Synopsis
This podcast offers a sampling of talks given by researchers, teachers, translators, and lovers of Ibn Arabi, given at the annual symposia, and spanning a period of 20 years. Podcasts will be added monthly.
Episodes
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Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism
08/06/2023 Duration: 32min"Ghouls, ifrits and a panoply of other jinn have long haunted Muslim cultures and societies. These also include demonic doubles (qarīn, pl. quranā'): the little-studied and much-feared denizens of the hearts and blood of humans. Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn 'Arabī (d. 1240) wrote on jinn in substantial detail, uncovering the physiognomy, culture and behaviour of this unseen species. Akbarians believed that the good God assigned each human with an evil double. Ibn 'Arabī’s reasoning as to why this was the case mirrors his attempts to expound the problem of evil in Islamic religious philosophy. No other Sufi, Ibn 'Arabī claimed, has ever managed to get to the heart of this matter before him. As well as offering the reader knowledge and safety from evil, Ibn 'Arabī’s writings on jinnealogy tackle the even larger issues of spiritual ascension, predestination and the human relationship to the Divine." Dunja Rašić earned her Ph.D in Islamic Studies at the Free University Berlin. Her primary research field is medieval intellect
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Ahmad Avni Bey's Understanding of Ibn 'Arabi
08/05/2023 Duration: 01h02minMahmud Erol Kılıç is a Professor of Sufi Studies. His numerous books, articles and translations have focused on Ibn 'Arabi and the Ibn 'Arabi school of thought as well as Sufism in Anatolia. He has been the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the Republic of Indonesia, and was the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC) based in Tehran. Prof. Kılıç currently serves as the Director General of the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society.
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'Ibn 'Arabi in Spiritual Fiqh and Gnostic Knowledge
01/05/2023 Duration: 41minLaila Khalifa (Ph.D) began her studies in social sciences and history at the University of Jordan in Amman. Later she pursued postgraduate research in Social Psychology at the University of Nottingham, UK in 1985. She was awarded her MA in Classical and Modern Islamic Thought at the Sorbonne in 1988. She has subsequently dedicated her research to the study of Ibn 'Arabi's doctrine and received her Ph.D. in 2000, in History and Civilisation at the L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Here, under the supervision of Prof. Michel Chodkiewicz, she completed her dissertation: "Conqurtes, Illuminations, Tassawuf et Prophetie: La Futuwwa chez le Sheikh al- Akbar Muhammad Muhyi a-Din Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240)". (Conquest, Illumination, Sufism and Prophecy: The Futuwwa in Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240.) She continues her research into Ibn 'Arabi's metaphysical doctrine and participates in international symposiums. Laila Khalifa has published books and articles.
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Dawud al-Qaysari's Muqaddima: The Essential Introduction to Ibn 'Arabi
01/04/2023 Duration: 45minMukhtar Ali (Ph.D) (2007) University of California, Berkeley, is a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics, but his areas of interest also include Arabic and Persian literature, Qur'anic studies and comparative religion. He is the author of Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi (Routledge, 2021) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al 'Arabi in the Muqaddimat al-Qaysari (Brill, 2020). He has translated some contemporary metaphysical texts, The New Creation (Sage Press, 2018) and The Law of Correspondence (Sage Press, 2021).
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Receptivity, activity and gender in Ibn Arabi's work
28/02/2023 Duration: 46minJane Clark is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and has worked particularly on the Society's Archiving Project as well as looking after the library. She has been studying Ibn Arabi for more than forty years, and is engaged in teaching courses and lecturing on his thought both in the UK (including Oxford University and Temenos Academy) and abroad (including Egypt, Australia and the USA), and in research and translation of the Akbarian heritage. She has a particular interest in the correlation of Ibn Arabi's thought with contemporary issues. She organises the MIAS Young Writers Award. Jane Clark was a co-founder of The Journal of Consciousness Studies and is currently editor of the Beshara Magazine. She has presented many courses as part of the program of the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education.
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Divine 'writing' and the feminine in Ibn 'Arabi
22/02/2023 Duration: 42minGracia Lopez Anguita obtained her degree in Arabic Philosophy at the University of Cordoba. In 2005 she joined the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville, where she is currently Assistant Professor. Among other publications, her book Ibn 'Arabi y su epoca was published in 2018.
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The half-door and Salma's house: the architecture of love
15/02/2023 Duration: 33minAt Haverford College (BA), then the University of Pennsylvania (MA), then the University of South Carolina (PhD), Eric Winkel undertook eclectic studies, mostly religion at first, focusing on spiritual matters, then later including political science, and numerous languages to enable study of religious and spiritual texts (Sanskrit, Greek, Coptic, Tamil, Arabic, others, besides French and German). His book "Mysteries of Purity, Ibn al-'Arabî's asrar al-taharah" (Notre Dame, 1995) was Chapter 68 of the Futuhat al-Makkiyya. While Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies in Malaysia, he explored how the concepts of the "new sciences" opened obscure and difficult passages of the Futuhat. Shu'ayb Eric Winkel explains: ‘with Ibn Arabi, if one hasn't visualised or seen a picture, imaged in the imagination, of what he is talking about, one hasn't yet understood him. In my work translating and elucidating The Openings Revealed in Makkah, I depend entirely on Divine grace. In this talk we wi
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Julian of Norwich: All manner of things shall be well
27/01/2023 Duration: 40minCecilia Twinch is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, Oxford. Besides working as a teacher, translator and editor, she has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn 'Arabi and mysticism worldwide. She has studied at Cambridge University and the Beshara School. Her publications include an English translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and a new translation of Know yourself: An explanation of the oneness of being by Ibn 'Arabi/Balyani
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Love in the teachings of Ibn 'Arabī
06/01/2023 Duration: 41minHany Talaat Ibrahim completed his PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. He is currently teaching at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University, Canada. He specializes in pre-modern Islamic thought, Arabic Sufi literature, and Islamic art & architecture.
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Language Acts and Worldmaking
21/12/2022 Duration: 01h11minIbn Arabi’s Creative Imagination: Crossing Borders to Discover the Meaning of Being Human. Collaborative presentation between Language Acts and Worldmaking and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. This event, originally an online seminar via Zoom, explores how Ibn Arabi’s creative imagination crosses philosophical, poetic, linguistic and artistic borders, and how his ideas continue to inspire contemporary poetry, film, and artistic expression to this day. Introduction: David Torollo The Meeting of the Two Seas – Ibn Arabi & Contemporary Literature: Rim Feriani Round Table Introduction: Bharatwaj Iyer (Chair) Artwork: Antonella Leoni Poetry: Nükhet Kardam Poetry Reading: David Torollo
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Language Acts and Worldmaking
13/12/2022 Duration: 01h15sIbn Arabi’s Creative Imagination: Crossing Borders to Discover the Meaning of Being Human. Collaborative presentation between Language Acts and Worldmaking and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. This event, originally an online seminar via Zoom, explores how Ibn Arabi’s creative imagination crosses philosophical, poetic, linguistic and artistic borders, and how his ideas continue to inspire contemporary poetry, film, and artistic expression to this day. Chair Dr David Torollo : Lecturer in Medieval & Early Modern Spanish Studies, King's College London. Catherine Boyle: Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies and Director of Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking. Cecilia Twinch: Senior Research Fellow of the Ibn Arabi Society, Oxford.
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‘Upholding the Balance’: Tilimsani’s Commentary on the Divine Name al-Muqsit
25/11/2022 Duration: 42minYousef is Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Yale University in 2014. He was formerly a Humanities Research Fellow at New York University, Abu Dhabi, where he completed his award-winning book, The Mystics of al-Andalus. He is currently completing an Arabic edition and full English translation of ‘Afif al-Din al-Tilimsani's (d. 1291) commentary on the divine names for the Library of Arabic Literature, NYU Press. Born in Egypt and raised in Morocco, Yousef has traveled throughout the Islamic world, and has studied with Muslim scholars in Morocco, Syria, and Mauritania.
