New Evidence on the Early Life of Ibn al-ʿArabī

Fuat Sezgin's publication of the facsimile edition of a rare manuscript of the Qalā⊃id al-jumān fi farā⊃id shu⊂arā⊃ hādhā'l-zamān (Frankfurt, 1990), an anthology and biographical dictionary of poets of the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century by Ibn al-Sha⊂⊂ār al-Mawsilī (d. 654/1256), offers an unexpected and revealing new perspective on the social background of the great Sūfī theorist, Muhyī 'l-Dīn Ibn al-⊂Arabi (d. 638/1240), in the Almohad jundīyah (professional army). It also features a firsthand account of the occasion on which the young Andalusian decisively entered the Sūfī path. The new information should call into question a long-standing view of Ibn al-⊂Arabi's family as noble, rich and very religious

Art · Facsimile · Literature · Perspective (graphical) · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Education and Islamic Studies · History · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy