Ibn al-Arabi, Muhyi al-Din (Ibn Arabi)
(1165–1240) prominent medieval mystic and
visionary who enriched the Sufi tradition of Islam with
his numerous and profound spiritual writings
Ibn al-Arabi, known as “the greatest shaykh,” was
born in the town of Murcia in andalUsia (Mus-
lim Spain) at a time of great change in the wider
Mediterranean region. The puritanical almohad
dynasty was attempting to fend off the Christian
Reconquista from northern Spain, and Muslim
and Christian armies were competing for control
of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean
region. Meanwhile, fearsome Mongol armies were
expanding their conquests in Asia and were on the
brink of invading iran. It was also the era of many
of the great Sufi masters, including Shihab al-Din
Abu Hafs al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234) and Jalal al-
din rUmi (d. 1273).
Although details about his youth are disputed
and surrounded by pious legend, recent research
has found that Ibn al-Arabi may have come from
a family of soldiers and that he himself had served
the Almohads in this capacity before turning to
the spiritual path. His formal education began
after he moved with his family to Seville, a major
center of learning, where he spent the first part of
his life. He studied the qUran and its commentar-
ies, hadith, grammar, and fiqh (jurisprudence).
According to his own account, his promise as a
man of mystical leanings seems to have been in
evidence even as a teenager, when he met with
ibn rUshd (1196–98), the renowned Andalusian
philosopher and jurist. Ibn al-Arabi was also said
to have sought the guidance of known masters
of the spiritual path in southern Spain, including
two women, Shams of Marchena and Fatima of
Cordoba, who proclaimed herself his “spiritual
mother.”
Ibn al-Arabi left home for the first time in the
1190s, when he went to North Africa in search
of spiritual guidance. This launched a career of
traveling that he continued to pursue throughout
his life. In 1202, inspired by a vision, he went to
mecca for the haJJ, stopping in Alexandria and
cairo en route. While in Mecca, where he had
spiritual inspirations and visions, he began to
write one of his most important works, The Mec-
can Revelations (Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya). About
two years later, he visited baghdad, then returned
to egypt, where his teachings were condemned by
the literal-minded Ulama. Ibn al-Arabi resumed
his residence in Mecca for a year to continue
his spiritual pursuits, then traveled to Konya,
the capital of a Turkish dynasty, where he was
embraced by Sufi disciples. One of them was Sadr
al-Din al-Qunawi (d. 1274), who became one of
Ibn al-Arabi’s foremost interpreters and played a
major role in the spread of his teachings.
Ibn al-Arabi traveled widely in Asia Minor,
iraq, syria, and palestine until 1223, when he
finally settled in damascUs. There he finished
The Meccan Revelations, assembled a collection
of poetry, and had a vision of mUhammad in 1229
that he claimed inspired his most influential
work, The Bezels of Wisdom (Fusus al-hikam).
Altogether, he estimated that he had written as
many as 289 books and treatises, most of which
remain untranslated and unpublished. This makes
him the most prolific of all Sufi authors. Ibn al-
Arabi was buried on Mount Qassioun, just out-
side the city limits. Reportedly destroyed by his
enemies, his tomb was rebuilt and embellished
with a mosqUe and Sufi hospice by the Ottoman
sultan Selim I in 1516–17, when Damascus was
incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
Ibn al-Arabi became famous only after his
death, when pious biographies about him and
commentaries on his writings gained wide circu-
lation in Islamdom. He was known for the depth
and complexity of his mysticism, ranging from his
understanding of God, the universe, nature, and
humanity to the human soul. His knowledge was
based on a scholarly command of Islamic tradi-
tion (including Sunni fiqh [jurisprudence]), the
teachings of other mystics and visionaries, and the
originality of his own religious experiences and
visions. Despite his knowledge of the Quran and
hadith, some of his ideas, or at least the ways theyK 326 Ibn al-Arabi, Muhyi al-Din