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Summary
Examines the fierce controversy over the legacy of Ibn 'Arabi, the great Islamic mystic.
"Knysh has looked at exactly who were the supporters and opponents of Ibn 'Arabi for several centuries after his death, where they were getting their information, why they should have taken the position they took, and so forth. The author brings together a lot of tidbits in the secondary literature that people have not connected, and he does so with careful attention to the primary texts." -- William C. Chittick, author of The SelfDisclosure of God: Principles of Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology
This book examines the fierce theological controversy over the great Muslim mystical thinker Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1242). Even during his lifetime, Ibn 'Arabi's conformity with the letter of the Muslim dogma was called into doubt by many scholars who were suspicious of the monistic (unitive) tendencies of his metaphysical teaching, of his claims to be the Prophet's successor and restorer of the true meaning of the Islamic revelation, and of his allegorical interpretation of the Qur'an.
Following Ibn 'Arabi's death, these misgivings grew into an outright condemnation of his teachings by a number of influential thirteenth through fifteenth century theologians who portrayed him as a dangerous heretic bent on undermining the foundations of Islamic faith and communal life. In response to these grave accusations, Ibn 'Arabi's advocates praised him as the greatest saint of Islam who was unjustly slandered by the bigoted and narrow-minded critics.
As time went on, these conflicting images of the mystical thinker became rallying points for various political and scholarly factions vying for lucrative religious and administrative posts and ideological denomination. In thoroughly analyzing the heated debates around Ibn 'Arabi's ideas throughout the three centuries following his death, this study brings out discursive strategies and arguments employed by the polemicists, the hidden agendas they pursued, and the reasons for the striking longevity of the issue in Islamic literature up to the present day. On the theoretical level, this book reassesses the validity of such common dichotomies as orthodoxy versus heresy, mainstream versus mystical interpretations of Islam, and communalism versus individualism as well as other issues related to the history of Islamic thought.
Alexander D. Knysh is The Sharjah Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Arabic and Middle East Studies, University of Exeter, United Kingdom.
Table of Contents
IBN 'ARABI IN THE LATER ISLAMIC TRADITION
The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam Alexander D. Knysh
Contents
List of Tables
Preface
Abbreviations
A Note on Transliteration and Dates
Introduction
1. Defining The Approach
Ibn 'Arabi in Recent Western Scholarship
2. The Biographical Prelude
Ibn 'Arabi's Biography: From Early Accounts to Later Interpretations
Ibn 'Arabi in the Biographical Works of Western Muslims
The Account of Ibn al-Musdi
The Anecdotal Evidence From al-Qazwini
A Sufi Perspective: Ibn Abi 'l-Mansur
Al-Qastallani's Polemical Twist
Conclusion
3. Between Damascus And Cairo: The Affair Of Ibn 'Abd Al-Salam
The Historical Setting
Sufism and Sunni Islam: Concord or Expediency?
Religion and Politics in the Mamluk State
Defending the Purity of Islam in the Mamluk State
Ibn 'Arabi's Opponents in Search of Precedents
Enter Ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Sulami
Ibn 'Abd al-Salam and Sufism
Ibn 'Abd al-Salam's Denunciation of Ibn 'Arabi: An Essay on Contextualization
Ibn 'Abd al-Salam on the Hierarchy of the Sufi Gnostics
Sufi Responses to Ibn 'Abd al-Salam's Censure
Ibn 'Abd al-Salam on the Relationship Between the shari ’a and the haqiqa
Some Later Elaborations
Conclusion
4. Ibn Taymiyya's Formidable Challenge
Structure, Method, and Contents of Ibn Taymiyya's Antimonistic Writings
Ibn Taymiyya's Personal View of the Greatest Master
Argumentum ad hominem
An Argument from Metaphysics
Ibn Taymiyya on the Doctrine of Sainthood
Ibn Taymiyya's Antimonistic Critique sub specie aeternitatis
5. Ibn 'Arabi In The Biographical Literature From The 8th/14th-9th/15th Centuries
Shaping an Ambiguous Image: al-Dhahabi
Apologetic Uses of al-Dhahabi's Ambivalence: al-Safadi and al-Yafi'i
Al-Fasi: Between Biography and Polemic
Ibn 'Arabi Through the Eyes of an Admirer: al-Qari al-Baghdadi's ‘Al-Durr al-thamin"
Conclusion
6. The Metaphysical Argument Revisited: Al-Taftazani
Historical and Intellectual Background
Al-Taftazani's Refutation of Ibn 'Arabi
The Metaphysical Argument
The Problem of "Pharaoh's Faith"
Conclusion
7. Ibn 'Arabi In The Muslim West: A Prophet in His Own Land?
Ibn 'Arabi in Western Islamic Historiography
Ibn 'Arabi Through the Eyes of Ibn al-Khatima
Ibn al-Khatib The Vizier
Ibn al-Khatib on Love Mysticism
Ibn 'Arabi in Rawdat al-ta’rif
Ibn Khaldun and Islamic Mysticism
Ibn Khaldun on Monistic Philosophy
Ibn Khaldun and the People of tajalli
Conclusion
8. Egypt: The Polemic Continues
Ibn 'Arabi in Mamluk Cairo
Al-Bukhari versus al-Bisati: A Public Dispute over Ibn 'Arabi's Unbelief
Al-Biqa'i's "Destruction" of Monistic Philosophy
Conclusion
9. Ibn 'Arabi in Yemen
Yemeni Society in the Later Middle Period
Conclusion
9. Ibn 'Arabi in Yemen
Yemeni Society in the Later Middle Period
Sufism in Medieval Yemen
The Rasulid Kingdom
The Rasulids and Islamic Learning
Ibn al-Ahdal on the Rise of Monistic Sufism in Yemen
Al-Jabarti and the Sufi Community of Zabid
Al-Jabarti's Associates: Ibn al-Raddad and al-Jili
Scholarly Disputes over Ibn 'Arabi: The fuqaha ’ versus the sufiyya ?
Ibn al-Muqri versus al-Kirmani: Final Episodes of the Long Struggle