Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West

Although the thought of the Andalusian Sufi Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) has become increasingly popular in the West during the last century, only very recently has there been any attempt to analyze his contemporary reception. Isobel Jeffery-Street’s recent study on Ibn ‘Arabi in the West – wi...

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Autor principal: G. A. Lipton
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2014
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/1cee2a9221114959a33f19f3ca0a64e0
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:1cee2a9221114959a33f19f3ca0a64e02021-12-02T17:49:33ZIbn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West10.35632/ajis.v31i4.10792690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/1cee2a9221114959a33f19f3ca0a64e02014-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1079https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Although the thought of the Andalusian Sufi Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) has become increasingly popular in the West during the last century, only very recently has there been any attempt to analyze his contemporary reception. Isobel Jeffery-Street’s recent study on Ibn ‘Arabi in the West – with its dual focus on the Beshara School “for the study of esoteric education” and the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society – offers a fecund starting place for such analysis, since these interrelated institutions have been two of the most significant sources for the growing Western recognition of Ibn ‘Arabi over the last thirty years. Ibn ‘Arabi’s eclectic, unitive metaphysics has a long-standing and popular correlation with the so-called doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (the Unity of Existence [or Being]), although he never used such particular phraseology.1Nevertheless, the book’s conceptual lynchpin and that of the Beshara School itself is formed around this idea, which the author blithely reifies as central to Ibn ‘Arabi’s “complex Neo-Platonic Gnostic system” (p. 6, n. 13). As if directly reflecting the variegated discourses from which Beshara emerged during the 1970s, this study combines rather antiquated categorizations of “Oriental Sufism” (p. 6) with New Age rhetoric of global spiritual revival. Accordingly, Jeffery-Street aims ... G. A. LiptonInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 31, Iss 4 (2014)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
G. A. Lipton
Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
description Although the thought of the Andalusian Sufi Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) has become increasingly popular in the West during the last century, only very recently has there been any attempt to analyze his contemporary reception. Isobel Jeffery-Street’s recent study on Ibn ‘Arabi in the West – with its dual focus on the Beshara School “for the study of esoteric education” and the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society – offers a fecund starting place for such analysis, since these interrelated institutions have been two of the most significant sources for the growing Western recognition of Ibn ‘Arabi over the last thirty years. Ibn ‘Arabi’s eclectic, unitive metaphysics has a long-standing and popular correlation with the so-called doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (the Unity of Existence [or Being]), although he never used such particular phraseology.1Nevertheless, the book’s conceptual lynchpin and that of the Beshara School itself is formed around this idea, which the author blithely reifies as central to Ibn ‘Arabi’s “complex Neo-Platonic Gnostic system” (p. 6, n. 13). As if directly reflecting the variegated discourses from which Beshara emerged during the 1970s, this study combines rather antiquated categorizations of “Oriental Sufism” (p. 6) with New Age rhetoric of global spiritual revival. Accordingly, Jeffery-Street aims ...
format article
author G. A. Lipton
author_facet G. A. Lipton
author_sort G. A. Lipton
title Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
title_short Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
title_full Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
title_fullStr Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
title_full_unstemmed Ibn ‘Arabi and the Contemporary West
title_sort ibn ‘arabi and the contemporary west
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2014
url https://doaj.org/article/1cee2a9221114959a33f19f3ca0a64e0
work_keys_str_mv AT galipton ibnarabiandthecontemporarywest
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