 1492, nothing was the same again.
   The interwaving relationship between Muslims and Jews did not take place in the Christian culture. The Christian Kings tolerated and protected the Jewish as long as the supplied the crown with revenues, intellectual concerns were not prioritary, and that's why they fled to Europe or the Middle East. Despite that, Aragón was one of the most outstanding and political buidings in the European History, based not only on the dynastic union but also in the respect for the personality of the integrated territories, their law system, insttitutions and different languages.

The district of Huesca
   Its main city was Huesca, which existed since the old times. Arab geographers praised it its width, its perfect construction, its beautiful urban look, well outlined by double walls, and cut by two channels for public use as well as for irrigating the fertile soil in the south of the city. Its governors strengthen and made it look more beautiful. There were sixty mosques. The main mosque, built up upon the Roman temple of Jupiter, is under the Cathedral of Huesca at present. In twon there were also mazarabic churches, like St Peter the old, evidence of the different cultures living together.

I

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III.-THE CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE INTERCULTURAL COEXISTENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL ARAGÓN.

To understand the dialogue amount cultures that took place in that period, we have to consider the cultural atmosphere in which it took place. the islamic upper border, the Jewish comunities and the Christian background influenced this cultural framework from 714 to 1118. These elements provided the old Aragon with a rich cultural legacy:
   The wealth of the area, the distance from cordoba and the proximity to the sea enabled its inhabitants and the intelectuals of the region to get in touch with the most important Islamic centres and caused a great economical well being, which favoured a great cultural development and a real dialogue among Muslims, Jewish and Christians.
    The three main centres for culture in Al Andalus were: Seville (poetry), Toledo (astronomy and agficulture engeneer) and Zaragoza (philosophy and sciences, mainly Mathematics and Astronomy).
   There was a great work of translations in Tarazona and it was bishop Miguel who was patron to that school of translators. Pope Sylvester II was among the first ones who turned to the Aragon's intelectuals. Three schools of translators appeared:

• The first school tried to create a philosophical and scientifical terminology detached from Arabic language. An important figure of this trend is Savasorda 
• The members of the second school had a good knowledge of the Arabic, Hebrew, Latin and christian literature. Yehuda Ibn tibbon and his son Seemu el Ben Yohudah Ubn Tibbon stand out in this school.
• Those in the third school looked at the scholastic and Latin models in fashion and they even translated books into latin. We can name Yosef Habilino, Beaureaiste Demu'el, Selomon Ben Yosef Ibn Ya'aqoq as outstanding figures of this school

IV The Philosophy in the Medieval Aragón 

• The philosophical school of Zaragoza

   With reference to philosophy particularly, this is, "grosso modo", what took place in Zaragoza in the previous century the Chrsitians conquered it.
   Acording to Prf Lomba Zaragoza played a fundamental role in the history of the islam, of Sapin, and in the history of thought because of its mediation, since, at that historical momment Zaragoza , besides being the cradle of great philosophers, "was above all the origin of philosophy as such in Spain and the west... the torch of the rationalism in the East had to be held by the west, first through Islam and later through christianity and european Scholasticism. Hower the holding of the torch took place in Zaragoza and in its philosophical school". Later on, translations and bibliographic tasks were done in Toledo, but also in the monasteries of the Crown of Aragón, like Tarazon. The jewish authors from the christian Aragón were those who took the Muslim philosophy and science to the medieval Europe. 
   Zaragoza stood as the centre from which some philosophical work rose for the first time, and Avempace was its most outstanding figure. Thanks to him we have figures like Averroes (islamic) and Thomas of Aquinas (christian) and Maimonides (Jewish)
   What has been said so far about culture, can be applied to philosophy as well. When we talk about islamic philosophy in Zaragoza , the Jewish thinkers must be taken into account, since it is them that reflect the islamic philosophy as they shared the same culture and wrote in the only cultured language at the momment: Arabic.
   Among the chraceristics of this philosophy, we have to emphasize its moral dimension, is positive and practical spirit, its rationalism, and scientism, and a theoretical as well as practical logic. These features bring together a mystical dimension, an accentuated religious nature and an intimate sense of religion and philosophy.

