Ibn 'Arabi Society

Selected speakers
  • 4.7 (31)
  • ISLAM
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Ibn 'Arabi Society

A selection of talks given at the annual symposia of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

  1. 09/26/2024

    The Perfect Human and the Greatest Name

    The title for this talk is drawn from the final mysterious book-title mentioned by Ibn 'Arabi in his listing of his own writings in the Fihrist ('Catalogue'). It would be impossible to appreciate Ibn 'Arabi's writings without encountering the notion of al-insān al-kāmil explicitly or implicitly, but how and where does Ibn 'Arabi actually use the term in his writing? What are the key features of this perfect human? In what way could it apply to each and every human being? Stephen Hirtenstein is a MIAS Senior Research Fellow and Director of Anqa Publishing. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society from 1982 to 2023. Since 2001, he has been working on the MIAS archiving project for the historic manuscripts of Ibn 'Arabi. He works as an Editor for the Encyclopaedia Islamica (Brill in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London) and runs courses on Sufism and Sufi poetry at the University of Oxford. His most recent publications include a three-part article on Ibn 'Arabi’s Fihrist ('Catalogue') in the Journal, and books such as Patterns of Contemplation (2021) and Ibn 'Arabi’s Prayers for the Week (2021). He is currently revising his first book, The Unlimited Mercifier (1999). He has just been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Ibn 'Arabi Society.

    1h 8m

  2. 09/03/2024

    Dispatch from the Red Planet: Prophet Aaron’s Paradoxical Persona

    Angela writes: Overshadowed by his younger brother Moses, known primarily for his negative role in the Golden Calf saga, the Prophet Aaron’s importance may seem to some negligible, his status auxiliary, his effect doubtful. A close reading of the Shaykh al-Akbar’s various treatments of this seemingly minor prophet, however, allows us to take a second look at this paradoxical prophet and the complex nature of his leadership and cosmic significance, as themes as perplexing as transcendental and immanental worship, mercy and severity, beauty and majesty come to the fore. This presentation will examine a number of texts where Aaron’s role is singled out in a significant way. In addition to the more familiar Futūḥāt chapters (primarily: "Alchemy of Human Happiness," and "Breath") and the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam’s "Chapter on the Religious Leadership in the Word of Aaron,"" we will also take a look at various other sources, including the Prayers of the Week, the Mosul Revelations, the Night Journey, and the Voyages of the Prophets. Angela Jaffray is an independent scholar specialising in the translation of and commentary on the short works of Ibn ‘Arabī. Her translation of Ibn ‘Arabī’s al-Ittiḥād al-kawnī (The Universal Tree and the Four Birds) was published by Anqa Publications in 2007, and her translation and commentary on Ibn ‘Arabī’s Isfār ‘an natā’ij al-asfār (The Secrets of Voyaging) was published by Anqa Publications in 2015, reprinted in 2016. She is currently working on a revised translation and commentary on al-Niffarī’s Mawāqif and Mukhaṭabāt.

    1h 3m

  3. 08/18/2024

    Farghānī on Waḥdat al-Wujūd in the Four Journeys

    William C. Chittick is an internationally renowned scholar on Islamic civilization as well as Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies. He is author, editor and translator of 30 books and monographs, and nearly 200 articles on Islamic thought, Shi’ism and Sufism. His works have been translated into a dozen languages used in the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe. His writings have influenced all students of Islamic thought and have played an important role in changing the content and contour of philosophy education by breaking the hegemony of Western philosophy. Dr. Chittick is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, and most recently, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He won the World Prize for the Book of the Year twice, conferred by the Islamic Republic of Iran. His fierce dedication to the pursuit of knowledge has been an inspiration for all his colleagues in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, where he has mentored students and scholars of Islamic studies from all over the world.

    53 min

  4. 08/09/2024

    Wujūdī Metaphysics in Chinese

    Dr Sachiko Murata’s research has included the interrelationships between Islamic and Far Eastern thought, especially in the writings of the Huiru, “the Muslim Confucianists,” who wrote numerous tracts in Chinese from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. She has published many scholarly articles and a number of books. These include Isuramu Horiron Josetsu (Iwanami, 1985), the translation of a major text on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence from Arabic into Japanese; The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought (SUNY Press, 1992); Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-yu’s Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Displayig the Concealment of the Real Realm (SUNY Press, 2000); and with the collaboration of William C. Chittick and Tu Weiming, The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic Thought in Confucian Terms (Harvard University Press, 2009).

    16 min

  5. 07/23/2024

    The Heart as Cosmic Creator: Hindu Scriptures Translated through the Lens of Ibn al-ʿArabī

    Shankar Nair specializes in Muslim-Hindu interactions in South Asia, Sufism and Islamic philosophy, Qur'anic exegesis, Hindu philosophy and theology, and South Asian religious literatures, primarily in the context of the early modern period, but also including the medieval period

    23 min

  6. 07/20/2024

    Philosophical Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Two Poems of Shaykh Dan Tafa

    Oludamini Ogunnaike is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He teaches courses on African and African Diasporic Religions as well as Islam, Islamic Philosophy, Spirituality, and Art. He holds a PhD in African Studies and the Study of Religion from Harvard University, and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies. Professor Ogunnaike's research examines the philosophical dimensions of postcolonial, colonial, and pre-colonial Islamic and indigenous religious traditions of West and North Africa, especially Sufism and Ifa. He is currently working on a book entitled, Sufism and Ifa: Ways of Knowing in Two West African Intellectual Traditions and maintains a digital archive of West African Sufi poetry.

    23 min

  7. 06/05/2024

    Ibn al-ʿArabī in Japan: The Life and Legacy of Toshihiko Izutsu (1914-1993)

    Atif Khalil is on the faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Khalil's primary area of research lies in Sufism, with secondary interests in Islamic philosophy and theology, comparative mysticism, interfaith relations, Jewish-Muslim relations, medieval philosophy, non-duality, and more recently, mysticism and the Near Death Experience. At present, he is writing a monograph on dhikr, tentatively entitled The Wine of Divine Remembrance: Meditation in Classical Sufism.

    21 min

  8. 04/16/2024

    The Sufi Path of Extraordinary Ordinariness in the Ottoman Novel "The Depths of Imagination"

    Dr. Amer Latif is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in comparative religion and Islamic studies. Broadly speaking, his research revolves around issues involved in the translation of cultures. Having grown up in Pakistan and with an undergraduate degree in Physics, Dr. Latif thrives on studying and creating containers that are capacious enough to hold seeming contradictions such as science and religion, East and West. Dr. Latif joins Emerson after having taught for many years at Marlboro College.

    18 min
See All (173)

4.7
out of 5
31 Ratings

About

A selection of talks given at the annual symposia of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

Information

  • Creator
    Selected speakers
  • Years Active
    2006 - 2024
  • Episodes
    173
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ℗ & © 2016 MIAS
  • Show Website
    Ibn 'Arabi Society

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada