Ibn ʻArabi in the later Islamic tradition : the making of a polemical image in medieval Islam / Alexander D. Knysh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knysh, Alexander D.

Series:

SUNY series in Islam

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sufism.

Ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240.

Ibn al-ʻArabī.

Physical Description:

xvi, 449 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1999]

Summary:

This book examines the fierce theological controversy over the great Muslim mystical thinker Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1242). Even during his lifetime, Ibn 'Arabi's conformity with the letter of the Muslim dogma was called into doubt by many scholars who were suspicious of the monistic (unitive) tendencies of his metaphysical teaching, of his claims to be the Prophet's successor and restorer of the true meaning of the Islamic revelation, and of his allegorical interpretation of the Qur'an.

Following Ibn 'Arabi's death, these misgivings grew into an outright condemnation of his teachings by a number of influential thirteenth through fifteenth century theologians who portrayed him as a dangerous heretic bent on undermining the foundations of Islamic faith and communal life. In response to these grave accusations, Ibn 'Arabi's advocates praised him as the greatest saint of Islam who was unjustly slandered by the bigoted and narrow-minded critics.

As time went on, these conflicting images of the mystical thinker became rallying points for various political and scholarly factions vying for lucrative religious and administrative posts and ideological denomination. In thoroughly analyzing the heated debates around Ibn 'Arabi's ideas throughout the three centuries following his death, this study brings out discursive strategies and arguments employed by the polemicists, the hidden agendas they pursued, and the reasons for the striking longevity of the issue in Islamic literature up to the present day.

Contents:

1. Defining the Approach 17

Ibn 'Arabi in Recent Western Scholarship 21

2. The Biographical Prelude 25

Ibn 'Arabi's Biography: From Early Accounts to Later Interpretations 25

Ibn 'Arabi in the Biographical Works of Western Muslims 34

The Account of Ibn al-Musdi 38

The Anecdotal Evidence From al-Qazwini 40

A Sufi Perspective: Ibn Abi 'l-Mansur 41

Al-Qastallani's Polemical Twist 44

3. Between Damascus and Cairo: the Affair of Ibn 'Abd Al-Salam 49

The Historical Setting 49

Sufism and Sunni Islam: Concord or Expediency? 52

Religion and Politics in the Mamluk State 54

Defending the Purity of Islam in the Mamluk State 58

Ibn 'Arabi's Opponents in Search of Precedents 60

Enter Ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Sulami 61

Ibn 'Abd al-Salam and Sufism 63

Ibn 'Abd al-Salam's Denunciation of Ibn 'Arabi: An Essay on Contextualization 66

Ibn 'Abd al-Salam on the Hierarchy of the Sufi Gnostics 72

Sufi Responses to Ibn 'Abd al-Salam's Censure 74

Ibn 'Abd al-Salam on the Relationship Between the shari'a and the haqiqa 77

Some Later Elaborations 79

4. Ibn Taymiyya's Formidable Challenge 87

Structure, Method, and Contents of Ibn Taymiyya's Antimonistic Writings 88

Ibn Taymiyya's Personal View of the Greatest Master 96

Argumentum ad hominem 99

An Argument from Metaphysics 100

Ibn Taymiyya on the Doctrine of Sainthood 105

Ibn Taymiyya's Antimonistic Critique sub specie aeternitatis 106

5. Ibn 'Arabi in the Biographical Literature from the 8th/14th-9th/15th Centuries 113

Shaping an Ambiguous Image: al-Dhahabi 113

Apologetic Uses of al-Dhahabi's Ambivalence: al-Safadi and al-Yafi'i 118

Al-Fasi: Between Biography and Polemic 120

Ibn 'Arabi Through the Eyes of an Admirer: al-Qari al-Baghdadi's "Al-Durr al-thamin" 133

6. The Metaphysical Argument Revisited: Al-Taftazani 141

Historical and Intellectual Background 141

Al-Taftazani's Refutation of Ibn 'Arabi 146

The Metaphysical Argument 154

The Problem of "Pharaoh's Faith" 158

7. Ibn 'Arabi in the Muslim West: A Prophet in his own Land? 167

Ibn 'Arabi in Western Islamic Historiography 167

Ibn 'Arabi Through the Eyes of Ibn al-Khatima 169

Ibn al-Khatib The Vizier 172

Ibn al-Khatib on Love Mysticism 176

Ibn 'Arabi in Rawdat al-ta'rif 179

Ibn Khaldun and Islamic Mysticism 184

Ibn Khaldun on Monistic Philosophy 189

Ibn Khaldun and the People of tajalli 190

8. Egypt: the Polemic Continues 201

Ibn 'Arabi in Mamluk Cairo 202

Al-Bukhari versus al-Bisati: A Public Dispute over Ibn 'Arabi's Unbelief 204

Al-Biqa'i's "Destruction" of Monistic Philosophy 209

9. Ibn 'Arabi in Yemen 225

Yemeni Society in the Later Middle Period 225

Sufism in Medieval Yemen 228

The Rasulid Kingdom 229

The Rasulids and Islamic Learning 231

Ibn al-Ahdal on the Rise of Monistic Sufism in Yemen 234

Al-Jabarti and the Sufi Community of Zabid 241

Al-Jabarti's Associates: Ibn al-Raddad and al-Jili 246

Scholarly Disputes over Ibn 'Arabi: The fuqaha' versus the sufiyya? 252

Ibn al-Muqri versus al-Kirmani: Final Episodes of the Long Struggle 263.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-424) and indexes.

ISBN:

0791439674

0791439682

OCLC:

38542522