The strife of tongues: Fray Luis de León and the Golden Age of Spain (review)

Reviews 175 languages. Its notes (pp. 60-85) are equally important. The essay on the originality of the Arabian Prophet summarizes Christian and Jewish claims of the indebtedness of the Prophet to their respective faiths but does not fail to mention Tor Andrae's protests against this approach. He defines 'the task of the scholarly study of Muhammad as an attempt to understand how the Prophet as a result of the spiritual stimulation provided by his environment, forged numerous elements of the most varied sort into one living whole, original in the way in which the various components were combined' (p. 87). The essay on the role of traditionalism in Islam by J. Fueck examines critically the contributions of the early transmitters of the Prophetic traditions (ahadith) and their role in carving out a unique type of cultural unity in Islam which had expanded within a short period very extensively all over the globe. T w o essays of Ignaz Goldziher, one on CathoUc tendencies and particularism in Islam and the other on the attitude of orthodox Islam toward the 'ancient Sciences' go a long way towards showing that 'Though it may run counter to many widely held assumptions, it can be maintained that in Islam (with the exception of a fanatic minority) heresy-hunting and the persecution of erroneous views appeared less frequently than they do in communities concerned with doctrinal formulae' (p. 131). R. Caspar's essay on Muslim mysticism devotes considerable space to Henry Corbin's esoteric gnosis of eastern Islam (pp. 166-74). It also points out similarities and dis-similarities between the tendencies represented by Corbin and Titus Burckhardt regarding the metaphysical basis for mysticism. The essay also underlines the natural and supernatural aspects of Islamic mysticism in Louis Gardet's works. A U the eight essays have been translated by Swartz himself but the essay on the martyr Sufi, al-Hallaj (858-922) has been taken from Louis Massignon's monumental La Passion de Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj translated into English by Herbert Mason. Swartz's translations have been checked by eminent scholars including Maxime Rodinson and as W . Montgomery Watt says, are accurate and readable. S. A. A. Rizvi Australian National University Thompson, C. P., The strife of tongues: Fray Luis de Leon and the Golden Age of Spain, Cambridge, C. U. P., 1988; cloth; pp. xii, 307; R. R. P. AUS$127.50. Colin Thompson's study of Fray Luis makes an important contribution to the understanding and appreciation of this major Golden Age Spanish author. The study addresses die issues and debates of his time relevant to a critical assessment of his works, as well as significant incidents in his life. In exploring these 176 Reviews issues and experiences, Thompson provides a detailed, knowledgeable and iUuminating analysis of Fray Luis's prose works and many of his poems. The introduction suggests the elements that Thompson believes shaped all of Fray Luis's written expressions: at the theoretical level, the nature of language and the influence of Biblical hermeneutics and at the personal level, the experience of his imprisonment by the Inquisition and his ties with Jewish tradition. Thefirstchapter is devoted to the theory of language and underUnes the role which Fray Luis's translations and knowledge of the classical languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew) had on his appreciation of the expressive power of the word. Combined with this philological knowledge was his understanding of metaphoric language. His belief in the underlying natural presence of metaphor grew from his belief in the basic metaphoric relationship between the Divine Creator and all things. Thompson argues that Fray Luis's metaphoric expression is more complex than has been supposed, because of his conscious layering of meaning based on an often obscure tradition of translation and exegesis, as well as the Biblical basis of the metaphor. The major chapter, from which the book takes its title, explains the theological and political context of the conflict over Fray Luis's recourse to the Hebrew text of the Bible. His trial marked a significant crisis for Fray Luis who is said to have gained wisdom and wider recognition as a result of his five year imprisonment and eventual...