Ibn al-'Arabi

Ibn al-'Arabi

(born July 28, 1165, Murcia, Valencia—died Nov. 16, 1240, Damascus) Islamic mystic and theologian. Born in Spain, he traveled widely in Spain and North Africa in search of masters of Sufism. In 1198 he began a pilgrimage to the Middle East, visiting Mecca, Egypt, and Anatolia before settling in Damascus in 1223. Famous and honoured as a spiritual master, he spent the rest of his life in contemplation, teaching, and writing. His great work was The Meccan Revelations, a personal encyclopedia covering all the esoteric sciences in Islam and his own inner life. He also wrote one of the most important works in Islamic mystical philosophy, The Bezels of Wisdom (1229).