Upcoming Worldwide Events and Symposiums

9 December 2023 | Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Mapping Consciousness and Paranormality

Ibn ʿArabī’s Starsets and Moonrises as an Empiricist Manual of Neoplatonic Technology

The final online seminar in the 2023 series takes place on 9th December 2023, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm (London time).

Matthew Melvin-Koushki will speak on: “Mapping Consciousness and Paranormality: Ibn ʿArabī’s Starsets and Moonrises as an Empiricist Manual of Neoplatonic Technology”. The presentation is followed by an opportunity to ask questions.

Matthew writes: “The history of consciousness and its altered states is one of the most exciting and productive interdisciplinary themes in the academy today, unique in its ability to institutionally bridge the unhealthy, even suicidal, Sciences-Humanities divide. Ibn ʿArabī’s massive oeuvre—gorgeous and frequently psychedelic—is a goldmine for its study. His seminal manual Starsets and Moonrises of 1199 CE is a case in point: both genrebending and mindbending, Joycean and jazz-philosophical, this empiricist epitome of lived Neoplatonism catalogs the paranormal experiences both beginners and adepts can expect on the Sufi path. Here the Supreme Master proceeds systematically through the human body to map the miraculous acts specific to eight members—eye, ear, tongue, hand, stomach, genitals, foot, heart—and how to safely and productively harness them in the quest for self-divinization, Neoplatonic theosis, with incisive theoretical analyses and examples drawn from eyewitness reports and the author’s firsthand experience. This talk will present a few representative case studies from the Mawāqiʿ al-nujūm and contextualise them within the radically interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies as a model of the Superhumanities.”

Matthew Melvin-Koushki (PhD Yale) is Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of South Carolina. He specializes in early modern Islamicate intellectual and imperial history, with a philological focus on the theory and practice of the occult sciences in Timurid-Safavid Iran and the broader Persianate world to the nineteenth century, and a disciplinary focus on history of science, history of philosophy and history of the book through the lens of the Islamic Weird. His forthcoming books include The Lettrist Treatises of Ibn Turka: Persian Pythagoreanism and Occult Imperialism in the Timurid Renaissance, and The Occult Science of Empire in Aqquyunlu-Safavid Iran: Two Shirazi Lettrists and Their Manuals of Magic, and he is co-editor of the volumes Islamicate Occultism: New Perspectives (2017) and Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice (2021). President of Societas Magica, he is also co-founder of the international working group Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise (IOSOTR), at islamicoccult.org, which showcases the newest work in this now burgeoning interdisciplinary field.

Registration
Admission is free to members of the Society, but registration is necessary. Members have been sent and email about the event including a discount code for use in the Eventbrite registration form.

Please follow this link to register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mapping-consciousness-paranormality-ibn-arabis-starsets-and-moonrises-tickets-752914356107?aff=oddtdtcreator [/] Registration closes 24 hours before the seminar

For non-members, there is a fee of £10.00 to access MIAS online events. If you are interested in joining the Society to receive benefits like the Society’s Journal, newsletters, and free admission to online events, please visit: https://ibnarabisociety.org/s-membership-uk/

We offer a limited number of tickets at a subsidised rate of £5.00 for attendees with low incomes. Additionally, a number of complimentary tickets may be made available upon request. To apply or inquire further, please email us at: events.uk@ibnarabisociety.org.

18 November 2023 | Online event

Monthly lectures for Arabic speakers

The series of lectures in Arabic which began in November 2022 continues with a talk by Dr Ahmad Kaza from Morocco at 12 noon Morocco local time on Saturday 18th November 2023. The title of his lecture is, “The Creative and Liberating path of Ibn Al-Arabi”.

Dr Kaza holds a PhD degree in Philosophy from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. He is currently a Research Professor at Chouaib Doukkali University – Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Morocco. Kaza has published a book entitled “The Image between Invisibility and Manifestation according to Ibn Al-Arabi”, in addition to several published papers in different books and journals.

Dr Kaza will discuss the horizon of the vision of Al Shaykh Al Akbar which extends to higher places, without being attached to a specific place, but rather a transformable vision. And this raises the question of the “isthmus” or the “between the two”, as a liberation from the geometric place, and a transformation into “the between”. This transformation is the origin of creativity, as it follows the manifestations or the manifestations of the names.

People who would like to attend the lecture can use this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83484657052?pwd=M3NSTFhINVl2c1k2ME1JVzRnd092QT09 [/]

Meeting ID: 834 8465 7052 | Passcode: 000000 | Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kb23I9qIRQ [/]

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.

31 December 2023

Young Writer Award 2023 – Prize of USD 1,500

The Society is delighted to announce the Young Writer competition for 2023. An award of US$ 1,500 is offered for an unpublished essay concerning the teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi by an author under the age of 36. The winning essay will be selected by a panel of three judges: Dr Angela Jaffray; Dr Aydogan Kars; Dr Michael Sells. The deadline for entries is 31st December 2023.

• The author must be born on or after 31st December 1987.
• The essay must be in English, and not more than 9000 words in length (excluding any notes, references, bibliography and summary).
• It must be the original work of the person submitting it, and be unpublished at the time of entry,
• The submission must be prefaced by a short summary of between 100–150 words.
• The submission should include a bibliography and be page-numbered throughout. Citations and quo­tations must be fully referenced.
• The judges may request a short online viva with short-listed candidates before making their final decision.
• Previous entrants can enter again, but previous winners cannot.
• The Society has first rights on the publication of entries.

Further details can be found by downloading the Application  form.
Click here to download the full-size A4 poster, suitable for a notice board.