Difficult Books

On page 28 of Ulysses, Joyce mentions Averroes and Moses Maimonides in the context of Stephen Dedalus tutoring a student with an algebra problem. The image throughout this sentence is darkness:

"dark men in mien and movement, flashing in their mocking mirrors the obscure soul of the world, a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend."

The most obvious reasons for this imagery is that these historical characters both were born in Córdoba, which was the capital of Moorish Spain. They would have been "swarthy," or having a darker skin color ("dark men in mien").

However, Joyce also characterizes them as "dark men in . . . movement." Moorish Spain was a Muslim stronghold on Europe, which was otherwise a Christian continent. If Christianity is symbolized as "light," Joyce might have characterized the Muslim presence as a "dark spot" in that light.

That's not a bad thing, though, as Córdoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world. In fact, algebra (which Stephen is teaching the student) was introduced to Europe through Córdoba.

It might be better to characterize the darkness as a contrast to the light (perhaps as a Yin-Yang relationship). The irony here is that the darkness was actually a beacon of learning for medieval Europe (aka "The Dark Ages").

Joyce recognizes this irony by saying, "a darkness shining in brightness which brightness could not comprehend," which is an inversion of John 1:5: "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

Many commentators of Ulysses note that both of these men were instrumental in reviving interest in Aristotle among their respective religions--Averroes to Muslims and Moses Maimonides to Jews. From this perspective, the third leg of this stool would be Thomas Aquinas, who revived interest in Aristotle among Christians.