Start
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
Contact
Welcome to the Sun from the West ( Please log in or register!)
introductions
chapters
contents

4.1 - His Farewell Trip in Morocco

After spending more than a year in seclusion, or touring in the southwest, away from people, as we have seen at the end of the previous chapter, Shaykh Muhyiddin left Andalusia for good, heading to the Maghreb to the Orient, through Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine, before settling in the Holy Mecca for few years. We do not know exactly when Ibn al-Arabi left Andalusia, or from where he left, but it is certain that he, may Allah be pleased with him, was in Morocco at the end of 596 or early 597, in a city called “the end of land”, after which there is only the Sea of Darkness, that’s the Atlantic Sea. This city is Salé, on the west coast of Morocco, to the west of Fez. This date is certain because we will find Shaykh Muhyiddin in the town of Abjisel between Salé and Marrakesh at the beginning of Muharram in 597 AH, corresponding to November or December of 1200 AD.

But how did Shaykh Muhyiddin arrive to Salé, without passing through the major cities such as Ceuta or Fez, which are on the way for those traveling to south Morocco coming from Andalusia? Unless we assume that he passed through rapidly without mentioning any encounters, and that’s a remote possibility because we find him describing some of the details of his journey from Salé to Marrakesh, Fez and Ceuta and not vice versa. It seems a reasonable possibility that Shaykh Muhyiddin arrived to Salé coming directly from Andalusia by sea, then he went to Marrakesh, Fez and other northern cities, as we shall describe below. There is no direct reference or explicit text in the books of Ibn al-Arabi to support this assumption, especially that we found he always prefers traveling by land rather than sea, in accordance with the advice that one can conclude from the Quran, where Allah says: (He enables you to travel by land and sea...) [Quran, 1o:22], thus Ibn al-Arabi comments on this verse saying that one should start land whenever possible, and then the sea [Futuhat, I.562]. However, this does not mean that it is not permissible to travel by sea or that Shaykh Muhyiddin will not do that. In fact, it is certain that he has already traveled a long journey by the sea, other than what he often did when crossing the Strait.

Shaykh Muhyiddin says in chapter 367, when he was talking about the power of the wind, that he saw and experienced that by himself when the strong wind pushed them from the forenoon to sunset a distance that normally requires twenty days, although the waves were huge like mountains, “So what if the sea was calm and the wind was from behind us! We could have cut more than that, but Allah wanted to show us the signs of every steadfast and grateful [referring to Quran: 31:31]”. [Futuhat: III.344]

His trip to the orient: (Ruta-Salé-Abjisel-Marrakesh-Fez-Ceuta-Fez-Tlemcen-Bugia-Tunis-Alexandria-Cairo-al-Khalil-al-Quds-Medina-Mecca).

In principle, there are two possibilities for such a trip: either to be in the Atlantic Ocean from Andalusia to Salé, or to be in the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Alexandria, since we do not have any evidence also about how Shaykh Muhyiddin traveled in this path during his trip to the Orient. But the road from Tunisia to Egypt by land needs more than twenty days, other than the trip from Andalusia (Shreish or Rota, for example) to Salé, which needs about twenty days.

Therefore, it seems a logical possibility that the Shaykh has traveled from southwest of Andalusia to the west of Morocco through the Sea of Darkness, whose waves are usually higher than the Roman Sea (that’s the Mediterranean). Then Shaykh Muhyiddin also described that they were not traveling along the path of the wind, which is normally from west to east, which suggests that they were moving from north to south.

In either case, Shaykh Muhyiddin left Andalusia permanently in late 596 AH heading towards Morocco, to begin his journey toward Holy Mecca, to be there for 597 Hajj.

4.1.1- Meeting with Khader for the Third Time (southwest Andalusia)

4.1.2- In the City of Salé (597/1200)

4.1.3- The Station of Nearness (Guisser, Muharram 597/1201)

4.1.4- Shaykh Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Sullami (Anjal, 597/1201)

4.1.5- In the City of Marrakesh (597/1201)

4.1.6- Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti (Marrakesh, 597/1201)

4.1.7- Marriage Kills Poverty

4.1.8- Knowing the Arrangement of Quranic Verses

4.1.9- Shaykh Mohammed al-Marrakeshi (Marrakesh, 597/1200)

4.1.10- Shaykh Abu al-Qasim al-Bajaiy (Marrakesh, 597/1200)

4.1.11- Avoiding Hell

4.1.12- Divine Command to Accompany Mohammed al-Hassar (Marrakesh / Fez 597/1200)

4.1.13- In the City of Tlemcen (597/1201)

4.1.14- In the City of Bugia (597/1201)

4.1.15- Marrying the Stars and the Alphabet (Bugia, Ramadan 597/1201)