Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165–1240)

The Perfect Man is such a pure, clean, absolute mirror that God, who is Absolute Beauty, sees His Ipseity unconditionally therein
Ibn 'Arabi

Known as the greatest mystical genius of the Arabs, Ibn 'Arabi was born in Murcia in south-eastern Spain, at a time of the last great flowering of Andalusian Moorish culture.

From the earliest age he showed evidence of an extraordinary visionary capacity, and while still a teenager, had a seminal vision of the three major prophets of the West, Jesus, Moses and Muhammad. He travelled widely in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor, eventually settling in Damascus for the last 20 years of his life.

He wrote a series of inspired works, some 300 in number ranging from short treatises and mystical odes to the 37-volume encyclopaedia 'Meccan Revelations' (al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya) and his spiritual masterpiece on the prophetic wisdoms, Fusus al-hikam.

Ibn 'Arabi's reach was immense and his influence vast during his lifetime and beyond. His works inspired the great civilizations of the Mughals in India, the Ottomans in Turkey, the civilisations of Indonesia and China right down to the present day. He occupies a status equivalent to Shakespeare in the realm of English language, but Ibn 'Arabi's wealth of meanings extends from the interior unknown essential reality to the most explicit outward expression without ever compromising the principle of unity. With recent translations into European languages a new era of influence is noticeably and interestingly beginning to unfold.