Upcoming Worldwide Events and Symposiums

21 September 2024 | Online event

Monthly lectures for Arabic speakers

Love as a Path to Knowledge in Ibn Al Arabi’s Thought

The series of lectures in Arabic which began in November 2022 continues with a talk by Dr Moulin El Aroussi from Morocco, at 12 noon Morocco local time, on Saturday the 21st of September 2024. The title of his lecture is, “Love as a Path to Knowledge in Ibn Al Arabi’s Thought.”

Dr El Aroussi is a thinker and writer who holds a Ph.D. in Aesthetics – Philosophy of Art from the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, and a State Doctorate in Philosophy and French Literature.

Dr El Aroussi has held several positions, including Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at the University of Casablanca, Visiting Professor at the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts in Kairouan, Tunisia, President of the Moroccan Association of Art Critics in Morocco, Chair of the Jury for the Sharjah International Biennial of Visual Arts, Member of the Jury for the Al-Mahabba Biennial in Lattakia, Member of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award Jury, Member of the Jury for the Blaise Pascal Prize at the Dakar Biennial in Senegal, International expert with UNESCO on heritage and Islamic mysticism in the Maghreb, Commissioner of the “Maqamat from Contemporary Maghreb Art” exhibition, Artistic Director of the International Video Art Festival in Casablanca, General Commissioner of the “Contemporary Morocco” exhibition at the Arab World Institute in Paris,

Dr. El Aroussi has published several books in the fields of art, philosophy, and literature, including:
– The Ascension of the Promised Night (Novel).
– Space and the Body.
– Aesthetics and Islamic Art.
– Moroccan Visual Art and History.
– Dukala Artists: The Gift of the Land, co-authored with the renowned Moroccan thinker Abd al-Kabir al-Khatibi.
– The Lamps of the Ten Nights.
– In the High Presence,” a book co-authored with the Italian artist Rogero.
– Contemporary Moroccan Painting Trends.
– Contemporary Maghreb Painting Trends. (a collective book), accompanied a major exhibition that toured the five Maghreb countries.

Dr El Aroussi, has several Audiovisual works including:
– “Chaibia or Figurative Painting”, co-directed with Moroccan director Abdelkader Lagtah.
– “Al-Qasimi or Unveiling”, co-directed with Abdelkader Lagtah.
– “He, He” a film inspired by the author’s novel “The Ascension of the White Night.”

Dr Al Aroussi’s lecture aims to discuss the 167th chapter of Al Futuhat Al Makkiyah, entitled “The Knowledge of the Alchemy of Happiness”, where Ibn Al Arabi sets the path to knowing the Truth. Ibn Al Arabi attempts to present this journey in the form of a travel story. In this narrative, the seeker of knowledge, whom he refers to as the “imitator”, travels alongside a companion he calls the man of vision. They journey together, with one nourished by evidence and the other by fervent desire and longing. After a long journey on the path of knowledge, the man of vision will eventually reach a point where he can go no further, unable to enter the depths that can only be accessed by the heart.

The notion of knowing the Truth through the heart was not new, either in Islamic Arab thought or in Greek philosophy. However, Ibn Al Arabi reached heights in this regard that no one before him—and perhaps no one after—had the courage to explore.

For more details of the series of lectures, please see the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arabicibnarabi [/]

For further information please e-mail mias-as@nokshee.com.

Ibn Arabi Poetry in Motion Spain – MIAS Summer School Symposium

Image – Ibn Arabi and Students – by Yasmine Hyatt

Join MIAS Latina & MIAS Education in Murcia at the MUSEO DE LA CIUDAD (City Museum) on Sat Oct 19 2024 for two days filled with beautiful poetry and thoughtful insights. Experience the wise words of Ibn Arabi brought to life through performances and readings. Immerse yourself in the rich heritage of the birthplace of the Shaykh al Akbar . This is a special opportunity to connect with the Poetic Soul. The symposium will be held in the English language.

Speakers include: Pablo Beneito, Cecilia Twinch, Amina Gonzales, Fabrizio Boscaglia, Federico Salvaggio, Omar Zein.

Music with: Ignacio Bejar. Poetry with: Nukhet Kardam, Ana Ludovico & Friends

How to register for the Summer School Symposium

Register through Eventbrite [/]

October 26 – Online talk

The Heart of Azrael: Angelification and Angelomorphism in Akbarian Sufism

More information to come

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.