Customer Reviews

Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Islamic Texts Society Golden Palm)

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I bought this book in high hopes of learning more about sufism and about Ibn 'Arabi. The cover art is fabulous, and the title quite provocative, with its alchemical implications (which would be highly relevant to this time period). Yet what the red sulphur means in this instance is not chemical at all, but a person of rare worth, which is what 'Arabi spent his life seeking, and also what he apparently became, at least to many students. Author Addas adds a few pages here and there of general historical background, mostly about Andalusia and Islamic Spain which had reached its pinnacle right around the lifetime of 'Arabi. But by far most of the book is the painful recounting of who 'Arabi met, who he might have met, or possibly not met, where he went, what month it may have been, what other scholars got wrong about the year or location of one of these speculations or facts, and other endless tedious detail. For scholars, this may be rich and fertile material; for the general reader it is not. And most unfortunately, in marked contrast to the nitpicking historiography, there is neither a properly critical attitude towards the endless grandiloquent claims 'Arabi made about talking with Jesus, to God, being the second coming of Muhammad, being one of the four pillars of Islam, taking night journeys to heaven and so forth and so on, nor does this book present a truly inspired rendition of 'Arabi's philosophy, as one might find in "The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition", by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, at least in its first few chapters. The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition

This is the most comprehensive biography in the English language. The detail of this book is realy remarkable. Not only does the author cover the life and teachings of ibn Arabi but also places him in his historical context.

The book details the social and political climate of the time that ibn Arabi lived from where he grew up, his ancestors, his teachers, what he studied and who he studied with, the subjects taught at the time, the places he travelled and the Sheikhs that he met with.

There is a comprehensive study of the teachings of ibn Arabi such as wahdat al-wajud and to some extent his influence on the later Islamic tradition.

Well worth buying, probably the best you can find.