Miguel Asin Palacios

Miguel Asín Palacios (1871–1944) was a Spanish scholar of Islamic studies and the Arabic language, and a Roman Catholic priest. He is primarily known for suggesting Muslim sources for ideas and motifs present in Dante's Divine Comedy, which he discusses in his book La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia (1919). He wrote on medieval Islam, extensively on al-Ghazali (Latin: Algazel). A major book El Islam cristianizado (1931) presents a study of Sufism through the works of Muhyiddin ibn 'Arabi (Sp: Mohidín Abenarabe) of Murcia in Andalusia (medieval Al-Andalus). Asín also published other comparative articles regarding certain Islamic influences on Christianity and on mysticism in Spain.

Miguel Asín Palacios was born in Zaragoza, Aragón, on July 5, 1871, into the modest commercial family of Don Pablo Asín and Doña Filomena Palacios. His older brother Luis, his younger sister Dolores, and he were little children when their father died of pneumonia. His mother the young widow continued in business with help and made ends meet with decorum but not as well as before. He attended the Colegio de El Salvador instructed by Jesuits in Zaragoza, where he began to make lifelong friendships. He entered the Seminario Conciliar, singing his first Mass at San Cayetano in Zaragoza in 1895.

At the Universidad de Zaragoza Asín had met and begun study under the Arabist Professor Julián Ribera y Tarragó. In 1896 at Madrid he defended his thesis on the Persian theologian Ghazali (1058–1111) before and Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo. All three professors guided his subsequent studies. Asín then developed his study of Al-Ghazali, and published it in 1901. He also wrote on Mohidin Abenarabe, who is often called the leading figure in Islamic mysticism. Thus Asín was running parallel with a then European-wide effort to understand Muslim inner spirituality.

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