His name and early life
Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi was Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Hatimi al-Ta’i. The Arabic biography traces his family to the Arab tribe of Tayy. He is widely known as al-Shaykh al-Akbar, the Greatest Master; his other names and honorific titles belong to the history of his reception.
Born in Murcia in al-Andalus in 560 AH / 1165 CE, he moved with his family to Seville in 568 AH / 1172 CE. His formation involved the study of the Qur’an and transmitted religious learning as well as contact with spiritual teachers. During his years in the western Islamic world, he travelled within al-Andalus and to North Africa.
From the Maghrib to Mecca and Damascus
At the beginning of the seventh Islamic century he travelled east on pilgrimage, passing through Egypt and reaching Mecca. The Meccan period was central to the development of al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, conventionally translated as The Meccan Revelations or The Meccan Openings.
His subsequent journeys took him through Iraq, Anatolia, Syria and Palestine. The Arabic account names Baghdad and Mosul among his destinations and describes his association with the Seljuk ruler Kaykaus. He eventually settled in Damascus in 620 AH / 1223 CE, where he spent his final years writing and teaching.
He died in Damascus in 638 AH / 1240 CE and was buried near Mount Qasiyun. His tomb and the later mosque became landmarks of the district associated with his name. The separate mosque page describes the Ottoman building and its architectural history.
Major writings
The Futuhat is his extensive treatment of spiritual knowledge, worship, cosmology and the meanings of revelation. Fusus al-Hikam, the Bezels of Wisdom, is a shorter and particularly concentrated work organised around prophetic wisdoms. Its introduction describes a visionary encounter with the Prophet Muhammad; this is Ibn al-Arabi’s own account of the book’s origin.
Other works named in the Arabic biography include Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (Interpreter of Longings), al-Tadbirat al-Ilahiyya, Insha’ al-Dawa’ir, Uqlat al-Mustawfiz, Anqa’ Mughrib, Mawaqi’ al-Nujum and Mashahid al-Asrar. The number of titles attributed to him should be distinguished from the number of securely identified surviving works.
Reading the sources
The Arabic biography points to Osman Yahia’s catalogue of Ibn al-Arabi’s writings and to the Sun from the West project for fuller study. A useful reading sequence is biography, chronology, introductions to the Futuhat and Fusus, and then the thematic guides and concept entries.
Ibn al-Arabi describes his writing in terms of divine inspiration and spiritual disclosure. When studying his works, distinguish his own testimony, later biographical reports and modern interpretations. The catalogue and manuscript links help investigate these different kinds of evidence.