Muhyiddin ibn Arabi Spain (1165 - 1240) Timeline Muslim / Sufi Poems by Muhyiddin ibn Arabi Books - Links

Ibn 'Arabi is considered by many to be the greatest Sufi philosopher. His was more of a structured approach to Sufi mysticism directed toward gnosis, in contrast to Rumi's mysticism which was more directed toward ecstatic annihilation in Love. Ibn 'Arabi was one of the most prolific of Sufi writers, having composed an immense volume of work in his lifetime in both prose and verse, influencing philosophical and mystical thought, not only in the Muslim world, but also in Christian Europe.

Born in Murcia, in Moorish Spain, Ibn 'Arabi could trace his ancestry back to ancient Arabia. When he was a boy, his family moved to Sevilla (Seville) where he began his studies. During a childhood illness, he had a transformative vision that set him firmly on the mystical path.

Ibn 'Arabi traveled throughout the Islamic world -- Spain, North Africa, the Middle East. He spent the last ten years of his life in Damascus.

Among his many writings, perhaps his most influential philosophical works are Spiritual Victories (al Futuhat al Makkiya) and Facets of Wisdom (al Fusus al Hikam). Many of the poetry selections here are excerpts from his long poem The Interpreter of Desires. The Interpreter of Desires is a multi-layered love poem that, like the Song of Songs in the Bible and many of the courtly love songs of the Troubadours, reveals itself to ultimately be an exploration of the soul's yearning for God. It is a tale of a holy pilgrimage to Mecca, in which the hero meets a young Persian woman of pure beauty named Nizham (Harmony). This encounter with such a perfect embodiment of harmony inspires an ardent quest that becomes a quest for the True Beloved, for God.

Poems by Muhyiddin ibn Arabi

• As Night Let its Curtains Down in Folds
• In Memory of Those Who Melt the Soul Forever
• In the Mirror of a Man
• When my Beloved appears
• While the sun's eye rules my sight
• If what she says is true
• Oh, her beauty--the tender maid!
• When we came together
• My heart wears all forms

Recommended Books: Muhyiddin ibn Arabi

Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems	Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)	The Mystics of Islam	Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems	Perfect Harmony: (Calligrapher's Notebooks)
Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology	The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn Arabi	Ibn Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam	Ibn al-Arabi: Bezels of Wisdom (Classics of Western Spirituality)	Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi
Ibn Arabi: The Tree of Being: An Ode to the Perfect Man	Journey to the Lord of Power: A Sufi Manual on Retreat	Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn Al-'Arabi's Cosmology	Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn Al-Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination	Ibn Arabi and the Voyage of No Return
Ibn Arabi

Related Links

The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/
Biography, some of Ibn 'Arabi's texts on-line, several articles.

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