New work links the famous poet to the admiration and tolerance of Islamic culture and moves Pessoa away from a “stereotypical paradigm”.
A collection of texts from Fernando Pessoa on Islam and Arab culture shows the attention that the poet paid to civilization, placing it as part of the origin of Portuguese culture and moving away from nationalist or Islamophobic views.
“The Arab soul is the depth of the Portuguese soul”wrote the poet, quoted by researcher Fabrizio Boscaglia who recently released the work “”, with texts by Fernando Pessoa on Arab-Islamic civilization, from the publisher Shantarin.
The poet’s relationship with Islamic culture “surprises us, and the fact that Pessoa surprises us is not surprising”, commented Fabrizio Boscaglia, speaking to Lusa.
Pessoa wanted to “value Portugal and Portugueseness, but on the path of a future of spirituality, culture and universalist consciousness”, he added, refusing some “reductionist interpretations” that are attempted in relation to the poet, sticking him to a strictly nationalist vision.
The poet “loves Portugal, but sees in the future of humanity a fifth empire of spirituality, strongly universalist”, so “we cannot close Pessoa in an ultranationalist and xenophobic circle”.
The “Arabian-Islamic civilization, particularly in al-Andalus, made significant contributions to the history of culture, in Portugal, in the Iberian Peninsula, in Europe and in the world”, writes the professor of science of religions at Universidade Lusófona in the introduction to the work.
Throughout history, Portuguese intellectuals have had a “certain ambivalence” in their relationship with the country’s Islamic heritage, oscillating between detachment and enthusiasm.
“There are intellectuals who look at Arab and Islamic culture as something that is part of being Portuguese” and Pessoa is part of this tradition, explained Fabrizio Boscaglia.
Fernando Pessoa “considers Arabo-Islamic civilization as a civilization that managed to re-elaborate the best of ancient and medieval culture, a noble, erudite and tolerant civilization”, explains the researcher, contradicting the “stereotypical paradigm” of looking at Islamic culture as something inferior.
“He is an author who tries to look a little further and there is also in Pessoa, as in Agostinho da Silva or Paulo Borges, the idea that civilizations are somewhat porous and influence each other”, and it is up to the “intellectual to understand this complexity”.
Therefore, “Fernando Pessoa’s thought is a tolerant, cosmopolitan and universalist thought”, considered the researcher, who insisted: “I don’t see Pessoa in these radical and Islamophobic narratives” that exist today.
Fabrizio Boscaglia recognizes that Islamic studies exist in Portugal, but continue to lag behind other European countries, which he regretted, especially in a territory that was part of al-Andalus.
In Portugal, the “academic and university tradition of Arabic and Islamic studies is smaller than in other European countries”, but “Portugal has a history where this heritage and Islamic legacy are particularly significant”, highlighted the researcher.
“The first centuries of Portugal, even as an independent country, were times of coexistence with the Islamic community. These Muslims were Portuguese”, he recalled.
