4.0 - THE FOURTH SOURCE: The Leave to the Triumphant King

"Do you not see how (some) great kings cheer their children up, by descending down to them in their movements, so that the little one laughs! In this regard, I did not see, amongst the kings, anyone like the Just King (al-Malik al-ʿAādil) Abu Bakr bin Ayyub (who is the father of the Triumphant King, al-Malik al-Muẓaffar, to whom this Leave is dedicated). He was realized in this station, even in his court, in the presence of princes and delegates, while I was I present with him in Meyafariqîn (nowadays: Silvan in the Diyarbakir Province of Turkey), in the presence of this group. I saw many kings, but I did not see from them anything like that of the Just King, in this regard, and I considered this as one of his virtues, and I glorified him and thanked him for that. I saw him extremely amiable with women, and he used to inspect their matters and ask about them, something which I did not see from other kings, and I hope that Allah will benefit him with this.”

Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Al-Arabi [The Meccan Revelations, IV.225]

As with the Index of Works, edited in Chapter I, the Leave written by Sheikh Muhyiddin to the Triumphant King: al-Malik al-Muẓaffar, is one of the most important documents in which he enumerated his books and the sheikhs whom he received from them various Leaves or learned from them some sciences, or read on them some foundational books. However, unlike the case of the Index, all available manuscripts of this Leave are relatively recent and non-original, and they have considerable differences, both in the number of titles mentioned and in the name of the king to whom the Leave was written. Nevertheless, this does not diminish its importance, because as we will soon see, a fair study removes many of these superficial differences, and we will a clear correspondence and compatibility between the Leave and the Index. More than 90 percent of the titles mentioned in the Leave are also found in the Index that formed our first bibliographical source. If we add to it the titles mentioned in the second and third sources, we conclude that the Leave adds only a few titles above these three fundamental sources. For this reason, and due to the lack of original manuscripts, we will not count this Leave among the primary sources for the classification of Sheikh Muhyiddin's books.

The sheikh wrote this Leave in Damascus, at the beginning of the month of Muharram, in 632 AH / 1235 AD, and he sent it to the Triumphant King Shihab al-Din Ghazi, son of the Just King, ak-Malik al-ʿAādil, Al-Ayyubi, according to most manuscripts. In this Leave, he listed about seventy of his sheikhs and between 260 and 290 works, depending on the copy of the manuscript. Moreover, we shall see further below, al-Ayyashi, in "Table Water" says that it includes 358 titles, while al-Qari al-Baghdadi quoted Sheikh Ferozabadi saying that they are more than five hundred. Al-Tlemceni also says in Nafh al-Tayeb that he saw a version of this Leave listing more than four hundred titles! However, these increases, if they are true, are most likely from the transcribers who added the titles found in the Index and other sources attributed to Sheikh Muhyiddin, and some of whom declared so, while others stated that they had copied from defective manuscripts that were not entirely clear.

4.1- Manuscripts and Editions of the Leave

4.2- The Authenticity of the Attribution of the Leave to Shaykh Muhyiddin

4.3- The Difference in the Number of Titles According to Manscripts

4.4- The Difference in the Name of the Authorized King

4.5- The Full Text of the Leave to the Triumphant King