1165-1240
Sufi Theologian

Career. Born in Murcia, Spain, Ibn al-'Arabi moved at a young age to the large Andalusian metropolis of Seville, where he received his education. At the age of eight, he experienced his first mystical vision, which eventually led him to seek out inspired Sufi shaykhs. After the year 1193, he traveled frequently between Spain and North Africa, until he set out for the East for good in 1202. Traveling via Egypt, he made the hajj pilgrimage to Makkah, where he stayed until 1204. He traveled around the Near East, visiting Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, where he settled at Malatya, circa 1215. Around 1220 he returned to Syria and settled in Damascus, dying there in 1240.

Writings. Ibn al-'Arabi wrote some four hundred works, of which many survive. Most of his works are short treatises, but a few are works of considerable length, especially al- Futuhat al-Makkiyyah (The...