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Embodying the In-Between: Comparative Reflections on the walī and the Bodhisattva
09/11/2022 Duration: 45minHina Khalid has completed an MPhil in Theology at the University of Cambridge. Her work has previously examined the theological discourse of the Muslim mystic and philosopher ‘Ibn Arabi, in dialogue with selected aspects of the Buddhist philosophical tradition. Her current research centres on Sufism in the subcontinent, and the distinctive and multi-faceted patterns of Islamic practices as they have been shaped by indigenous cultural and religious forces therein.
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Ibn ‘Arabi’s alphabet of prophets: the spirit and form of the Fuṣūṣ
31/10/2022 Duration: 33minTodd Lawson is Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Dept. of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. He has published widely on Quran commentary (tafsir), the Quran as literature, Sufism, Shi’i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book Jesus in Islamic thought, The Crucifixion and the Quran was published in 2009 (Oneworld), his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam in 2011 (Routledge). This and other of his publications are listed at www.toddlawson.ca
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"A Noble Letter with Multiple Aspects" - The letter wāw according to Ibn ‘Arabi, in poetry and prose
18/10/2022 Duration: 51minStephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society since its inception in 1982, and is a co-founder of Anqa Publishing. He read History at King’s College, Cambridge, and then studied at the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education in Gloucestershire and Scotland. After a teaching career, he began writing and giving talks on Ibn Arabi’s thought at conferences across the world. In addition to lecturing and writing, he organises and leads tours "in the footsteps of Ibn Arabi". He currently works as a Senior Editor for the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, and lives near Oxford.
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The Three Great Books: Letters, Elements and Prime Matter in Ibn ‘Arabi’s Cosmogony
05/10/2022 Duration: 40minDunja Rašić (PhD Free University Berlin) is a lecturer at the University of Belgrade. Her academic interests include philosophy of language, Akbarian cosmology and the philosophical and theological thought of the early Islamic Middle Ages. She is currently working on several book projects, including The Devil Within: Jinn Doppelgangers, Mages and the Sages and a critical edition and translation of al-Bosnevī’s commentary on pseudo-Ibn ʿArabī’s al-Qaṣīda al- tāʾiyya.
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Thus Spoke Adam
26/09/2022 Duration: 35minLuca Patrizi is part of the University of Turin, Italy, and research fellow at Exeter University, UK.
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A Fresh Look at Ibn Sabʿīn: The Circular Scale of Transcendence and Mediation
19/09/2022 Duration: 35minCarlos Berbil is the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intellectual History at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
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The Ambiguities of Union: Fana & Baqa
18/08/2022 Duration: 38minCyrus Ali Zargar is Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Central Florida. His first book, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi, was published in 2011 by the University of South Carolina Press. His most recent book, The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism, was published in 2017 by Oneworld Press. Zargar’s research interests focus on the literature of medieval Sufism in Arabic and Persian. This includes metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical intersections between Sufism and Islamic philosophy, as well as Sufi ethical treatises, the writings of Ibn Arabi and early adherents to his worldview, Sufism in contemporary cinema, and satire in medieval and modern literature. He is the author of articles in The Muslim World, The Journal of Arabic Literature, and Encyclopædia Iranica. Currently, he is completing a manuscript on the corpus of the 13th-century Persian poet, Farid al-Din Attar, and t
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The Structure of the Universe as a Network
09/08/2022 Duration: 42minGracia Lopez Anguita obtained her degree in Arabic Philosophy at the University of Cordoba. In 2005 she joined the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville, where she is currently Assistant Professor. Among other publications, her book Ibn 'Arabi y su epoca was published in 2018.