0.2.4 - The Six Sources of works titles

Based on the above, we will list the titles of the Greatest Sheikh from six sources, the first three of which are reliable, and we have no doubt about their authenticity, and they include most of the titles. The other three sources do not rise up to the high level of authenticity due to some deficiencies, doubts and difficulty in determining their relevance to the Sheikh, as we will explain below:

1. The first source is the titles mentioned in the text of the Index treatise, according to the original manuscript in the collection of Yusuf Agha No. 7838, from page 188b to 193b, written in the hand of Sheikh Abu al-Ma'ali Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi in 627 AH / 1230 AD, and authenticated by Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi. As we shall show in Chapter I, this source includes 255 titles, included in that some margin notes, and this forms the basis that includes most of the books that are not to be suspected as ave been written by Sheikh Muhyiddin, may Allah rest his soul.

2. The second source is the auditions written by Sheikh Sadr al-Din, in his handwriting, of the books he had read on his Sheikh, or heard them from him, and the subsequent leave his Sheikh wrote to him in his own hand writing in the same manuscript, according to the same Yusuf Agha collection No. 7838, from page 346a to 349a. This includes 43 titles, of which 12 are not mentioned in the first source, so the total becomes 267 titles.

3. The third source is the titles mentioned in sheikh Muhyiddin's famous books, this includes 72 titles, of which 18 new titles that are not mentioned in the previous sources, bringing the total to 285.

These titles are not to be questioned, because they certainly belong to the Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, because these three previous sources are well documented and we have no doubt about their authenticity, although there are a few titles that are difficult to identify accurately and are still missing. This is because of some of the words in this aged manuscript are unclear and can be read in different ways as we will show during the investigation.

As for the following three sources, they cannot be relied upon categorically, because they are not certified by Sheikh Muhyiddin, in addition to the lack of any historical manuscripts directly related to him or his close disciples. In all cases, these three sources add only a few dozen of new titles, and most of them are still missing, while at the same time they confirm the validity of many of the titles listed in the first three sources mentioned above:

4. The fourth source is the Leave written by Sheikh Muhyiddin to the Triumphant King: al-Malik al-Mudhaffar, which includes two lists; the first mentions the names of some of the Sheikhs who approved Sheikh Muhyiddin, while the second includes the titles of the books he classified, which amounts to 262 titles, most of which are already mentioned in the Index, and in the same order, and we have found conclusive evidence that these titles are copied exactly from the original copy of the index written in the Sheikh Sadr al-Din, the first source, as we shall explain in Chapter IV, despite some minor additions, controversies, omissions, or changes due to various errors resulting from frequent copying and scripting from defective sources, especially since there are no original historical copies of this Leave, since the original treatise was written by the Sheikh in Damascus and sent to the Triumphant King in Mayafarqin (in Diyarbakir), to be lost during his wars with the Tatars, as we will explain in more detail during the critical edition of this Leave in Chapter IV. In summary, this Leave adds only 9 titles to the previous three sources, in addition to the title of the Leave itself, making the total of 295.

5. - The fifth source includes the titles appended to the Leave, which were also added by the transcribers, as it is clearly indicated by many manuscripts. Some of these titles are already mentioned in the previous sources, while most of them are still missing, and since we do not have any definitive evidence on the source of these additions, we cannot confirm that these titles actually belong to Sheikh Muhyiddin. In summary, this source adds 29 titles to the above, making the total of 326.

6. The sixth source includes the titles that we find attributed to Sheikh Muhyiddin in the catalogues of libraries and various history books that have been interested in the his heritage, such as the book of al-Durr al-Thamin: the Precious Pearl, the book of al-Jathib al-Gaygi ila al-Janib al-Garbi: the Invisible Attraction to the West Side, as well as the various history books. Although this source adds many titles that are apocryphal or questionable, or which are not authentic or cannot be confirmed by the Sheikh, there are many of them that are also predominantly of the same nature and language and are most likely to belong to him, as we will explain in the course of Chapter VII, as we will mention the main books that are apocryphal or questionable. There are also many new titles of books that are already existing and are attributed to Sheikh Muhyiddin, but they are in fact excerpts or abbreviations of these existing books, so they do not require new classification. Likewise, we find in this category some titles that are attributed to him but are in fact for some of his students, and they may be commentaries on some of his books.