6.5.11 - Nazm al-Futuh al-Makki $sim$ Aleppo, before 630/1233)

As we mentioned in the introduction, Shaykh Muhyiddin started every chapter in the Meccan Revelations, and some other books as well, with a short poem that alludes to the essential concepts to be tackled in this chapter. After the first edition of the Meccan Revelations was completed, Shaykh Muhyiddin collected all the poems he mentioned in this book, and called the collection as Nazm al-Futuh al-Makki: the Verses of the Meccan Revelations.

It seems that this collection was written in Aleppo, or at least it has been read there, in the year 630/1233, as it can be concluded from the hearing at the end of its only manuscript available that was preserved in al-Ahmediye Library (number: 774) in Aleppo, which is written in Ibn al-Arabi’s own hand. This hearing was also written by Shaykh Muhyiddin himself, and amongst the listeners was his wife Mariam bint Muhammad Abdoun al-Ansari. On this same manuscript, there are also six more hearing dated in various months in the year 633 AH, and all read in the author house in Damascus.

eginfigure[hbt!]

centerincludegraphics[width= extwidth]

[Al-Ahmediye Manuscript in Ibn al-Arabi’s own hand.]The first page of Al-Ahmediye Manuscript in Ibn al-Arabi’s own hand.

However, this Ahmediye manuscript is actually one part, composed of 15 small parts, and is not complete, because it contains only the poems up to chapter 329 of the Meccan Revelations. These and the remaining chapters are all covered in 30 small parts of the Paris manuscript of Diwan al-Maarif: the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale 2348, that contains also other parts as we shall mention later when we speak about this Diwan in section

efgranddiwan. So, in reality, Nazm al-Futuh is 30 small parts divided into two volumes that are parts of the Grand Diwan that is also called Diwan al-Maarif, as we shall discuss further in section

efgranddiwan.