Deputising for Prince Hassan, Princess Rahmeh attends Emilio García Gomez lecture

AMMAN — Deputising for HRH Prince Hassan, HRH Princess Rahmeh, in the presence of HRH Prince Asem Bin Nayef, on Monday night attended the Emilio García Gomez annual lecture, which was delivered by Spanish philosopher Juan Arnau under the title “Creative imagination of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Arabi”.

Princess Rahmeh conveyed Prince Hassan’s greetings and pride in the enduring efforts to enrich minds and open doors to research, questions and reflection on mental, spiritual and intellectual knowledge, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

During the lecture — which was attended by ambassadors Miguel de Lucas of Spain, Jorge Alejandro Tagle Canelo of Chile and Ruy Amaral of Brazil — she noted that philosophy is based on questions such as: “How can imagination be creative? What are the differing approaches of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Arabi in their different schools of thought?”

The princess added that Ibn Rushd was a philosopher who saw everything with logic and reason, and Ibn Arabi understood the universe through “his heart and his Sufi, spiritual sense”. 

During the lecture, organised by the Royal Institute of Religious Studies, the Spanish embassy and the Instituto Cervantes in Amman, Princess Rahmeh said that spiritual sublimity is accompanied by intellectual sophistication and human humility that “gives us an example in the culture of acceptance of the other”. 

In this regard, she referred to the acceptance of the Ibn Rushd at the age of 57 and his dialogue with Ibn Arabi at the age of 17, despite their differences.

Rene Hatter, director of the institute, said: “We meet again this year to celebrate together the annual lecture of Emilio García Gomez at the Ibero-Latino-Arab court of thought and cultural exchange, whose ideas are inspired by previous experiences in Arab culture in various capitals such as Baghdad and Córdoba,” expressed a thrive of intellectual and cultural creativity in an atmosphere of pluralism and diversity.

The Spanish ambassador praised Prince Hassan’s initiative to hold the annual lecture that every year, which attracts a Spanish scholar to Jordan to speak to the public.

Arnau noted that the Arab world and culture have been attractive to him since he was young, and when he joined University of Granada as an instructor, he was attracted by the philosophies of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Arabi.