Biography of Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi and His Doctrine

Translated from the Arabic volume overview

Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, known as al-Shaykh al-Akbar, is one of the best-known Sufi figures of the medieval period and one of the most influential authors in Islamic history. His writings profoundly affected scholars and Sufis in the centuries that followed and have attracted wide interest in the West.

He was born in Murcia, in eastern al-Andalus, in 560 AH / 1165 CE, into a distinguished family close to rulers and princes. When he was about eight, the family moved to Seville. Some ten years after that move, he entered the Sufi path and became known for his distinctive and searching views on religious questions and theological thought.

For more than two decades he travelled through al-Andalus and the Maghrib. The Arabic account describes a vision directing him eastward; he subsequently settled in the East and did not return to the Maghrib. His journeys took him through Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Anatolia before he settled in Damascus. The Arabic overview dates this settlement to 620 AH / 1224 CE.

His many writings brought him renown under the honorifics Muhyiddin, “Reviver of Religion”, and al-Shaykh al-Akbar, “the Greatest Master”. He died in Damascus in 638 AH / 1240 CE. The source describes his age as about 78 years; this follows lunar-year reckoning.

Among his largest and most influential works is al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, The Meccan Revelations. Fusus al-Hikam, The Bezels of Wisdom, is another central work. His other writings include Anqa Mughrib, al-Tajalliyat al-Ilahiyya, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, Mashahid al-Asrar al-Qudsiyya, Mawaqi al-Nujum, Uqlat al-Mustawfiz, Insha al-Dawair and al-Tadbirat al-Ilahiyya, as well as many shorter treatises.

The paired dates follow the Arabic overview; chapter headings may use different CE equivalents. Consult the chronology note for approximate or disputed dates. Chronology

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