Ibn 'arabi Society

Angela Jaffray is an independent scholar, specializing in the translation of and commentary on the short works of Ibn 'Arabi. Her translation of Ibn 'Arabi's al-Ittiad al-kawni (The Universal Tree and the Four Birds) was published by Anqa Publications in 2007. Her most recent translation and commentary of Ibn 'Arabī's Isfar 'an nata'ij al-asfār (The Secrets of Voyaging), was published by Anqa Publications in 2015

Hany Ibrahim is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the University of Calgary. His teaching and research interests include Quranic exegesis, hadith, Sufism, Islamic art and architecture. His academic research is on Ibn 'Arabi and the metaphysics of love in The Meccan Openings. He is currently authoring a book entitled, Hallaj: In the Ocean of Oneness (forthcoming, Fall 2018)

Dr Husam al-Mallak is a Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS where he lectures on 'Modern Trends in Islam'. He completed his PhD thesis in January 2016, under Dr Cosimo Zene, Dr J.P. Hartung and Dr Nasr Abu Zayd (d. 2010), on how the mystical thought of Ibn al-‘Arabi can be considered as an Islamic overcoming of Nietzschean nihilism. His MA dissertation at Birkbeck was 'Beyond Postmodernism and the Crisis of Truth: Re-Reading Ibn Al-'Arabi’s Qur'anic Hermeneutics' and he has given public lectures on this subject at The Islamic College, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Oriental Institute in Oxford. He has published book reviews in the Journal for Shi'a Islamic Studies and has forthcoming articles in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Professor Eric Geoffroy is an expert in Islamic thought and spirituality, he teaches Islamic studies at the University of Strasbourg, and other centres. He is specialist of Sufism and also works on issues of spirituality in the modern world (globalization, ecology). He is president of the International Foundation 'Sufi Consciousness'. He is a member of several international research groups, such as Kalam Research and Media (KRM), and acts as scientific advisor and editorial on Islam (Fondapol, The notebooks of Islam, Religions / Adyan ...). He is a columnist in the magazine Ultreia, and writes regularly for 'Le Monde des Religions'. He wrote twenty articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2 and 3, and is the author of over a dozen books

Dr. Maria De Cillis is a Research Associate and the Managing Editor of the Shi'i Heritage Series at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. She received an MA degree in Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2004. She continued her PhD studies at the same University, completing it in October 2010. She is the author of 'Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought. Theoretical Compromises in the Works of Avicenna, al-Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi' (London/New York, 2014). She is among the editors of 'L'esoterisme shi'ite, ses racines et ses prolongements / Shi'i Esotericism: Roots and Developments' (Turnhout, 2016), and her ongoing projects include the monograph 'Decree and Salvation: al-Kirmani's Ismaili Perspective' (forthcoming, 2017).

Dr. Salman Bashier is an independent researcher who obtained his doctorate from the University of Utah. His PhD was published in 2004 under the title 'Ibn al-'Arabi's Barzakh: the Concept of the Limit and the Relationship between God and the World'. He was formerly a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and a Polonsky Fellow. He is the author of several articles on Islamic mystical and philosophical thought in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. His book, 'The Story of Islamic Philosophy: Ibn Tufayl, Ibn al-'Arabi, and Others on the Limit between Naturalism and Traditionalism' was published in 2012, and his book (in Arabic) 'A Window On the Unseen: Between Ibn al-'Arabi and Averroes, On Imagination, Conjunction, and Knowledge of the Self' was published in December 2016.

Dr Eric Winkel (Shu'ayb) has studied Ibn 'Arabi for three decades and has spent the last four years dedicated to producing the first translation of the 10,000 page Futuhat al-Makkiyah of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. The first two of the six sections have been published as pre-prints for feedback and correction, covering the sixteen journeys (books) in 4,448 pages. The work is based on the critical edition of Abd al-Aziz Sultan Mansoub, in Sana'a, who has generously guided this translator.

Ahmad Sukkar has recently completed the Imam Bukhari Visiting Research Fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies with a project about the intellectual history of Islam, focusing on the relationship between Islamic philosophy and mysticism. He holds a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is currently preparing his doctoral thesis for publication as a monograph on architectural humanities, along with another monograph on human reality. In collaboration with Professor Samer Akkach (University of Adelaide), he is working towards publishing a critical edition of early modern Arabic text on human reality upon which his doctorate was based. His publications in English include 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi of Damascus (d. 1143/1731) and the Mawlawi Sufi Tradition which appears in the Mawlana Rumi Review (2014) and can be downloaded from www.academia.edu/6413580.

