Julián Ribera y Tarragó (

Carcaixent Carcaixent (; ) is a town and municipality in the province of Valencia, eastern Spain, with c. 20,000 inhabitants. Its origins go back to prehistoric Iberian and Roman times, with some remainders in its area. It is located in the Ribera Al ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, 19 February 1858 – 2 May 1934, La Pobla Llarga, Valencia) was a Spanish Arabist and academic.

Career

Ribera studied under Prof.

Francisco Codera y Zaidín Francisco Codera y Zaidín ( Huesca, Spain, 23 June 1836 – 6 November 1917) was a Spanish historian, philologist and Arabist scholar. Among his students, known in the academic field as the ''Beni Codera'', were Arabists Rafael Altamira and ...

at Madrid from 1882 to 1885. In 1887 at age 29 he became ''catedrático'' (full professor) of Arabic at the

University of Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain). Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...

. There Prof. Ribera founded the ''Revista de Aragón''. Later, in Madrid he co-founded (with Miguel Asín Palacios) the journal ''Cultura Española'' (1906–1909). He had transferred from Zaragoza to become ''catedrático'' of History at the University of Madrid, then of Literature in 1913. Prof. Ribera and his former student Prof. Asín collaborated on various academic projects. His career was celebrated by his peers in his ''Jubilación'' of 1927. When Prof. Ribera retired, his chair was taken by Ángel González Palencia.

Studies

Ribera's work focused on the Islamic culture of

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

and its legacy in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He would eventually take several new approaches to

Arabic studies Arab studies or Arabic studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Arabs and Arab World. It consists of several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, historiography, archaeology, cultural studies, economics, geog ...

, although he began following the lead of his mentor Prof. Codera. He wrote on

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and on

legal history Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and his ...

. In mid-course Ribera was influenced by the spirit of the

generación del 98 The Generation of '98 () was a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish–American War (1898), committed to cultural and aesthetic renewal, and associated with modernismo. The name was coin ...

. Later his interest was directed to investigating the rich heritage of

Arabic music Arabic music () is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse List of music styles, music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic Varieties of Arabic, dialects, with each countr ...

and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

in Al Andalus, and the extent of its influence on subsequent

Spanish literature Spanish literature is literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects with that of other ...

and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, as well as on that of other European countries. Subtle interconnections and relationships were revealed and discussed by Prof. Ribera. He was at the cutting edge of work in this area, which has since grown into a large corpus of academic studies.Asín Palacios, "Introducción" to Ribera, ''Disertaciones y Opúsculos'' (1928), at xv-cxvi; Monroe, ''Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship'' (1970), at Chapter VI, pages 151-173, i.e., "Julián Ribera y Tarragó"; Emilio García Gómez in the 1985 reprint published by Mayo de Oro, Madrid, of Ribera's ''La Música árabe y su influencia en la Española'' (Madrid 1927).

Selected works

Books

*''La enseñanza entre los musulmanos españoles'' (Zaragoza: Ariño 1893; Academia de Córdoba 1925). *''Orígenes del Justicia de

Aragón Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to south): Huesca, Zaragoza, a ...

'' (Zaragoza: Comas 1897). *''Historia de los jueces de

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

por Aljoxaní'' (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Históricos 1914), an annotated translation of the ''Kitab Qudat Qurtuba'' by al-Khushani, of Afriqiya (

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

), who became a judge in

Al Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

under the

Almoravid The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

regime (1086–1170). *''El cancionero de Abencuzmán'' (Madrid: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre 1914), a study of the ''Diwan'' of the poet Ibn Quzman of Córdoba (circa 1078-1160), in comparison with later European verse. *''Épica Andaluza Romanceada'' (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia 1915). *''La música de las Cantigas. Estudio sobre su origen y naturaleza'' (Madrid 1922). Translated and abridged by Hague and Leffingwell as ''Music in Ancient Arabia and Spain'' (Stanford University 1929). *''La música árabe y su influencia en la española'' (Madrid 1927), popular version of his ''La música de las Cantigas'' of 1922; reprinted in Madrid by Mayo de Oro, 1985.

Articles

*"Orígenes de la filosofía de

Raimundo Lulio Ramon Llull (; ; – 1316), sometimes anglicized as ''Raymond Lully'', was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art'' ...

" in ''Homenaje a Menéndez y Palayo'' (Madrid 1899), at II: 191-216. *"Origen del colegio Nidamí de Bagdad" in ''Homenaje a D. Francisco Codera'' (Zaragoza: Escar 1904), at 3-17. *"El arabista español" (Real Academia Española, 1919).

Collections

*''Disertaciones y Opúsculos. Edición colectiva que en su jubilación del profesorado le oferecen sus discípulos y amigos'' (Madrid: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre 1928), 2 volumes. *''Opúsculos dispersos'' (Tetuán 1952).

Commentary

* Miguel Asín Palacios, "Introducción" to the ''Disertaciones y Opúsculos'' of Prof. Ribera (Madrid 1928), at I: xv-cxvi. *

James T. Monroe James Thomas Monroe, or James T. Monroe, is an American scholar and translator of Arabic. He is emeritus professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on Classical Arabic Literature and Hispan ...

, ''Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship. Sixteenth century to the present'' (Leiden: E.J.Brill 1970
Reprint, Cambridge: ILEX Editions/Harvard UP 2021
, at Chapter VI: "Julián Ribera y Tarragó" (pages 151-173). *Andrea Celli, ''Figure della relazione. Il Medioevo in Asín Palacios e nell'arabismo spagnolo'' (Roma: Carocci 2005), at Chapter I: "L'Europa degli arabi. Tra filologia e Medioevo di Spagna" (pages 15-87)

References

External links

* ''Julián Ribera y Tarragó'' at Wikipedia in Spanish. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ribera, Julian Academic staff of the University of Zaragoza Spanish orientalists Spanish Arabists Comparative literature academics Scholars of Islam Spanish literary historians 1934 deaths 1858 births