Page Text: Futuhat Project
Title pages of al-Dawr al-a‘la or the Hizb al-wiqaya. MS Landberg 737 (Berlin)
Ibn Arabi is one of the most inventive and prolific writers of the Islamic tradition, with a very large number of books and treatise attributed to him. He wrote a number of works whilst still living in Andalusia, but the majority of his writings date from the second part of his life when he was living in Mecca, Anatolia and Damascus.
Of the heritage which has come down to us, there is a core of about 85 works which we can be certain are genuine works by him. These include the encyclopaedic “Meccan Revelations” (al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya), which numbers more than 2,000 pages in the printed edition, and around 15 substantial long works, including a Diwan (collected poetry) of about 800 poems and his master work “The Ringstones of Wisdom” (Fusus al-hikam). The remainder are short treatises, some just a few pages long written in response to a student’s need or request.
The MIAS Archive Project
We do not know exactly how many works Ibn Arabi originally wrote. There are two lists that he wrote out himself that would indicate a number of around 300, but the situation is complicated by the fact that many shorter works were eventually absorbed into the Futuhat and therefore ceased to exist as separate works. Also, in the eight centuries since his death, many works have been wrongly attributed to him.
In order to achieve a clearer picture, the MIAS Archiving Project has been conducting research into the written heritage and to date has examined more than 3,000 manuscripts in libraries throughout the world. “Establishing Ibn Arabi’s Heritage: First Findings from the MIAS Archiving Project” (PDF, 2012) by Jane Clark and Stephen Hirtenstein is probably the best overview of Ibn Arabi’s writings currently available.
See also the summary of the findings presented in a Catalogue of Ibn Arabi’s Works (PDF) . Here you will find an alphabetical list of the more than 300 works which have been investigated.
Title pages of al-Dawr al-a‘la or the Hizb al-wiqaya. MS Landberg 737 (Berlin)
His Best Known Works
Fusus al-hikam (“Ringstones of Wisdom”)
Considered to be the quintessence of Ibn Arabi’s spiritual teaching, it comprises twenty-seven chapters, each dedicated to the spiritual meaning and wisdom of a particular prophet. Over the centuries Ibn Arabi’s students held this book in the highest esteem and wrote over one hundred commentaries on it.
Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (“The Meccan Openings”)
“This is a vast compendium of metaphysics, cosmology, spiritual anthropology, psychology, and jurisprudence. Topics include the inner meanings of the Islamic rituals, the stations of travellers on the journey to God and in God, the nature of cosmic hierarchy, the spiritual and ontological meaning of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, the sciences embraced by each of the ninety-nine names of God, and the significance of the differing messages of various prophets.” This work was written over a twenty-year period as Ibn Arabi travelled in the Near East, and revised in a second recension during the time he lived in Damascus.
Tarjuman al-ashwaq (“Interpreter of Yearnings”)
This short collection of love poetry was inspired by his meeting during his first pilgrimage to Mecca with Nizam, the beautiful and gifted daughter of a great scholar from Isfahan. He later wrote a long commentary on the poems to prove to one of his critics that they deal with spiritual truths and not profane love. It was the first of Ibn Arabi’s works to be translated into English.
Translations of and Articles on His Writings
Selected major works of Ibn Arabi | Stephen Hirtenstein
Ibn Arabi’s output was prodigious, ranging from the enormous Futuhat al-Makkiyya, which fills thousands of pages of Arabic, to treatises no more than a few pages long. The selection provides a brief overview of the best-known titles. This article is reproduced from The Unlimited Mercifier – The spiritual life and thought of Ibn Arabi by Stephen Hirtenstein. – This artices is also available in Portuguese: Seleção das maiores obras de Ibn Arabi .
