3.3.11 - The Oratory of Ibn al-Muthanna

In the mosque of Tunis, Shaykh Muhyiddin once sat at afternoon prayers, east of the mosque, near a place known as Ibn al-Muthanna’s oratory. There, he said some verses of poetry in favor of a young boy with the name of Ahmed Ibn al-Idrissi, whose father was one of the merchants of the country. He and his father were righteous and they loved the righteous and they used to sit with. Therefore, as the Shaykh describes, in one meeting with him in the year 590 he composed these lines:

In the oratory of Ibn al-Muthanna, I became there troubled.

With one Tunisian fawn, sweet for what one wishes.

For him I took off my hesitation, and the body became strenuous.

He shook his shoulder, like a branch as he bends.

And he said, Thou art a stranger, go away from us!

I melted of longing and despair, and I died of ecstasy and sadness.

[Futuhat: III.339].

However, although he did not write these verses, nor did he tell anyone of them, yet he would be surprised that when he returned to Seville, he will find that some people were already chanting them, knowing also that someone called Ibn al-Arabi composed them in that place at that time! We shall return to this story in section

ef(unseenmen below.