Ibn al-ʿArabī: from al-Andalus to Damascus
An introduction to the Greatest Master’s life, the settings of his experience, and the writings that carry their traces.
Open pageReading and sources
Ibn al-ʿArabī, the Greatest Master
Explore the life, writings and ideas through connected pages, then continue to original texts and studies on Mohamed Haj Yousef’s websites.
Born 560 / 1165Died 638 / 124026 connected pages
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Life and journeys
Names, titles and spelling
How to identify the author of the Futūḥāt across Arabic and other languages.
Open pageTimeline of his life and writings
Reference points connecting places, people and books without false precision in calendar conversion.
Open pageAl-Andalus: Murcia, Seville and Córdoba
The earliest setting of study and companionship, remembered throughout his writings.
Open pageThe Maghreb and Tunis
Repeated journeys, expanding relationships and the transition towards the eastern Islamic world.
Open pageMecca and the beginning of the Futūḥāt
A setting of worship, encounters and writing that illuminates the book’s title.
Open pageIraq, Anatolia and Syria
Journeys, companionship and teaching between the Meccan years and Damascus.
Open pageDamascus: final writings and transmission
Residence, revision and teaching, followed by the passage of the books to later readers.
Open pageTeachers and reception
Teachers and companions
People and encounters showing how learning joined texts, service and experience.
Open pageWomen in his life and legacy
Fāṭima, Shams and Niẓām, followed by women’s presence in textual commentary.
Open pageAl-Qūnawī and the Akbarian tradition
From companionship and reading to commentary and debate across regions.
Open pageBooks and manuscripts
A guide to the writings
Selected reading routes, distinguishing authorship, alternative titles and surviving texts.
Open pageThe Futūḥāt: structure and composition
A guide connecting the author’s life with chapters, page images and textual sources.
Open pageThe Fuṣūṣ: a concentrated text
Prophetic words, wisdoms, commentaries and their relationship to the Futūḥāt.
Open pageTarjumān al-ashwāq and poetic language
Reading poems with their commentary while preserving the richness of the image.
Open pageManuscripts, audition records and attribution
How a page image or marginal annotation becomes evidence for studying a textual tradition.
Open pageIdeas and ethics
Knowledge, reason and unveiling
From the letter to al-Rāzī to the station of knowledge in the Futūḥāt.
Open pageImagination, barzakh and dreams
Ways of understanding meaning appearing in form, beyond a simple equation with illusion.
Open pageDivine names, humanity and the world
Names as relationships of meaning, knowledge and conduct in the Futūḥāt.
Open pageLove, beauty and knowledge
Chapter 178, poetry and teachers’ accounts approach one subject through different forms.
Open pageTime and renewed creation
From Ibn al-ʿArabī’s texts to Mohamed Haj Yousef’s study of time and cosmology.
Open pageUnity, multiplicity and waḥdat al-wujūd
Terms and relationships read alongside the history of commentary and debate.
Open pageCourtesy, worship and self-reform
The practical dimension of a tradition that connects knowledge with ways of living.
Open pageReading and sources
Reading paths for newcomers and researchers
Three connected approaches through a large body of chapters and terminology.
Open pageFrom Ibn al-ʿArabī to Mohamed Haj Yousef’s research
An intellectual connection between textual study and a modern programme in time and cosmology.
Open pageSources, books and connected websites
A guide to the original materials and studies supporting this section.
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