Peter Coates. Ibn ‘Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously. Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2002. Pp. 203.

Abstract

"Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi (d.1240) stands as one of the towering intellectual figures in Islamic history. James Morris of the University of Exeter insightfully noted that, “paraphrasing Whitehead‟s famous remark about Plato - and with something of the same degree of exaggeration - one could say that the history of Islamic thought subsequent to Ibn Arabi [ . . .] might largely be construed as a series of footnotes to his work.” (“Ibn Arabi and his Interpreters,” Journal of the American Oriental Society [1986] 752). Yet despite Ibn Arabi‟s undisputable role in charting the trajectory of post thirteenth century Islamic thought, most Western scholars of Islam shied away from seriously studying the writings of this Spanish mystic until about 50 years ago. The problem lay not in the insignificance but terrible ambiguity of his writings. Even the late Orientalist Reynold Nicholson, despite his well-acknowledged linguistic and exegetical mastery of classical sufi literature, refrained from publishing his translation of Ibn Arabi‟s magnum opus, the Bezels of Wisdom, because of uncertainties he harboured about the accuracy of his finished work. His student, A. E. Affifi, author of The Mystical Philosophy of Muyiddin Ibnul Arabi, the first complete English monograph on him, also later conceded he had not fully understood the thought of Islam‟s doctor maximus. [2] The last twenty years has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the field of Ibn Arabi studies. Thanks, in large part, to the pioneering work of Michel Chodkiewicz and William Chittick, not to mention other important scholars, the architectural landscape of Ibn Arabi‟s worldview has become much clearer. There is such a wide range of excellent secondary literature available today on him that one can acquire a fairly accurate conception of his worldview relying solely on Western scholarship - to the extent possible for one not proficient in Arabic, as Ibn Arabi‟s ideas are intricately tied to subtle nuances of the language. [3] What exactly is it about Ibn Arabi that might explain the recent flurry of literature exploring both the historical figure and his thought? To suggest that such research is motivated simply by the desire to fill a lacuna in Islamic studies would only be partially accurate. As readers of Ibn Arabi from a variety of disciplines have frequently observed, much of what this medieval mystic wrote speaks directly to the concerns of our age, and it is no doubt this characteristic that has given him such a wide and growing readership today which extends beyond Islamic studies specialists."(pg 1)