Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn Al-Arabi

"This volume is a rigorous analysis of the main doctrines of Ibn al-�Arab�i, which dominated spiritual and intellectual life in the pre-modern and early modern Islamic world for over six hundred years. Analyzing the intersection between philosophy and Sufism and their divergent epistemologies, this book systematically covers ontology, theology, epistemology, teleology, spiritual anthropology and eschatology. Although, philosophy uses deductive reasoning to discover the fundamental nature of existence and Sufism relies on spiritual experience, it was not until the school of Ibn al-�Arab�i that philosophy and Sufism converged into a single framework by elaborating spiritual doctrines in precise philosophical language. Contextualizing the historical development of Ibn al-�Arab�i's school, the work draws from the earliest commentators of Ibn al-�Arab�i's oeuvre, �Sadr al-D�inal-Q�unaw�i (d. 673/1274), �Abd al-Razz�aq al-K�ash�an�i (d. ca. 730/1330) and Daw�ud al-Qay�sar�i (d. 751/1350), but also draws from the medieval heirs of his doctrines Sayyid �Haydar �Amul�i (d. 787/1385), the pivotal intellectual and mystical figure of Persia who recast philosophical Sufism within the framework of Twelver Sh�i�ism and �Abd al-Ra�hm�an J�am�i (d. 898/1492), the key figure in the dissemination of Ibn al-�Arab�i's ideas in the Persianate world as well as the Ottoman Empire, India, China and East Asia via Central Asia. Lucidly written and comprehensive in scope, with careful treatments of the key authors, Philosophical Sufism is a highly accessible introductory text for students and researchers alike, interested in Islam, philosophy, religion, and the Middle East"--