3.8 - Farewell Return to Andalusia ($sim$ Jumada al-Awwal 595/1198)

We do not know precisely what prompted Shaykh Muhyiddin to interrupt his stay in Fez and return to Andalusia again. There are two possibilities. First, he went there to finish up some of his work and end all his ties with Andalusia, because he knew he will soon leave it to the East for good. Therefore, we see him went this same year to his hometown of Murcia, where he may have some possessions, especially as we know that his father was one of the followers of the Sultan Ibn Mardanish, and then Almohads princes as we mentioned in Chapter II.

The second possibility is that he went to Andalusia this time to retire from the people and escape from the seekers and shaykhs who began to circle around him, and perhaps distract him from being alone with God. Therefore, we find that he did not settle in Seville this time, or in any other specific place, and even he spent more than a year without telling us exactly where he was and what happened to him during this period.

[His return to Andalusia in 595/1198.](His return to Andalusia in 595/1198.

In this period, the Shaykh wrote a short book, that’s one of the important treatises called Kitab al-Kutub: “The Book of Books”, describing his path when he returned from Maghreb to an unnamed friend, but perhaps he was Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Qasim al-Tamimi, or perhaps it is directed to Shaykh Abu Yahya Ibn Abu Bakr Sinhaji, who had just finished writing the book of the Fabulous Griffon for him as we have seen in section

ef(anqaa above.

It seems that the Greatest Shaykh came to Andalusia as we said either to retire from the people or to say goodbye, because he said at the end of this treatise after mentioning the places where he stayed and the shaykhs whom he met during this year 595 AH in Andalusia, then he said: Here ended what I have received, and I do not visit anyone after that. And peace [The Book of Books p. 5-10, No. 21 in Volume II of the Treatises by Ibn al-Arabi].

3.8.1- With Shaykh Abdullah al-Qalfat Again (Ceuta, 595/1198)

3.8.2- Declining to Eat the Food from the Sultan (Ceuta, 595/1198)

3.8.3- Crossing back to Andalusia - (Algeciras, 595/1198)

3.8.4- Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Qanuni (Ronda, 595/1198)

3.8.5- Shaykh Ibn Ashraf al-Rondi (Ronda, 595/1198)

3.8.6- Arriving to Seville - (595/1198)

3.8.7- In Cordoba - (595/1198)

3.8.8- Ibn Rushd’s Funeral (Cordoba, $sim$ Safar 595/1198)

3.8.9- Shaykh Abdullah al-Baghi al-Shakkaz - (Granada, 595/1199)

3.8.10- Ibn Seydabon - (Murcia 595/1199)

3.8.11- The Wasteful Shaykh - (Murcia 595/1199)

3.8.12- Some Other Books He Wrote in this period

3.8.13- Retreating for More than a Year (Shawwal 595/1198-597/1200)