-The Muslim Philosophy: Avempace

   The first one who really carried on the Muslim philosophical tradition originated in the East was Avempace (Zaragoza 1085?-Fez 1138), a little known and understood philosopher. The philosophy of Avempace has a basically moral and religious character, which tries to put together ethic elements from the Aristotelic thought with Neoplatonic trends, which were usual in the Muslim philosophical tradition.
      He laid the foundations of the original developement of aristotelism in Spain, which would achieve its peak in Averroes. His main concern was perfection and man's happiness. his master , Al Farabi, had always maintained that the philosopher was the only one, for his wisdon, capable of facing the restructuring of the State in such a way that  man will only get hapiness insde a perfect society. Avempace, maybe forced by the histooric circumstances, shows himself sceptical with the utopia of a perfct society from platonic inspiration. Perfect society doesn't exist in reality. There are just imperfect and corrupt societies and that is why he seems conviced about the impossibility of philosophy being the one that is able to carry out the necessary changes in the State. The only happiness in these societies is the one achieved by the loner, the man who moved to act by the right use of his own reason gets his final aim and happiness by adopting the  Aristotelic contemplative ideal explained in "Ethics to Nicomaco" . However, faced with the Islamic and Greek traditions Avem pace proposes the isolation from the imperfect society so that we can not get our lawful ambitions frustrated: our freedom, our selfsufficiency and our autonomy which we obtained without asking for help from our fellow men. This way the political reason becomes an individual ethic reason in Avempace.

-The Jewish Philosophy: IBN PAQDA
   The Jewish survived with the Taifa Kingdoms (Muslims),  mainly in Zaragoza and Durin the reign of Jaime I de Aragón. There was a coexistence between Christians and Jewish which meant the birth of some schools of translators, as well as the fct that quite a few Jews had top jobs in the government.
   BAHYA IBN PAQDA is, following prof. lomba, one of the most prestigious figures in Spain and in the world. His work Obligations of the heart was translated to every language in the medieval and modern world, and it has become one of the most widely read books in the jewish communities and ,in its gender, is considered one of the greatest books in world literature .
   Obligation of the heart, written apparently between 1080 and 1090 in Zaragoza and in Arabic language, is a long theological and ascetic treatise. In this book, he tried to write a defence oa the inner religious life in a conscious and responsible way opposed to the purely outer and ritual one. This religious life is basically ruled by reason and common sense. He states that this idea is completely new in the Jewish literature. To give a structure to his book, he follows the Talmudic tradtion and the Bible, but the materials he used are clearly islamic. He shows a coherent and harmonic vision of the religious life all over his work.

• Influence of the Muslim thought on Christian scholasticism and on spanish mysticism

  Arabic philosophy represents an important chapter in the history of philosophy as it provided the Medieval latin world with the knowledge of the Greek philosophy and science, and above all because it introduced the full use of human reasoning into the wstern way of thinking.
   The interaction between Al Andalus and the East made it possible for philosophy and science to find theground suitable for their development in the Islamic West. This scientific and philosophic activity was centred, after the Caliphate of Cordoba, in the courts of Toledo and Zaragoza.
    With reference to mysticsm, the Muslim influenced on the Spanish mysticism and spiritually seems out of any doubt today.

V.-CONCLUSION
   Everybody can understand that the intercultural coexistence in the period we are talking about may not have been free of difficulties, since trying to fit diversity is always hard, it entails dilemmas and, quite often, all kind of conflicts. Possibly the atmosphere might not have been as idillyc as we see it today. Nevertheless, everything shows that, in some circustances, a plural society from a religious point of view was able to live together in harmony for a century in Aragón, causing cultural growth and surviving all problems till the second half of the 15th century.
   Faced with the future of the EU and the adhesion of the ten new nations, faced with the fact of a global world and inmigration; faced with the nearby cultural conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, it will be worth having a look at the past. "those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it" was written after II world war, and we could add "or not to repeat ir" when the past can be taken as a paradigm showing that if an intercultural coexistence was once possible, it is not impossible again. Anyway once more, to know where we are going it is essential for us to know where we come from.