Professors Michael Sells and Hany Ibrahim explore the poetry of Muḥyī ad-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī (1165-1240), the Andalusian scholar, mystic, poet, and author known as the Shaykh al-Akbar, “The Greatest Master.” One of the most influential Islamic thinkers and spiritual figures of all time, Ibn al-‘Arabi is best known for his voluminous Futuḥāt al-Makkiya, The Meccan Openings, once called “the greatest spiritual encyclopedia ever written by a single author,” and his highly influential and shorter philosophical-mystical work, al-Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, The Ringstones of Wisdom; both works are filled with his unique style of spiritually didactic poetry. But Ibn al-‘Arabi was also a gifted lyrical poet with an distinctive, but highly influential style, and the most recent edition of his Diwān, or collection of poetry, fills five volumes and over 2,000 pages. His theories of poetry and his metaphysical frameworks and terminology came to be used to interpret Sufi and other Islamic poetry, as well as inspiring generations of poets in virtually every Islamic language from his time down to the present-day.

Links and Further Reading/Listening:

Michael Sells (trans.), The Translator of Desires (Princeton University Press, 2021)

Denis McAuley, Ibn `Arabi’s Mystical Poetics (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Claude Addas, “The Ship of Stone” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society

Cyrus Zargar, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn’ Arabi and ‘Iraqi (Univ of South Carolina Press, 2013)

Hany Ibrahim, Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-‘Arabi (Equinox Press, 2023).

Muhyiddin Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Poetry: https://ibnarabisociety.org/poetry-poems

William Chittick, “Ibn ‘Arabî”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

Claude Addas, The Voyage of No Return (Islamic Texts Society, 2000).

William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (SUNY Press, 1994)

Online Collection of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Poetry: https://www.aldiwan.net/cat-poet-Ibn-Arabi

Professors Prashant Keshavmurthy and Shankar Nair explore the brilliant and multilingual poetry of Amir Khusraw (651-725 /1253–1325), one of the most celebrated and influential South Asian poets, known as Tuti-i Hindi, “The Parrot of India”. A court poet and an devoted disciple of the great Sufi saint, Nizam al-din Awliya’ (next to whom he is buried in Delhi), Khusraw is known for his mastery of multiple genres, flowing style and īhām (double or more-entendres), his musical ability (he is sometimes called “the father of qawwali”), and remarkable creativity. His poetry is still popularly sung today in South Asia and South Asian communities around the world.

Links and Further Reading/Listening:

Amīr Khusraw, In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amīr Khusrau. Translated by Paul Edward Losensky and Sunil Sharma. Penguin Books, 2011.

Sunil Sharma, Amir Khusraw: The Poet of Sultans and Sufis. Oneworld Publications, 2005

Alicia Gabbay, Islamic Tolerance: Amir Khusraw and Pluralism. Routledge, 2010)

Mohammad Habib, Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi. Bombay: Taraporevala Sons and Co., 1927. (Reprint; Lahore, 1979).

Mohammad Wahid Mirza, Life and Works of Amir Khusrau. Lahore: Punjab University Press, 1962. (Reprint; Delhi, 1974).

Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman. A Stranger in the City: The Poetics of Sabk-e Hindi. Annual of Urdu Studies vol. 19 (2004).

Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context, and Meaning in Qawwali. University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Bruce Lawrence, Morals for the Heart: Conversations of Shaykh Nizam ad-din Awliya Recorded by Amir Hasan Sijzi. Paulist Press, 1992.

Carl Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Sunil Kumar, The Emergence of the Delhi Sultanate, 1192-1286. Permanent Black, 2010

Sunil Sharma, Five Centuries of Copying, Illustrating and Reading Amir Khusraw’s Poetry, <