Establishing Ibn Arabi’s Heritage: First Findings from the MIAS Archiving Project (PDF, 2012) | Jane Clark and Stephen Hirtenstein
This paper represents the results of a decade of studying manuscripts of works by Ibn Arabi, primarily in Turkish collections, and part of the Ibn Arabi Society’s digital archive. The definitive bibliography of Ibn Arabi’s works, Histoire et Classification de l’Oeuvre d’Ibn Arabi, was published by Osman Yahia in 1964. Although the Histoire was invaluable in measuring out the ground for a catalogue of the manuscript base and what can be deduced from that, it included errors of detail, and scholars have made revisions to a number of entries. Stephen Hirtenstein and Jane Clark are among the very few people to have undertaken a systematic examination of a large part of the manuscript base since Osman Yahia.
Ibn Arabi’s Own Summary of the Fusus (PDF) | William Chittick
The importance of Ibn Arabi’s Fusus al-hikam as the quintessence of his writings and thought and a major source of his influence is well-known, and is attested to by the more than one hundred commentaries written upon it. Ibn Arabi also wrote a work called Naqsh al-fusus (the “Imprint” or “Pattern of the Fusus”), in which he summarized briefly the main discussions of the Fusus itself. Abd al-Rahman Jami’s work Naqd al-nusus fi sharh naqsh al-fusus, written in the year 863/1459, incorporated the text of Ibn Arabi’s summary and had his own commentary in a mix of Arabic and Persian. William Chittick’s translation of about one-sixth of Jami’s work was first published in Sophia Perennis (1975), then in the Journal of the Ibn Arabi Society (1982).
The Chapter Headings of the Fusus (PDF) | William Chittick
This is a study of the significance of the chapter headings of the Fusus as understood by four major commentators on the work. The first was Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi (d. 673/1274), Ibn al-Arabi’s son-in-law, chief disciple, foremost interpreter and the author of al-Fukuk, a commentary on the central themes of each chapter of the Fusus. At his behest his disciple Mu’ayyid al-Din al-Jandi composed one of the earliest and most extensive commentaries on the Fusus itself. Two other commentaries were written by ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani (d. 730/1329 or 736/1335–6), who studied the Fusus with al-Jandi, and Dawud al-Qaysari (d. 751/1350), who studied it with al-Kashani. From the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (Vol. II, 1984).
Extract from the Fusus al-hikam | translated by Bulent Rauf
“The Calling by Revelation of the Brides of Absoluteness in the Places of Absoluteness of the Wisdoms of the Bezels” and “Of the Divine Wisdom (al-hikmat al-ilahiyyah) in the Word of Adam”. Extract from the Fusus al-hikam, Volume 1, translation from the Arabic into Ottoman Turkish with commentary, rendered into English by Bulent Rauf with the help of Rosemary Brass and Hugh Tollemache. Published by the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society.
Introduction to The Meccan Revelations | James Morris
This is the Introduction to The Meccan Revelations, translations of chapters from the Futuhat al-Makkiyya by Michel Chodkiewicz, William Chittick and James Morris (Pir Publications Inc, 2002). This volume consists of the English portions of what was originally a bi-lingual book, published in Paris 1988. It gives a valuable overview of the Futuhat al-Makkiyya and to publications about it in French and English.
Understanding, and Translating, the Futuhat al-Makkiyya | Eric Winkel
Eric Winkel is engaged in translating the Futuhat al-Makkiyya in its entirity into English. Although he does not go into existing translations of the Futuhat in English, these do not cover more than one sixth of the text. “The level of expertise required even to understand this huge, complicated work has certainly been an obstacle to translation. The Futuhat is not a conceptually organized text, and key themes and terms are not explained when they first appear. Instead, Ibn al-Arabi seems to be speaking extemporaneously. Thus, in order to understand what Ibn al-Arabi is saying in any particular instance, the translator must know (and reference for the reader) the full context, drawn from the entire text. In a sense the Futuhat is an oral work, and explanations are needed to fill in the contextual gaps which a contemporary listener, in tune with Ibn al-Arabi and his subject matter, would not have needed.” Some introductory notes are followed by a translation of the first chapter of the Futuhat.