Maghrebi and Andalusi Thought: Law, Reason, Mysticism, and Civilization in the Western Islamic World
Maghrebi and Andalusi thought preserves one of the great intellectual traditions of the western Islamic world: a world in which law, theology, philosophy, mysticism, literature, science, and history developed together across North Africa and al-Andalus. Shaped by Amazigh, Arab, Islamic, Jewish, African, and Mediterranean inheritances, this tradition reveals how thinkers in cities such as Kairouan, Fez, Marrakesh, Cordoba, Seville, and Granada reflected on reason and revelation, legal authority, political legitimacy, spiritual discipline, social order, and the rise and fall of civilization. This article explores Maghrebi and Andalusi thought in its full civilizational range, from Maliki jurisprudence, Ashʿari theology, falsafa, and Sufism to Jewish-Arabic philosophy, scientific inquiry, dynastic statecraft, post-Andalusi exile, and historical reflection on urban life, decline, and collective memory, showing how the western Islamic world became a major center of philosophical, legal, and civilizational thought.