Philosophical Sufism An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi Routledge Studies in Islamic Philosophy Series

Analyzing the intersection between Sufism and philosophy, this volume is a sweeping examination of the mystical philosophy of Mu?y?-l-D?n Ibn al-?Arab? (d. 637/1240), one of the most influential and original thinkers of the Islamic world. This book systematically covers Ibn al-?Arab??s ontology, theology, epistemology, teleology, spiritual anthropology and eschatology.

While philosophy uses deductive reasoning to discover the fundamental nature of existence and Sufism relies on spiritual experience, it was not until the school of Ibn al-?Arab? that philosophy and Sufism converged into a single framework by elaborating spiritual doctrines in precise philosophical language. Contextualizing the historical development of Ibn al-?Arab??s school, the work draws from the earliest commentators of Ibn al-?Arab??s oeuvre, ?adr al-D?n al-Q?naw? (d. 673/1274), ?Abd al-Razz?q al-K?sh?n? (d. ca. 730/1330) and Daw?d al-Qay?ar? (d. 751/1350), but also draws from the medieval heirs of his doctrines Sayyid ?aydar ?mul? (d. 787/1385), the pivotal intellectual and mystical figure of Persia who recast philosophical Sufism within the framework of Twelver Sh??ism and ?Abd al-Ra?m?n J?m? (d. 898/1492), the key figure in the dissemination of Ibn al-?Arab??s ideas in the Persianate world as well as the Ottoman Empire, India, China and East Asia via Central Asia.

Lucidly written and comprehensive in scope, with careful treatments of the key authors, Philosophical Sufism is a highly accessible introductory text for students and researchers interested in Islam, philosophy, religion and the Middle East.

Introduction 1. Ontology 2. The Divine Names and Attributes 3. Divine Knowledge 4. The Origin of Multiplicity 5. The Universal Worlds 6. The Imaginal World 7. Unveiling 8. The Human Vicegerency 9. The Existential Circle 10. The Supreme Spirit in the Microcosm 11. Prophethood, Messengership and Sainthood 12. Resurrection Conclusion Bibliography

Mukhtar H. Ali is a Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics, and has published widely in various peer-reviewed venues. He has also translated several works in classical and contemporary Islamic metaphysics, which include ThePrinciples of Correspondences (2013) and The New Creation (2018) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī (2020).