IBN AL-ARABI (1247)

Known in thwe Islamic world as ASH-SHAYKH AL-AKBAR.
In Turkey often referred to as MUHYI AD-DIN ARABI.
Literary name ABU BAKR, referred to himself as ABU ABD ALLAH.
Also called ABU BAKR AL-HATIMI AT-TA´I Al-ANDALUSI.

Celebrated Muslim mystic-philosopher who gave the esoteric, mystical dimension of Islamic though its first full-fledged philosophic expression.

Ibn al-Arabi spent 30 years in Seville devoted to the study of the traditional Islamic sciences and to travel thoughout Spain and North Africa in search of renowned mystics. In this period he met and greatly impressed the famed Aristotelian philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes).

He left Spain for the Muslim East inn 1198, reaching Mecca as a pilgrim in n1201. There he began his major work al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah (The Meccan Revelations) and met a young beauty who (as personified wisdom) became the object of his love poems, Tarjuman al-ashwaq (The Interpreter of Desires).

He also visited Egypt, Baghdad and Aleppo, finally settling in Damascus (1223) where his life was given over to contemplation, teaching and the writing of Fusus al-hikam (1229, The Bezels of Wisdom).