Ibn Arabi and Ibn al-Arabi: distinguishing two authors

Some researchers occasionally confuse these two distinguished scholars, attributing the statements or books of one to the other. For that reason, people in the East began distinguishing them by calling the Greatest Master “Ibn Arabi”, without the definite article, and the judge Abu Bakr “Ibn al-Arabi”, with it. This convention did not become universal, however. The Greatest Master had been called Ibn al-Arabi from birth, as had some of his uncles and ancestors, according to many of his own books and his earliest disciples. In general, references use the name both with and without the article. The more correct form is with it, as he identified himself and signed his books. The two scholars are distinguished by calling one the judge Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi and the other Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi—although the latter is also sometimes called Abu Bakr [Ruh al-Quds: 48], and more often Abu Abd Allah, which is the more correct form. Where such identifiers are absent, context and specialization make it easy to distinguish them: the first is a jurist and the second a Sufi.