Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Natana J. DeLong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam: 

From Revival to Global Jihad (Oxford: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 2004); Madawi al-Rasheed, A History of 

Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 

2002), 14–23; John O. Voll, “Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi 

and Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab: An Analysis of 

an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth Century Medina.” 

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 38, 

no. 1 (1975): 32–39.

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad

  

325  J

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Ibn al-Arabi, Muhyi al-Din

 

(Ibn Arabi)

  

(1165–1240)  prominent medieval mystic and 

visionary who enriched the Sufi tradition of Islam with 

his numerous and profound spiritual writings

Ibn al-Arabi, known as “the greatest shaykh,” was 

born in the town of Murcia in a

ndalUsia

 (Mus-

lim Spain) at a time of great change in the wider 

Mediterranean region. The puritanical a

lmohad

dynasty

 was attempting to fend off the Christian 

Reconquista from northern Spain, and Muslim 

and Christian armies were competing for control 

of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean 

region. Meanwhile, fearsome Mongol armies were 

expanding their conquests in Asia and were on the 

brink of invading i

ran

. It was also the era of many 

of the great Sufi masters, including Shihab al-Din 

Abu Hafs al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234) and J

alal

 

al

-

d

in

 r

Umi

 (d. 1273).

Although details about his youth are disputed 

and surrounded by pious legend, recent research 

has found that Ibn al-Arabi may have come from 

a family of soldiers and that he himself had served 

the Almohads in this capacity before turning to 

the spiritual path. His formal education began 

after he moved with his family to Seville, a major 

center of learning, where he spent the first part of 

his life. He studied the q

Uran

 and its commentar-

ies, 

hadith

, grammar, and 

fiqh

 (jurisprudence). 

According to his own account, his promise as a 

man of mystical leanings seems to have been in 

evidence even as a teenager, when he met with 

i

bn

  r

Ushd

 (1196–98), the renowned Andalusian 

philosopher and jurist. Ibn al-Arabi was also said 

to have sought the guidance of known masters 

of the spiritual path in southern Spain, including 

two women, Shams of Marchena and Fatima of 

Cordoba, who proclaimed herself his “spiritual 

mother.”

Ibn al-Arabi left home for the first time in the 

1190s, when he went to North Africa in search 

of spiritual guidance. This launched a career of 

traveling that he continued to pursue throughout 

his life. In 1202, inspired by a vision, he went to 

m

ecca

 for the 

haJJ

, stopping in Alexandria and 

c

airo

 en route. While in Mecca, where he had 

spiritual inspirations and visions, he began to 

write one of his most important works, The Mec-

can Revelations (Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya). About 

two years later, he visited b

aghdad

, then returned 

to e

gypt

, where his teachings were condemned by 

the literal-minded 

Ulama

. Ibn al-Arabi resumed 

his residence in Mecca for a year to continue 

his spiritual pursuits, then traveled to Konya, 

the capital of a Turkish dynasty, where he was 

embraced by Sufi disciples. One of them was Sadr 

al-Din al-Qunawi (d. 1274), who became one of 

Ibn al-Arabi’s foremost interpreters and played a 

major role in the spread of his teachings.

Ibn al-Arabi traveled widely in Asia Minor, 

i

raq

,  s

yria

, and p

alestine

  until 1223, when he 

finally settled in d

amascUs

. There he finished 

The Meccan Revelations, assembled a collection 

of poetry, and had a vision of m

Uhammad

 in 1229 

that he claimed inspired his most influential 

work,  The Bezels of Wisdom (Fusus al-hikam). 

Altogether, he estimated that he had written as 

many as 289 books and treatises, most of which 

remain untranslated and unpublished. This makes 

him the most prolific of all Sufi authors. Ibn al-

Arabi was buried on Mount Qassioun, just out-

side the city limits. Reportedly destroyed by his 

enemies, his tomb was rebuilt and embellished 

with a 

mosqUe

 and Sufi hospice by the Ottoman 

sultan Selim I in 1516–17, when Damascus was 

incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

Ibn al-Arabi became famous only after his 

death, when pious biographies about him and 

commentaries on his writings gained wide circu-

lation in Islamdom. He was known for the depth 

and complexity of his mysticism, ranging from his 

understanding of God, the universe, nature, and 

humanity to the human soul. His knowledge was 

based on a scholarly command of Islamic tradi-

tion (including Sunni fiqh [jurisprudence]), the 

teachings of other mystics and visionaries, and the 

originality of his own religious experiences and 

visions. Despite his knowledge of the Quran and 

hadith, some of his ideas, or at least the ways they 

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