Ibn Hazm

Lore & Background

Ibn 'Arabī was born in the Taifa of Murcia, in present-day southeastern Spain, on the 17th of Ramaḍān 560 AH (28 July 1165), though some sources suggest the 27th of Ramaḍān 560 AH (6 August 1165). His first name was Muhammad. He came from a mixed background: his father descended from Arab emigrants to al-Andalus, while his mother was presumably of Berber descent. His paternal ancestry came from Yemen. His father, ʿAli ibn Muḥammad, served in the Army of Ibn Mardanīsh, the ruler of the Taifa of Murcia. When Murcia fell to the Almohad Caliphate in 1172, Ibn Mardanīsh was killed in battle, and his father pledged allegiance to the Almohad caliph Abū Ya'qūb Yūsuf I. At the time, ibn Arabi was only 7 years old, and his family relocated from Murcia to Seville to serve the new ruler. Ibn Arabi grew up at the ruling court and received military training. In his writing al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, he confessed he preferred playing in a military camp with his friends rather than reading a book. However, when he was a teenager, he experienced his first vision (fanā). His father mentioned this to philosopher and Judge Ibn Rushd (Averroes), who asked to meet Ibn Arabi. Ibn Arabi said that from this first meeting, he had learned to perceive a distinction between formal knowledge of rational thought and the unveiling of insights into the nature of things. He then adopted Sufism (Tasawwuf) and dedicated his life to the spiritual path.

Reader's Guide

Ibn 'Arabī's scholarly formation was remarkable both in breadth and in the stature of his mentors. His ijaza names a constellation of teachers including Ibn 'Asakir, Abu Tahir al-Silafi, Ibn Bashkuwal, 'Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili (under whom Ibn Arabi read all of Ibn Hazm's books), Abu Zayd al-Suhayli, Ibn Zarqun, Ibn al-Jadd, Abu Madyan, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Abi Jamra, Abu Shuja' Zahir ibn Rustam al-Isfahani, Jamal al-Din b. al-Harastani, and Ibn Malik. His most prominent students include Badr al-Din al-Habashi, Ibn al-Farid, Al-Muzaffar Baha' al-Din Ghazi, Zakiy al-Din al-Birzali, Shams al-Din al-Khuwayyi, Ibn al-Dubaythi, Ibn al-Najjar, Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi, Isma'il ibn Sawdakin, Sa'd al-Din al-Hamawi, Muhyi al-Din Yahya ibn al-Zaki, Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, and Baybars. Ibn Arabi had three wives: Maryam, Majd al-Dīn's widow (whom he married during his stay in Anatolia), and the mother of his son Imāduddin. He left Andalusia for the last time in 1200, visited various places in the Maghreb, arrived for the Hajj in 1202, lived in Mecca for three years, and there began writing his work Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. After spending time in Mecca, he traveled across Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Anatolia. In 1223, at the age of 58, ibn Arabi chose Damascus as his final home and dedicated his life to teaching and writing. He died on 22 Rabī' al-Thānī, 638 AH (16 November 1240), at the age of 75, and was buried in the Banu Zaki cemetery on Qasiyun Hill, Salihiyya, Damascus.

Did You Know?

• Ibn 'Arabī's traditional title was Muḥyiddīn, meaning 'The Reviver of Religion'.
• After his death, Sufi practitioners began calling him Shaykh al-Akbar ('The Greatest Shaykh'), from which the term Akbarism is derived.
• There are 850 works attributed to Ibn 'Arabi, though only 700 are considered authentic, and only 400 are extant.
• He is considered a wali (saint) by some scholars and Muslim communities.
• Ibn 'Arabī is known for being the first person to explicitly delineate the concept of wahdat al-wujūd (unity of existence).

Origins in al-Andalus

Born in the Taifa of Murcia in July 1165, though some sources place the date in early August, Ibn 'Arabī entered the world amid the shifting politics of the Iberian taifa kingdoms. His father, ʿAli ibn Muḥammad, held a position in the army of Ibn Mardanīsh, the local ruler. When the Almohad Caliphate overran Murcia in 1172 and Ibn Mardanīsh was killed in battle, the boy—then only seven—was uprooted and the family relocated to Seville to serve the new caliph Abū Ya'qūb Yūsuf I. His lineage blended two worlds: his paternal ancestors were Yemeni Arab emigrants who had settled in al-Andalus during the early Muslim conquest, while his mother was presumably of Berber stock. In his own writings he recalled a maternal uncle, a prince of Tlemcen who cast off wealth for an ascetic life after encountering a Sufi mystic. Raised at the ruling court, Ibn 'Arabī received military training and, by his later confession, preferred playing in a camp with friends to reading books—a restless childhood that would eventually yield one of the most prolific intellectual careers in Islamic history.

A Circle of Giants

Ibn 'Arabī's scholarly formation was remarkable both in breadth and in the stature of his mentors. His ijaza, the formal license to teach and transmit knowledge, names a constellation of teachers who were among the era's foremost authorities. He studied under Ibn 'Asakir and his son al-Qasim, under the jurist Abu Tahir al-Silafi, and under 'Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili, a student of the great Andalusian jurist Ibn Hazm, under whom Ibn 'Arabī reportedly read the entire corpus of Ibn Hazm's works. His circle also encompassed the philosopher Ibn Rushd, the historian Ibn al-Jawzi, the Sufi master Abu Madyan, and Abu Shuja' Zahir ibn Rustam al-Isfahani, who served as imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca. This range—spanning law, philosophy, history, and mysticism—gave him an encyclopedic grounding. In turn he attracted students of his own, including the Sufi poet Ibn al-Farid, the future Mamluk sultan Baybars, and Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, whom he took under his wing in Anatolia after marrying Majd al-Dīn's widow and assuming the young man's education.

The Unity of Existence

Among the many contributions bearing his name, none is more philosophically consequential than Ibn 'Arabī's explicit articulation of wahdat al-wujūd, the doctrine of the unity of existence. While earlier thinkers had gestured toward monist ideas, he is credited as the first to delineate the concept in a fully explicit and systematic form. The doctrine holds that every phenomenon in the universe is a manifestation of a single, undivided reality. Ibn 'Arabī identified this ultimate ground with what he called al-wujūd al-muṭlaq, the Absolute Existence, or simply the Absolute. In this framework, the apparent multiplicity of the created world does not signify a plurality of independent substances but rather an unfolding or reflection of one singular existence. This cosmological teaching went on to become a dominant intellectual framework across many regions of the Muslim world, shaping Sufi metaphysics and broader Islamic philosophical discourse for centuries. It is this metaphysical vision, more than any individual text, that anchors his reputation as a transformative figure in the history of Islamic thought.

Titles, Texts, and the Weight of Legacy

The sheer volume of work attributed to Ibn 'Arabī is staggering: eight hundred and fifty titles carry his name, though scholars regard only around seven hundred as genuinely his, and of those roughly four hundred survive in extant form. Among the most significant is Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah, a vast encyclopedic work whose first copy he bequeathed to his son Imāduddin. His traditional title was Muḥyiddīn, meaning the Reviver of Religion, but after his death in November 1240, Sufi practitioners elevated him further, bestowing the honorific Shaykh al-Akbar, the Greatest Shaykh, from which the term Akbarism is derived. Some scholars and Muslim communities regard him as a wali, a saint of particular spiritual rank. His cosmological teachings permeated intellectual life across the Muslim world, and his patron Muhyi al-Din Yahya ibn al-Zaki arranged for his burial in the family cemetery of the Banu al-Zaki in Damascus, ensuring that his physical remains, like his ideas, would remain embedded in the scholarly and spiritual landscape of the city.