The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society Library

The Society’s library aims to gather together copies of manuscripts, books and articles which relate to Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi and his major predecessors and followers. It is run on a voluntary basis and housed in private premises in Oxford, UK.

It is intended primarily as a resource for members, and also as a source of information for anyone who is interested in finding a work, would like recommendations for reading, is searching for references to particular concepts in the Sheikh’s writings etc.

The Librarian, Jane Clark, is always happy to receive requests for information, and does her best to respond. Material cannot be taken out of the library, but photocopies can be sent by post in cases where copyright will not be infringed.

You can contact the Librarian at

The Society’s library currently holds copies of around 200 manuscripts, 850 printed works and 800 papers and articles plus a miscellany of other items such as videos, tapes of radio programmes and conferences, PhD theses etc. The collection has been built up almost entirely by donation, and we continue to rely on our members and friends to send us copies of their books and articles etc. It has works in some 15 languages. The number of books in print continues to expand each year.

Catalogue

The library has a computerised catalogue which can produce various kind of listings. On this site, we have put up only four basic lists pertaining to Ibn Arabi himself, which can be downloaded:

Manuscripts (available soon)

Printed Arabic works

Printed translations (updated 2001) (PDF)

Printed modern studies (updated 2001) (PDF)

These lists are updated from time to time. For further information please contact the Librarian.

In classifying the works of Ibn Arabi, we have followed the system initiated by Osman Yahya in his invaluable work Histoire et Classification de l’Oeuvre d’Ibn Arabi (Damascus 1964). In this, he listed 846 works, arranging them in alphabetical order and giving each of them a Repetoire Général number – abbreviated to RG. This has become the standard way of referring to Ibn Arabi’s works, and in the Library Catalogue it is the basis both for presenting the information, and for cross-referencing between texts and translations etc.