02/07/2026 18:30 - 19:30

HALL: Parenzo - A8

Chair: Salihbegovic N.

Contact: Salihbegovic N.

Ibn al-?Arabi (1165-1240), known as Mu?yi al-Din ("the Reviver of Religion") and revered as al-Shaykh al-Akbar ("the Greatest Master"), was one of the most influential Sufi mystics, philosophers, and poets in Islamic thought. Born in Murcia, al-Andalus, he is conventionally regarded as the expositor of "the oneness of being" (wa?dat al-wujud). His rich corpus of over 300 works spans metaphysics, cosmology, ontology, Qur?anic exegesis, poetry, philosophy, alchemy, and the science of letters. This panel explores Ibn al-?Arabi's thought through three interlocking dimensions: geometry, being, and language, understood as integrated modes of divine self-disclosure and the human apprehension of this reality. Geometry functions as a contemplative architecture for mapping the relation between the One and the many, between emanation and return, through points, circles, and lines. Being is the fundamental ground his oeuvre seeks to witness. Language, in its lexical, semantic, scriptural, and embodied dimensions, is the medium of this articulation: letters and words, with hidden properties, meanings, and etymologies, function as living principles of the cosmos, reflecting its layered and dynamic structure. Individual contributions examine the semantic density of Ibn al-?Arabi's terminology and his virtuosic engagement with the Arabic linguistic tradition, including in his early treatise ?Uqlat al-Mustawfiz. Another contribution places his thought, most prominently al-Futu?at al-Makkiyya, in a broader Iberian context, comparing his science of letters and geometric cosmology with parallel developments in Jewish Kabbalah. Together, these perspectives illuminate Ibn al-?Arabi as a thinker for whom geometry, being, and language form a uniquely encyclopaedic, oceanic, and often enigmatic symbolic grammar. Through these novel interpretive approaches, the panel seeks to deepen our understanding of his thought and its enduring significance.