62 min listen
Episode 8: Ibn al-‘Arabī
ratings:
Length:
73 minutes
Released:
Apr 21, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Professors Michael Sells and Hany Ibrahim explore the poetry of Muḥyī ad-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī (1165-1240), the Andalusian scholar, mystic, poet, and author known as the Shaykh al-Akbar, “The Greatest Master.” One of the most influential Islamic thinkers and spiritual figures of all time, Ibn al-‘Arabi is best known for his voluminous Futuḥāt al-Makkiya, The Meccan Openings, once called “the greatest spiritual encyclopedia ever written by a single author,” and his highly influential and shorter philosophical-mystical work, al-Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, The Ringstones of Wisdom; both works are filled with his unique style of spiritually didactic poetry. But Ibn al-‘Arabi was also a […]
Released:
Apr 21, 2024
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (9)
Episode 6: ‘Attar: Professors Nicholas Boylston and Cyrus Zargar explore the striking poetry of ‘Attar of Nishapur, an seminal Persian Sufi poet and master of the Persian Masnavi (epic in rhymed-couplets) genre. His Conference of the Birds is a masterpiece of Sufi literature, and it and ‘Attar’s other poetic works, including his ghazals, exerted a strong influence on later Sufi poets, especially Rumi. Links and Further Reading/Listening: “Attar’s “Conference of the Birds” – The Greatest Sufi Masterpiece?” Let’s Talk Religion Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi , The Conference of the Birds (London: Penguin Classics, 1984) Zargar, Cyrus, Religion of Love: Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of ʿAṭṭār (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2024). Lewisohn, Leonard and Christopher Shackle, Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition: The Art of Spiritual Flight (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019). Austin O’Malley, The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction: Farid by Logic of the Birds