Upcoming Worldwide Events and Symposiums
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The judges have announced the results of the competion.
About the young writers
• MIAS-Latina
Online talks in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian
Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy
In collaboration with the Society, Anqa Publishing will host an online conversation with William Rory Dickson, who will present his latest book, Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy on 2nd November 2024, at 5:00 PM (London time)
To help bring Ibn ‘Arabi’s timeless teachings to life for people today, Dickson explores key themes from the Fusus al-Hikam (The Gemstones of Wisdom), a work that conveys the essential wisdom of the prophets on being, reality and human capacity. Dickson addresses many of the challenging aspects of Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought, showing how multiple interpretations allow it to engage modern audiences and contribute to philosophical and ecumenical discussions. This conversation will focus on how complex metaphysical ideas and theological debates can be accessible and relevant for both spiritual seekers and intellectuals. Join us for a gathering featuring an insightful contemporary engagement with Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas.
Admission is free but registration with Eventbrite is required. To register
Follow this link to Eventbrite
Registration closes 24 hours prior to the event.
Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, William Rory Dickson was drawn to Islam and Sufism in his late teens. He pursued the study of Sufism in graduate degrees in Waterloo, Ontario, while maintaining a broad interest in various contemplative traditions. His first book, Living Sufism in North America: Between Tradition and Transformation (SUNY 2015), was the first academic monograph on North American Sufi groups. He has co-authored an introduction to Sufism with Meena Sharify-Funk, Unveiling Sufism: From Manhattan to Mecca (Equinox 2017), as well as an overview of Sufism in the modern period, Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture (Routledge 2018), with Sharify-Funk and Merin Shobhana Xavier. His latest work, Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy (Anqa 2024) offers an introduction to Sufi philosophy, providing a modern commentary on chapters of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Gemstones of Wisdom. Dickson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Religion and Culture Department at the University of Winnipeg.
Jesus Across Space and Time
On Saturday November 3oth, 2024, from 2-5 pm GMT, there will be an interactive seminar under the auspices of the Beshara Trust at The October Gallery, London, under the title, “Jesus Across Space and Time”.
The afternoon will be devoted to the question: what is the knowledge we can attain if we contemplate the person of Jesus and his function and role in the world of humanity?
In the year 2000, the Lebanese scholar Souad Hakim delivered a remarkable paper on this topic at the Ibn ‘Arabi Society Symposium at Chisholme House, Scotland. This paper is available online here, under the title The Spirit and the Son of the Spirit – A Reading of Jesus according to Ibn ‘Arabi. This paper will be used as the foundation of the conversation.
How to Book
Entry by ticket from Eventbrite: Click to book
Cost: £10 + £1.63 registration fee.
Enquiries: Michael Cohen at london@beshara.org
July 25 – 26, 2025 London
Mirrors of the Transcendent in the Cosmos of Ibn Arabi: The Body as Metaphor of Divine Self-Revelation
There will be up to eight speakers over the two day event. These will include: Mukhtar Ali, author of Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-‘Arabi and whose new book, Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Mirror of Jāmī, will shortly be published. Gregory Vandamme, whose presentation will be entitled, The Body of the Caliph: Corporeal Governance of the Human Kingdom in Ibn ʿArabi’s al-Tadbīrāt al-ilāhiyya. Dunja Rašić who will present her paper titled: Conquest of the Great City – a Metaphorical Story of a Wicked Queen, Her Subjects, and a Talisman by Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī, and Faris Abdel-hadi whose recently published book is entitled Ibn ‘Arabī’s Religious Pluralism – Levels of Inclusivity.
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London. A member of the School of Advanced Study, the Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of global cultural history and the role of images in society, exploring how memories of the past shape the present. Its building in Woburn Square, London has recently reopened having been extensively refurbished and extended to create a welcoming space for visitors.
March 2024
Young Writer Award 2023 – Prize winner
We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 MIAS Young Writers Award is Nur Ahmad, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. This is the fifth time that the Society has run this competition, which gives an award (this year $1500) for the best essay written by a young scholar under the age of 35 on a theme related to Ibn ‘Arabi or his legacy.