Sara Sviri has since 2002 been a distinguished visiting professor in the Department of Arabic and the Department of Comparative Religions at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Previously she taught at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London and at the University of Oxford. She retired from academic teaching in 2012 and has since been engaged in lecturing and teaching on Sufism outside of academia, in Israel and elsewhere. Her fields of study are Islamic mysticism, mystical philosophy and psychology, comparative and phenomenological aspects of Islam, the formative period of Islamic mysticism, and related topics. Papers on these topics have been published in many academic publications and can be viewed on www.academia.edu. Her book The Taste of Hidden Things: Images on the Sufi Path was published in 1997 in the USA. In 2008, Tel-Aviv University Press published her extensive Sufi Anthology in Hebrew.

Todd Lawson is emeritus professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto where he taught for 25 years. He has published widely on Qur'an commentary (tafsir) the Qur'an as literature, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book on Jesus in Islamic thought, The Crucifixion and the Qur'an was published in 2009 (Oneworld), his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam in 2011 (Routledge). He is now writing a book on the Qur'an as sacred epic. He lives in Montreal.

Sa'diyya Shaikh teaches at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has an interest in Sufism and its implications for Islamic feminism and feminist theory. She teaches courses in religion, gender, Islamic mysticism and the psychology of religion. Her book "Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender and Sexuality" is published by the UNC.

Pierre Lory pursued his studies in political science and in Arabic literature in Paris. He moved to the Middle East, where he lived in Lebanon and Syria while completing advanced coursework in Arabic. He decided to focus his research on the history of Islamic spirituality and Sufism. He earned a Masters on mystical exegesis in the Koran, and a PhD on Arabic alchemical texts (1981). He then pursued further post-graduate work in Islamic Studies, receiving a "Doctorat d’état". He became Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne) in 1991. His participation in international conferences, panels, and research groups frequently takes him to the Middle East, North Africa, Iran. He was also director of the department of Arabic studies at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient, in Damascus, from 2007 to 2011. He has published several books and many articles on Sufism, Arabic alchemy, Islamic esotericism.

Todd Lawson is emeritus professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto where he taught for 25 years. He has published widely on Qur’an commentary (tafsir) the Qur'an as literature, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book on Jesus in Islamic thought, The Crucifixion and the Qur'an was published in 2009 (Oneworld), his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam in 2011 (Routledge). The article, "Qur'an and Epic" appeared recently in The Journal of Qur'anic Studies (2014: 16.1). This and other of his publications are available at www.toddlawson.ca. He is now writing a book on the Qur'an as sacred epic. He lives in Montreal

Zahra' Langhi is a researcher in Islamic history, Sufism, metaphysics, and female spirituality in comparative religions. She has an MA from the American University in Cairo on Sitt 'Ajam's Commentary of Ibn Arabi's Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and the Rising of the Divine Lights. She is also the co-founder of of the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace, a socio-political movement which aims at peace building, inclusivity and gender equality. She is a member of the Libyan National Dialogue and has taken part in the peace talks. Her MA thesis on Sitt 'Ajam, A Muslim Woman Gnostic of the Middle Ages, is to be published by Fons Vitae.

James W. Morris, Ph.D., currently teaches Islamic studies at Boston College; he lectures widely on Sufism, the Islamic humanities, Islamic philosophy, the Qur'an, Shiite thought, and cinema and spiritual teaching. His many books include: The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's 'Meccan Illuminations'; and the forthcoming Approaching Ibn 'Arabi: Foundations, Contexts, Interpretations

Zahra' Langhi is a researcher in Islamic history, Sufism, metaphysics, and female spirituality in comparative religions. She is also the co-founder of of the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace, and is a member of the Libyan National Dialogue. Todd Lawson has published widely on Qur'an commentary, the Qur'an as literature, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book on Jesus in Islamic thought, The Crucifixion and the Qur'an was published in 2009, his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam in 2011

William C. Chittick is professor of religious studies at Stony Brook University. He is author and translator of many books and articles on Sufism and Islamic philosophy, the most recent of which are Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God and Unveiling the Mysteries

Cecilia 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 (Ibn 'Arabi/Balyani).

Robert Abdul Hayy Darr has been a student of the spiritual culture of Islam for 45 years. In the late 1960s, he studied North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California. By the early 1980s, Darr began studying Persian literature where he first encountered the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi in the works of Abdurrahman Jami of Herat. This began a life-long interest in the Shaykh's profound teachings. In 1987, Darr met Afghanistan's poet laureate in exile, Ustad Khalilullah Khalili and this friendship led to his English translation of the poet's quatrains in 1989. From 1988-2007, Darr was tutored in Persian miniature painting by Ustad Homayon Etemadi, Afghanistan's last court painter and royal librarian. Darr was the disciple of the Afghan Sufi poet Raz Mohammed Zaray from 1992 until the poet's death in 2010.

CYRUS ALI ZARGAR is an associate professor of religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. His book, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn 'Arabi and 'Iraqi, was published in 2011 by the University of South Carolina Press.