Between Córdoba and Marrakech: a barzakh between Ibn Rushd and Averroes

As part of the activities of the UNESCO-EUROMED Chair "Mediterranean Interculturalities", Professor Driss Ksikes, guest of the "Wednesdays of Philosophy" at the Eco-campus, gave a lecture on April 17 on the theme "Between Córdoba and Marrakech: A barzakh between Ibn Rushd and Averroes".

 
Writer, essayist and playwright, Mr. Driss Ksikes is active on several fronts. He is the author of numerous stories, essays and plays, and has received several awards, notably the Best Text Prize for "Pas de mémoire, mémoire de pas" in 2000 and the Best Text Prize for "IL" in 2009. He was also selected as an Arab playwright by Marseille Provence 2013 for his play "N’enterrez pas trop vite Big Brother" in 2012, and nominated for the Best Francophone Playwright award (Maison des auteurs SACD) in 2019, among others.

Through the reading of two excerpts from his novel "Au détroit d’Averroès", the speaker addressed the subject by linking the revitalization of Averroes' rationalist thought and the harsh adversities experienced by this philosopher to a reflection that helps understand what this implies in the present. This narrative can be defined as a crossroads of fiction and reality, seeking to bridge a still gaping divide between the revered Averroes and the contested Averroes.

The first recited excerpt from his book dealt with the historically attested moment of the transfer of the philosopher Ibn Rochd's corpse and manuscripts from Marrakech to Córdoba. The second, for its part, concerned Averroes' thought from a utopian angle as well as the fictional representation of the Strait of Gibraltar.

In moving from Marrakech to Córdoba, it is imperative to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar; this was the transfer undergone by the corporeal and spiritual traces of Ibn Rochd. Following this, Mr. Ksikes shifted during this lecture from fiction to terminology, lingering on the notion of the barzakh, via the metaphorization of the strait, which he seizes to question the philosopher's singular trajectory.  

He insightfully demonstrated how Averroes appropriated Aristotle's heritage to both comment on it, interpret it and make it the foundation of a different thought in which rationality and imagination are intimately linked. Thus, he created a rupture both with the West and with the East. 

Latinized and Christianized, Ibn Rochd was obliterated by the former and renounced by the latter. For both, he therefore becomes a disturbing foreigner. Yet it is precisely because of these cruel misunderstandings, Ksikes tells us, that he deserves today to be revisited and studied. Because he remains intransigent before dogmatic theology and impregnable to any ideology.

This meeting was a true strait of thought, opening the way to many reflections. A rich and stimulating exchange developed with the audience, thus opening new perspectives of reflection on various notions of philosophy and the sciences following this lecture.