Selected readings
16 selected Arabic excerpts, each with English and Turkish drafts; 3 volume guides and 12 glossary entries in all three languages.
Follow the biography in Volume I and the study of attributed works in Volume III. For Volume II, start with the guide to its published plan. Each reading identifies its exact Arabic source and selection.
How the biography reconstructs chronology
I have made every effort to arrange the sections of this book in the chronological order of events in the life of the Greatest Master, Muhyiddin Ibn a…
Selected excerpt · translation draftThe sources behind the life story
In addition to various histories, biographical dictionaries and works recording deaths, this book relies principally on the pearls we have gathered fr…
Selected excerpt · translation draftIbn Arabi and Ibn al-Arabi: distinguishing two authors
Some researchers occasionally confuse these two distinguished scholars, attributing the statements or books of one to the other. For that reason, peop…
Selected excerpt · translation draftAn early encounter with al-Qushayri’s Risala
Ibn al-Arabi most probably received private instruction; there is no indication that he attended the schools known at that time. This would be natural…
Selected excerpt · translation draftAbu Madyan: influence and the question of a meeting
Abu Madyan al-Tilimsani (514/1120–589/1193), Shuayb ibn al-Hasan al-Andalusi al-Tilimsani, was a celebrated Sufi originally from Andalusia, from Hisn …
Selected excerpt · translation draftThe final departure from Andalusia
After spending more than a year in seclusion, as we saw at the end of the previous chapter, Shaykh Muhyiddin left Andalusia for the last time, travell…
Selected excerpt · translation draftIbn Sawdakin and the move to Damascus
One of the first disciples to accompany Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi to Damascus, after Badr al-Habashi’s death, appears to have been Ismail ibn Sawd…
Selected excerpt · translation draftSadr al-Din al-Qunawi in the Damascus circle
Another disciple who remained with him in Damascus was his student and ward Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Rumi, known as Sadr al-Din al…
Selected excerpt · translation draftWhy the works follow the Fihrist’s order
Therefore, after critically editing the Fihrist on the basis of the manuscript authenticated by Shaykh Muhyiddin himself, we found that the best way t…
Selected excerpt · translation draftDirect and indirect sources in Osman Yahya’s catalogue
Osman Yahya based his classification on different sources, divided into direct and indirect sources. The direct sources are Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Ar…
Selected excerpt · translation draftCounting titles is not counting authenticated works
Osman Yahya relied directly on Sarkis Awwad’s edition of the Fihrist and Abd al-Rahman Badawi’s edition of the Ijaza, as well as earlier research publ…
Selected excerpt · translation draftDistinguishing the Ijaza from additions by copyists
After carefully editing the Fihrist and Ijaza, as we shall explain in chapters one and four respectively, we shall find that the total derived by Osma…
Selected excerpt · translation draftThe first three sources in the attribution scheme
On the basis of the preceding discussion, we shall collect the titles of the Greatest Master’s works from six sources. The first three are reliable, a…
Selected excerpt · translation draftAn argument about the Fihrist’s attribution
Mahmud Ghurab considers attribution of this list to Shaykh Muhyiddin impossible, because important works mentioned by the Master elsewhere do not appe…
Selected excerpt · translation draftThe Qunawi manuscript and its audition record
From the manuscript list above, we find that the Fihrist manuscript in Yusuf Agha miscellany no. 7838—the same as no. 5624 in the modern numbering—is …
Selected excerpt · translation draftWhat the Fihrist says about its own scope
One of the brethren asked me to record for him on these sheets everything I had composed and produced concerning realities and mysteries, along the pa…
Selected excerpt · translation draft