The award was judged by three prominent Ibn ‘Arabi scholars – Professor Michael Sells of the University of Chicago; Dr Aydogan Kars of Monash University, Australia; and Dr Angela Jaffray, who will be best-known to members of the Society for her translations of Ibn ‘Arabi’s works, The Universal Tree and the Four Birds (Anqa Publishing, 2007) and The Secrets of Voyaging (Anqa Publishing, 2015). Many thanks to them for the time and attention they devoted to task of choosing a winner out the eight excellent entries that we received.
The winning essay is entitled ‘Akbarian Hermeneutics in pre-Modern Javanese Literature’. As the title suggests, this is an exploration of Sufi Quranic exegesis in Javanese culture for which, as Ahmad explains, Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas formed the predominant framework. The judges felt that this is a ground-breaking piece of work, exploring a previously little-known area of study and exhibiting excellent scholarship based on hitherto unstudied sources.
Other entries are also thought worthy of mention. ‘Highly Commended’ are Elif Emirahmetoglu for her essay: ‘The Human Self and Personhood in Akbarīan Sufism and Chinese Buddhism’, which again, breaks new ground in its detailed comparison between these two highly sophisticated traditions; and Sophie Tyser for her essay ‘The World, Man and Ritual Prayer according to Ibn al-ʿArabī’ for its thorough and comprehensive exposition on Ibn ‘Arabi’s understanding of prayer. ‘Commended’ is Farah Akhtar for ‘Cosmos as Revelation: Reason, Imagination, and the Foundations of Ibn ‘Arabī’s Scriptural Hermeneutics’. All four of these essays will be submitted to the Society journal for consideration for publication.
Many thanks to all those who sent in submissions to the award. The hard work and thought that went into all the essays is much appreciated, and it is great to know that there are such excellent young scholars working on Ibn ‘Arabi’s heritage. It bodes very well for the future of Akbarian studies.
Jane Clark
About the young writers
Nur Ahmad is currently a PhD student of Islamic philosophy at Leiden University. His PhD research is a study of Fayḍ al-Raḥmān fī Tarjama Tafsīr Kalām Mālik al-Dayyān (“The Grace of the Merciful in the Interpretative Translation of the Words of the King and the Judge”), a Javanese Ṣūfī tafsīr by Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Samārānī (c. 1820-1903). He argues that this tafsīr points to the shift in the intellectual world of Java at the end of the nineteenth century. He has had a lifelong interest in Ṣūfi thought in Javanese traditional literature and its popular expressions in lived traditions of Sufism in Java. Ahmad’s academic pursuits in the field of Sufism in Java are also motivated by the teaching position he has at Walisongo’s State Islamic University (UIN Walisongo), Semarang, Indonesia. As the chairman (2024-2026) of the Netherlands Branch Nahdlatul Ulama, an Islamic traditional organization, he makes an effort to manifest his interest in Javanese thought and poetry in popular forms, such as working together with Javanese traditional artists in the adaptation of Javanese Ṣūfī poetry into sacred dances and songs.
Elif Emirahmetoğlu is a research assistant at the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Recently, she submitted her PhD thesis, which compared the concept of human beings in Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1240) and Shinran Shōnin (d. 1263). Her research interests include Sufism, Islamic philosophy, Buddhism, comparative philosophy, and comparative mysticism. She is currently preparing for her postdoctoral project to explore various dimensions of human subjectivity in classical and post-classical Islamic anthropologies, and aims to reinterpret these perspectives with philosophical discussions on human subjectivity in the 20th and 21st centuries which have taken recourse to German idealism.
Sophie Tyser obtained her doctorate in Islamic studies in 2022 from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris) in France. Her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘In The Horizons and Within Themselves’ : Man, The World and The Revelation in The Teaching of Ibn al-ʿArabī, focuses on the micro-macrocosmic imbrications in the work of the shaykh al-akbar. Since 2022 she has taught Arabic language and literature at the University of Turin in Italy.
Farah Akhtar is a graduate of the M.Div program at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School where she focused on Qur’anic hermeneutics and constructive Islamic theology. Her research interests include examining the literary form and exegetical function of metaphysical literature in the post-classical period and their significance to understanding the life of the Qur’an in Muslim societies. She is also interested in conceptions and interpretations of scripture in Indo-Persian mystical and philosophical poetry, with specific reference to the cosmos and existence. Prior to graduate study, Farah lived in Amman, New York and Lahore, studying Arabic, Persian and various Islamic texts in informal settings, including writings of Said Nursi. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago.