Ibn 'Arabi Society

The Body of the Caliph: Corporeal Governance of the Human Kingdom in Ibn 'Arabi's al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya and its Commentaries In his Book of the Divine Governances for the Restoration of the Human Kingdom (K. al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya fi islah al-mamlaka al-insaniyya), Ibn 'Arabi describes how the flourishing of the individual depends on a spiritual policy ensuring harmony in the human microcosm. This governance of the individual is centred on the caliphal authority of the spirit and its vizier, the intellect. But where does that leave the body? Is it merely reduced to passive obedience to this authority, or does it too play an active role in this internal politics? In this presentation, we shall revisit the Tadbirat from the vantage point of the body, while also examining two later commentaries by Husayn b. Tu'ma al-Baytimani (d. 1175/1761) and Muhammad al-Damuni (d. ca. 1208/1794). GREGORY VANDAMME is a scholar specialising in classical Sufi thought, particularly the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his commentators. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from UCLouvain, where his dissertation focused on the concept of hayra (perplexity) in Ibn 'Arabi’s thought, exploring its implications in epistemology, metaphysics, and Qur'anic hermeneutics. Currently, Gregory is a post doctoral research associate at the University of Chester, following his roles as a research fellow at F.R.S.–FNRS and UCLouvain in Belgium, and as guest lecturer at SciencesPo Paris. His research primarily delves into the doctrines of speculative mysticism, Qur'anic hermeneutics, and spiritual education in Sufism. Recorded by Warburg Institute

This paper explores the pivotal role of the Adamic fass in unlocking the profound metaphysical framework of Ibn al-'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam. Centering on the concept of the comprehensive Being (al-kawn al-jami'), a term mentioned in the opening paragraph of the Fusus, the Adamic fass emerges as the key to understanding the divine necessity of human existence as a mirror of God's names and attributes. By elucidating the unique ontological position of Adam as the khalifa (vicegerent) and the synthesis of all divine manifestations, this study demonstrates how the Adamic 'fass' provides the interpretive lens through which the overarching unity and wisdom of each fass of the Fusus al-Hikam can be accessed. Ultimately, the paper argues that Adam represents not only the archetype of perfected humanity but also the means through which the divine self-disclosure (tajalli) achieves its fullest realization, making the Adamic fass the cornerstone for comprehending Ibn al-Arabi's vision of existence. Mukhtar Ali is Professor of Islamic Studies, specializing in Sufsm, Islamic philosophy and ethics. His areas of interest include Arabic and Persian literature, Qur'anic studies, theology, traditional medicine and comparative religion. He is the author of Philosophical Sufsm: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi (Routledge, 2021) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-'Arabi in the Muqaddimat al-Qaysari (Brill, 2020) and his forthcoming work, Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-'Arabi in the Mirror of Jami, is a study on Ibn al-'Arabi's masterpiece, Fusus al-hikam through the lens of Jami's Naqd al-nusus fi sharh Naqsh al-Fusus. " Recorded by Warburg Institute

Ibn 'Arabi states in Futuhat that 'the breath of the creatures comes from the divine breath' or that 'the human breath has the same form as that of the Merciful.' Parting from this idea, a whole set of implications related with the articulation of language, the act of praising, the continuous creation, the esoteric-exoteric dialectic or even with love, unfolds itself. From the reading of some of Ibn Arabi's cosmological texts, it can be deduced that there is a correlation between the cycle of breath exhalation/inhalation and the rhythm of creation/annihilation in the Universe. Gracia López Anguita is a lecturer in the Dept. of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville. She obtained her European PhD with a thesis on Ibn Arabi's treatise 'Uqlat al-mustawfiz awarded with the Doctorate Prize. She focuses her research on the thought of this Master and his school. She has been a visiting researcher at Allameh Tabatabai University and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and is currently part of the team of the research project funded by the Spanish Government and European funds: "Cultural and Religious Identity in Sufism in Morocco and Senegal: Hagiographies, Gender and Symbology." Recorded by Warburg Institute

Muhammad writes: This lecture explores the concept of the anthropocosmic self in Ibn 'Arabi's thought, presenting his vision of life as a dynamic interplay between the human being, the cosmos, and the divine. Ibn ʿArabi, a seminal figure in Sufism, offers a profound framework for understanding selfhood - not as an isolated entity but as a microcosm deeply interwoven with the macrocosm and the divine. This anthropocosmic perspective reorients the purpose of human existence from self-centred individuality to a participatory role in the unfolding of divine realities within creation. It argues that the ultimate vision of life, according to Ibn 'Arabi, is a journey of spiritual realization, wherein the human being transcends dualities and becomes a living bridge between the physical and the transcendent realms. The talk concludes by reflecting on the contemporary relevance of Ibn 'Arabi’s anthropocosmic vision, particularly in addressing modern existential and ecological crises, offering a model of selfhood that harmonizes personal flourishing with cosmic and spiritual interconnectedness. Muhammad U. Faruque is Associate Professor of Islamic Philosophy and Environmental Studies at the University of Cincinnati. A scholar of Islamic Studies and global philosopher, he has lectured widely across North America, Europe, and Asia. His work, translated into multiple languages, has been recognized by major U.S. funding bodies, including the Templeton Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. His first book, Sculpting the Self (University of Michigan Press, 2021), won the World Prize for Book of the Year from the President of Iran. His forthcoming book, The Interconnected Universe: Sufism, Climate Change, and Ecological Living, explores how Sufi contemplative practices foster an ecologically sustainable way of life through an "anthropocosmic" vision of the self.

Michael Sells, Ph.D. (University of Chicago), is a John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Michael Sells studies and teaches in the areas of qur'anic studies; Sufism; Arabic and Islamic love poetry; mysticism (Greek, Islamic, Christian, and Jewish); and religion and violence. He is currently completing a new and expanded edition of his 1999 book Approaching the Qur'an: the Early Revelations. He has published three volumes on Arabic poetry: Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes; which focuses upon the pre-Islamic period; Stations of Desire, which focuses upon the love poetry of Ibn al-'Arabi; and The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Al-Andalus which he co-edited and to which he contributed. His books on mysticism include Early Islamic Mysticism, translations and commentaries on influential mystical passages from the Qur'an, hadith, Arabic poetry, and early Sufi writings; and Mystical Languages of Unsaying, an examination of apophatic language, with special attention to Plotinus, John the Scot, Ibn al-'Arabi, Meister Eckhart, and Marguerite Porete. His work on religion and violence includes: The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia; and The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy which he co-edited and to which he contributed. He teaches courses on the topics of the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, and Ibn al-'Arabi.

Caner Dagli is currently a professor in the Religion and Philosophy department at Roanoke College in Salem, VA. Dagli earned a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. from George Washington University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. His dissertation is titled "From Mysticism to Philosophy and Back." He specializes in Islamic philosophy, mysticism in world religions and Sufism. He recently published a translation and study of the Fusus al-hikam, entitled "The Ringstones of Wisdom".

Cecilia Twinch read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University. She has studied Ibn 'Arabi's work for many years and is actively involved with the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society based in Oxford, being Reviews Editor of the Journal. She has also studied at the Beshara School in Scotland. Besides working as a teacher, translator and editor, she has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn 'Arabi in Europe, America, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Publications include "Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi and the Interior Wisdom" in Los Dos Horizontes (The Two Horizons), "Julian of Norwich: 'All shall be well'" in Mujeres de Luz (Women of Light) and an English translation, with Pablo Beneito, of one of Ibn 'Arabi's earliest works, "Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries" (Mashahid al-asrar).

Stephen Hirtenstein is editor of the Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal. He studied at the Beshara School in Scotland, and is co-founder of Anqa Publishing. His publications include a biography of Ibn 'Arabi, "The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi" (1999), a translation with Pablo Beneito of Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad as "The Seven Days of the Heart" (2000) and with Martin Notcutt of Ibn 'Arabi's Mishkat al-anwar as "Divine Sayings" (2005). He is currently working on a translation of some of Ibn 'Arabi's shorter texts.

James W. Morris is professor in Theology at Boston College. He has written and taught in many areas of spirituality and religious thought, including the Islamic humanities, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and cinema in spiritual teaching. His recent books include The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's 'Meccan Illuminations' (2005); Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); Knowing the Spirit (2006); and Ibn 'Arabi: The Meccan Revelations (2002).

Dr. Pablo Beneito is Professor at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Philology, University of Seville. He has edited and translated several of Ibn 'Arabi's works: the Mashahid al-asrar (with Souad al-Hakim, Spanish and Arabic edn.; with Cecilia Twinch, English version); the Kashf al-ma'na (El secreto de los Nombres de Dios) on the Divine Names; and, with Stephen Hirtenstein, Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad, translated into English as The Seven Days of the Heart. Among other works, recently he has published the anthology La taberna de las luces on Sufi poetry and the book El lenguaje de las alusiones on Ibn Arabi's doctrines of love, beauty and compassion. He is the Director of the collection Alquitara (devoted to Oriental literature) in Ediciones Mandala (Madrid).

Born in Lancashire, UK. Married with two grown up children. Read Philosophy and Religious Studies at Lancaster University and postgraduate research at Keble College, University of Oxford. Formerly Senior Lecturer at University of Lincoln, Department of Psychology specialising in courses on the Philosophy of the Self and Philosophy of Science. Retired in 2003. Student of Ibn 'Arabi form very many years. Co-director of the Chisholme Institute, Scotland which runs courses on behalf of the Beshara Trust in Intensive Esoteric Education. Published "Ibn 'Arabi and Modern Thought" (Anqa Publishing, Oxford, 2002).

Vincent J. Cornell is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. From 2000-2006, he was Professor of History and Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas. From 1991-2000, he taught at Duke University. His published works include over twenty articles and three books, including The Way of Abu Madyan (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1996) and Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1998). His most recent publication is Voices of Islam, Vincent J. Cornell General Editor (Westport, Connecticut and London: Praeger, 2007), 5 volumes. This comprehensive introduction to Islamic religion, thought, life, and civilization includes chapters by 50 Muslim authors, including many of the premier scholars of Islamic Studies. Volume titles and editors: Volume 1 Voices of Tradition (Vincent J. Cornell); Volume 2 Voices of the Spirit (Vincent J. Cornell); Volume 3, Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society (Virginia Gray Henry Blakemore); Volume 4 Voices of Art, Beauty, and Science (Vincent J. Cornell); Volume 5 Voices of Change (Omid Safi). Dr. Cornell's interests cover the entire spectrum of Islamic thought from Sufism to theology and Islamic law. He has lived and worked in Morocco for nearly six years, and has spent considerable time both teaching and doing research in Egypt, Tunisia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He is currently working on projects on Islamic ethics and moral theology in conjunction with the Shalom Hartmann Institute in Jerusalem and the Elijah Interfaith Institute. For the past six years, he has been a key participant the Building Bridges Seminars hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Jane Clark is a teacher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying Ibn 'Arabi's thought for nearly thirty years as a student of the Beshara School, and in 2000 took a degree at Oxford in order to read him in the original Arabic. She is particularly interested in the way that his ideas have spread throughout the world, and as Society Librarian has done research work on the early manuscripts. She has written and lectured on Ibn 'Arabi's thought and is most concerned with the universal appeal of his writings, especially as revealed in Fusus al-hikam.

Elias Amidon is the spiritual director of the Sufi Way International, a western Sufi Order in the lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He has worked as an architect and urban planning consultant. For a number of years he worked with indigenous tribes in northern Thailand and Burma on land rights issues, and has led citizen-to-citizen delegations to Burma, Thailand, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine. He is currently a director of the Abraham Path Initiative. He is co-editor of the books Earth Prayers, Life Prayers, and Prayers for a Thousand Years

Salman Bashier graduated from The University of Utah in August 2000. Since then he has been working as a visiting lecturer at Haifa University in the departments of Philosophy and Arabic Language and Literature. He is the author of "Ibn al-Arabi's Barzakh: The Concept of the Limit and the Relationship between God and the World". He is now completing a second book on the linkage between mystical and philosophical thought. His interests extend to Greek and Islamic philosophy and mysticism, Islamic theology, law, and Arabic literature and poetry.

Ibrahim Kalin is an assistant professor of Islamic studies at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA. He received his B.A. in history from the University of Istanbul, Turkey, M.A. in Islamic thought from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Malaysia, and Ph.D. from the George Washington University, Washington DC. He is the recipient of the CTNS Religion and Science Course Award, 2002 for his seminar "Religion and Science: Traditional and Modern Encounters". His book on Mulla Sadra's theory of knowledge entitled Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on the Unification of the Intellect and the Intelligible will appear among Oxford titles in 2006.

Olga Louchakova, M.D., Ph.D., is the core faculty professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and the director of Transpersonal Education and Research Specialization. An acknowledged teacher of Advaita Vedanta, Kundalini Yoga and Prayer of the Heart, Olga received her teaching mandate in the Russian spiritual underground. She published many articles in neuroscience, spirituality and transpersonal psychology, and is currently working on the book-project dedicated to the Prayer of the Heart. She maintains private practice consulting on psychospiritual transformation in Bay Area, California.

Samer is an intellectual historian and architectural theoretician with expertise in Islamic philosophy and mysticism. He has studied extensively the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his later follower 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d. 1731). His Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (SUNY 2005) focuses on the influence of Ibn 'Arabi's teachings on architectural thinking, while his forthcoming book on Islam and the Enlightenment (Oneworld 2007) traces the development of Ibn 'Arabi's ideas through al-Nabulusi's life and works.

Niels Detert has been a long-time student of Ibn 'Arabi under the umbrella of the Beshara School. He works as a Clinical Psychologist at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, specialising in Neuropsychology. His work is mainly clinical in the cognitive assessment and psychological therapy of people with neurological disorders. He lives in Oxford with his partner and young son.

Suleyman Derin teaches at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Marmara in Istanbul. He obtained a Ph.D. from Leeds University, with a thesis titled Towards Some Paradigms on the Sufi Conception of Love: from Rabia to Ibn al-Farid, including a chapter on Ibn 'Arabi. His most recent work was on the subject of Ibn Arabi's approach to the verses of qisas "retaliation" titled "The Tradition of Sulh among the Sufis with Special Reference to Ibn 'Arabi and Yunus Emre"

Jane Carroll is a founding member of the Muyhiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society and is Chairperson on the board of the Society in America. She works as an architect in Ojai, California.

Angela Jaffray received her PhD from Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 2000. Her translations of Lorca's Sonnets of Dark Love were published in Collected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca. Since graduating, she has dedicated herself to translating and commenting on various texts of Ibn 'Arabi, including The Universal Tree and the Four Birds: Ibn 'Arabi's Treatise on Unification, recently published by Anqa Publishing, and Unveiling from the Effects of the Voyages. She lives in Chicago.

Peter Yiangou is currently the senior partner of an architectural practice based in the Cotswolds in the UK. His interest in Ibn 'Arabi started in 1972 when he met Bulent Rauf, the founder member of the MIAS. His interest in Ibn 'Arabi has continued since then through the activities of the Beshara School, also founded by Bulent Rauf. He spent time as head of the first Beshara Centre at Swyre Farm in the UK in 1975, and a period as Chairman of the Beshara Trust in the early 90's. He has attended 6 month and short courses at the Beshara School where Ibn 'Arabi is part of the core curriculum. In recent years he has been involved in running 10 Beshara School courses in Australia and Indonesia.

Th. Emil Homerin is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester, where he teaches courses on Islam, classical Arabic literature, and mysticism. Homerin completed his Ph.D. with honors at the University of Chicago ('87), and has lived and worked in Egypt for a number of years. Among his many publications are From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint (2nd revised edition, Cairo: American University Press, 2001), his anthology of translations, Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verse & Saintly Life (Paulist Press, 2001), The Wine of Love and Life (Chicago, 2005) and several chapters on Islam in the volume The Religious Foundations of Western Civilization (Abingdon Press, 2006). Homerin has been the recipient of grants from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also won a number of awards including the American Association of Teachers of Arabic Translation Prize, the Golden Key Honor Society's recognition for his contributions to undergraduate education, University of Rochester's Teacher of the Year in the Humanities (2002), and the University of Rochester's Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Education (2005).

Alexander Knysh is professor of Islamic Studies and former chair (1998-2004) of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Institute for Oriental Studies (Leningrad Branch) of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1986. Since 1991 he has lived and worked in the United States of America and England. His research interests include Islamic mysticism and Islamic theological thought in historical perspective as well as Islam and Islamic movements in local contexts (especially Yemen and the Northern Caucasus). He has numerous publications on these subjects, including five books.

Ian Almond is Associate Professor of Postcolonial Literature at Georgia State University, Atlanta. He is the author of four books, mostly on Islam and its representation in the Western tradition. He lived for six years in Turkey, where he taught for the most part at Kayseri and Istanbul.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree in International Studies, Eric Winkel taught at the International Islamic University, Malaysia. He has been a Fulbright scholar in Pakistan. From 2001-2008 he taught at a small school he co-founded in New Mexico based on constructivist learning strategies and learning teams. Currently, he is joining the National College of Arts, Lahore. He has written numerous articles and monographs on religion and sacred law. His latest work is a novel, Damascus Steel. Eric Winkel's other published works include Mysteries of Purity: Ibn al-'Arabi's asrar al-taharah (1995) and Islam and the Living Law: The Ibn al-'Arabi Approach (1997). Current research interest is "The Openings Project," a digital dars which is an effort to assist searchers to gain access to the Futuhat in their own ways. He and Ely have two children, Aman (6) and Amnah (5 months).

Jane Clark is a teacher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying Ibn 'Arabi's thought for nearly thirty years as a student of the Beshara School, and in 2000 took a degree at Oxford in order to read him in the original Arabic. She is particularly interested in the way that his ideas have spread throughout the world, and as Society Librarian has done research work on the early manuscripts. She has written and lectured on Ibn 'Arabi's thought and is most concerned with the universal appeal of his writings, especially as revealed in Fusus al-hikam.

Sara Sviri studied and has taught Arabic and Islamic Studies in Israel. In her studies, published in various compilations and journals, she has focused on the formation and characteristics of the early mystical schools of Islam, with special interest in the Malamati movement of Nishapur and in the mystical psychology of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi. Her book, The Taste of Hidden Things: Images on the Sufi Path, portrays Sufism as a living tradition in which insights into the stations of the heart play an important role.

William C. Chittick is professor of religious studies in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has spent forty years studying Ibn Arabi and his followers, not to mention the pre-modern Muslim intellectual tradition in general. Among his thirty books, five deal specifically with Ibn Arabi's thought: The Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989), Imaginal Worlds (1992), The Self-Disclosure of God (1998), Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (2005), and, as co-author, The Meccan Revelations (2002).

Carl W. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of Islam and Sufism. His most recent book, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003), has received several international awards, including the 2004 Bashrahil Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement. His current projects include Muslim interpretations of Hinduism and the literary interpretation of the Qur'an. His publications include Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence, 2002); Teachings of Sufism (1999); a translation of The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997);Guide to Sufism (1997); Ruzbihan Baqli: Mystical Experience and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (1996); Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center (1993); and Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985).

Shahram Pazouki is professor of Philosophy and religious studies at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy and head of the department. He researches and teaches in the subjects of comparative philosophy and religions, Sufism,philosophy of art, and has published books and articles on these subjects.

Denis Gril was born in Paris in 1949. He studied Arabic language and civilisation at the Sorbonne. He spent several years in Arabic countries for teaching or reseach. He was for five years a member of the Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale in Cairo. Since 1981 he is a teacher of Arabic language and Islamic thought at the Universite de Provence. He is also a member of IREMAM (Institut de Recherche et d'Etudes sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman). He studied, published and translated some works of Ibn al-'Arabi and different aspects of his doctrine. He is also interested by lifes of saints as a source for History of Sufism and also by the foundation of Islamic spirituality in Koran and Sunna.

James W. Morris is professor in Theology at Boston College. He has written and taught in many areas of spirituality and religious thought, including the Islamic humanities, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and cinema in spiritual teaching. His recent books include The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's 'Meccan Illuminations' (2005); Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); Knowing the Spirit (2006); and Ibn 'Arabi: The Meccan Revelations (2002).

Stephen Hirtenstein is editor of the Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal. He studied at the Beshara School in Scotland, and is co-founder of Anqa Publishing. His publications include a biography of Ibn 'Arabi, "The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi" (1999), a translation with Pablo Beneito of Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad as "The Seven Days of the Heart" (2000) and with Martin Notcutt of Ibn 'Arabi's Mishkat al-anwar as "Divine Sayings" (2005). He is currently working on a translation of some of Ibn 'Arabi's shorter texts.

Dr. Ghasem Kakaie is an Associate Professor and the Head of Theology and Islamic Sciences Department of Shiraz University in Iran. He was born in Shiraz in 1957. His main fields of researches are: Ibn Arabi, Sufism, Islamic Philosophy, and Comparative Mysticism. He has had a great and long time programme on interreligious dialogue from 1998 on. He has published more than 50 papers in international journals and also more than 10 books. He has won several scientific rewards in Iran, such as the best book of the year for his book: Oneness of Being from Ibn Arabi's and Meister Elkhart's viewpoints (2002).

Dr. Pablo Beneito is Professor at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Philology, University of Seville. He has edited and translated several of Ibn 'Arabi's works: the Mashahid al-asrar (with Souad al-Hakim, Spanish and Arabic edn.; with Cecilia Twinch, English version); the Kashf al-ma'na (El secreto de los Nombres de Dios) on the Divine Names; and, with Stephen Hirtenstein, Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad, translated into English as The Seven Days of the Heart. Among other works, recently he has published the anthology La taberna de las luces on Sufi poetry and the book El lenguaje de las alusiones on Ibn Arabi's doctrines of love, beauty and compassion. He is the Director of the collection Alquitara (devoted to Oriental literature) in Ediciones Mandala (Madrid).

Katia Holmes MA, MSc, Post-grad. Anthropology, spent three years lecturing at Paris University in the early 70s. A sabbatical at Samye Ling (Scotland) with Akong Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan lamas in the West, led to a lifetime of study and practice of Buddhism. She has translated core Tibetan texts, interpreted for major Kagyu lineage masters and researched Tibetan medicine, besides translating professionally for French publishers. She is particularly interested in the issue of transposing concepts between cultures. Years of turning inwards and patient chiselling has made her appreciate the fragile power of words to evoke the ineffable.

Sebastian Brock is an authority in the field of Syriac language. He is a former Reader in Syriac Studies at the University of Oxford's Oriental Institute and currently an Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. Sebastian Brock completed his BA degree at the University of Cambridge, and a D. Phil at Oxford. He is the recipient of a number of honorary doctorates and has been awarded the Medal of Saint Ephrem the Syrian by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch. He is a widely published author on Syriac topics. His best known books are The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian and The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life.

After graduating from Aleppo University (Syria) in 1990, he did a Masters degree in Physics at Cambridge University. After teaching Physics for several years in the UAE, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in 2005. The subject of his research was "The Concept of Time in Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology". A book based on this research, called Ibn 'Arabi - Time and Cosmology was published by Routledge in 2007. He has written other books related to Ibn 'Arabi including Shams-al-Magreb (in Arabic) which contains a detailed biography of Ibn 'Arabi. In addition he founded and runs the website www.ibnalarabi.com. Currently he is teaching at the United Arab Emirates University.

James Morris is Professor of Islamic Studies at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the IIS in Paris and London. Professor Morris has published and lectures widely on many areas of religious thought and practice, including the Islamic humanities and poetry, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and the Qur'an. His most recent books include Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabiis "Meccan Illuminations" (2005); Ostad Elahi's Knowing the Spirit (2007) and Openings: From the Qur'an to the Islamic Humanities (forthcoming).

William C. Chittick is professor of religious studies in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has spent forty years studying Ibn Arabi and his followers, not to mention the pre-modern Muslim intellectual tradition in general. Among his thirty books, five deal specifically with Ibn Arabi's thought: The Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989), Imaginal Worlds (1992), The Self-Disclosure of God (1998), Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (2005), and, as co-author, The Meccan Revelations (2002).

After graduating from Aleppo University (Syria) in 1990, he did a Masters degree in Physics at Cambridge University. After teaching Physics for several years in the UAE, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in 2005. The subject of his research was "The Concept of Time in Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology". A book based on this research, called Ibn 'Arabi - Time and Cosmology was published by Routledge in 2007. He has written other books related to Ibn 'Arabi including Shams-al-Magreb (in Arabic) which contains a detailed biography of Ibn 'Arabi. In addition he founded and runs the website www.ibnalarabi.com. Currently he is teaching at the United Arab Emirates University.

Prof. Michael Sells (University of Chicago), one of the foremost translators of the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, gives an introduction to the poetry of Ibn Arabi, and recites some of his unpublished poems. Aaron Cass and Taoufiq Ben Amor also recite poetry, alternating between English translation and original Arabic.

William C. Chittick, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies in the Asian and Asian American Studies Dept. at Stony Brook, has spent forty years studying Ibn 'Arabi and the pre-modern Muslim intellectual tradition. Among his thirty books, five deal with Ibn Arabi's thought: The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Imaginal Worlds, The Self-Disclosure of God, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets, and (as co-author) The Meccan Revelations.

Stephen Hirtenstein is editor of the Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal. He studied at the Beshara School in Scotland, and is co-founder of Anqa Publishing. His publications include a biography of Ibn 'Arabi, "The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi" (1999), a translation with Pablo Beneito of Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad as "The Seven Days of the Heart" (2000) and with Martin Notcutt of Ibn 'Arabi's Mishkat al-anwar as "Divine Sayings" (2005). He is currently working on a translation of some of Ibn 'Arabi's shorter texts.

After graduating from Aleppo University (Syria) in 1990, he did a Masters degree in Physics at Cambridge University. After teaching Physics for several years in the UAE, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in 2005. The subject of his research was "The Concept of Time in Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology". A book based on this research, called Ibn 'Arabi - Time and Cosmology was published by Routledge in 2007. He has written other books related to Ibn 'Arabi including Shams-al-Magreb (in Arabic) which contains a detailed biography of Ibn 'Arabi. In addition he founded and runs the website www.ibnalarabi.com. Currently he is teaching at the United Arab Emirates University.

When Chinese Muslims began in the 17th century to write about their ancestral religion in their native language - that is, Chinese - they produced a body of literature that is a synthesis of the Neo-Confucian and Islamic worldviews. On the Islamic side, they drew largely from Sufi teachers in the lineage of Ibn 'Arabi. Sachiko Murata, one of the great specialists of this insufficiently known but fascinating syncretic tradition at the crossroads of two great civilizations, shares her insights about this unique religious culture and how two such seemingly different approaches to life as passionate Sufi mysticism and Confucian discipline can coexist.

Prof. George Pattison is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and has published a number of books on modern philosophy of religion. His two forthcoming books are God and Being: An Enquiry (OUP, September 2010) and a translation of Kierkegaard's Devotional Writings: Gift, Creation, Love (Harper, Fall 2010).

Venerable Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist Master of the Kagyu Order. He was born in 1952 in Kham, East Tibet. From 1957 to 1959 he fled from Tibet with his family before the Chinese Communist occupation. Since then he has lived in Sikkim, India. Rinpoche has served as Professor of Tibetology in Sikkim for 17 years. He is deeply involved with the exchange of knowledge between religious scholars and scientists, and has a particular concern to participate in dialogues that contribute to mutual understanding, tolerance and peace in the world.

Jane Clark is a teacher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying Ibn 'Arabi's thought for nearly thirty years as a student of the Beshara School, and in 2000 took a degree at Oxford in order to read him in the original Arabic. She is particularly interested in the way that his ideas have spread throughout the world, and as Society Librarian has done research work on the early manuscripts. She has written and lectured on Ibn 'Arabi's thought and is most concerned with the universal appeal of his writings, especially as revealed in Fusus al-hikam.

Todd Lawson, PhD, teaches Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. His interests include the Qur'an and its interpretation over time, Islamic Gnosis, Shi'ism and its later developments such as the Babi and Bahai religions. He has published numerous articles on these and other topics as well as two books, Reason and Inspiration in Islam (London 2005) and The Crucifixion and the Qur'an (Oxford 2009). His book Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam is scheduled to appear later this year.

James Morris is Professor of Islamic Studies at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the IIS in Paris and London. Professor Morris has published and lectures widely on many areas of religious thought and practice, including the Islamic humanities and poetry, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and the Qur'an. His most recent books include Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabiis "Meccan Illuminations" (2005); Ostad Elahi's Knowing the Spirit (2007) and Openings: From the Qur'an to the Islamic Humanities (forthcoming).

Jaakko Hameen-Anttila (b. 1963) is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Helsinki University (Finland). He has published on Classical Arabic literature and cultural history. His latest book is "The Last Pagans of Iraq. A Study on the Religious, Philosophical, and Literary Aspects of Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture"

Angela Jaffray holds a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. Her translation of Ibn 'Arabi's al-Ittihad al-kawni (The Universal Tree and the Four Birds) was published by Anqa Publications in 2007. She has recently completed a translation of and commentary on Ibn 'Arabi's Isfar 'an nata'ij al-asfar (Unveiling from the Results of the Voyages), which will be published by Anqa Publications. For the past three years she has lived in Jerusalem. Narrated by Cecilia Twinch.

Nick Yiangou holds a Master's degree in Transpersonal Psychology and currently works as an IT manager in the software industry in California. He is a director of the United States branch of the Ibn 'Arabi Society, which promotes the teachings and translations of this great spiritual teacher. He is an ongoing student of the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education in Scotland, which is based on the principles and teachings of the way of oneness and unification, and previously served on the board of the Beshara Foundation in the US.

Pablo Beneito is currently Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpretation, Facultad de Letras, University of Murcia. He has collaborated in the editing and translation of several of Ibn 'Arabi's works: the Mashahid al-asrar; the Kashf al-ma'na, and Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad. He is now working on the critical edition and Spanish translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Kitab al-Mim wa-l-waw wa-l-nun on the Science of Letters, and with Souad Hakim is preparing an edition of his Kitab al-'Abadila, on the spiritual typologies. He has many other publications in this area.

Todd Lawson, PhD, teaches Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. His interests include the Qur'an and its interpretation over time, Islamic Gnosis, Shi'ism and its later developments such as the Babi and Bahai religions. He has published numerous articles on these and other topics as well as two books, Reason and Inspiration in Islam (London 2005) and The Crucifixion and the Qur'an (Oxford 2009). His book Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam is scheduled to appear later this year.

In 2009, The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society and the New York Open Center began the first of a series of conferences together on the great mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. We now present the second conference in this series, this one focusing on the relationship of Ibn 'Arabi's teachings to those of Jalaluddin Rumi, the other giant of Sufi mysticism. Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) and Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) are unquestionably the two great pillars of Islamic mysticism. They appeared in the same century, one from the Muslim West, the other from the East, bringing a glorious new vision of human potential and realization that has been a source of inspiration ever since. Their words continue to touch us directly, inviting us to explore the heart as the place of wisdom and love. This first conference dedicated to both these spiritual masters will be a unique opportunity to explore and discuss their teachings with leading scholars in the field. There will be lectures and workshops as well as traditional and original musical/artistic performances.

In 2009, The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society and the New York Open Center began the first of a series of conferences together on the great mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. We now present the second conference in this series, this one focusing on the relationship of Ibn 'Arabi's teachings to those of Jalaluddin Rumi, the other giant of Sufi mysticism. Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) and Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) are unquestionably the two great pillars of Islamic mysticism. They appeared in the same century, one from the Muslim West, the other from the East, bringing a glorious new vision of human potential and realization that has been a source of inspiration ever since. Their words continue to touch us directly, inviting us to explore the heart as the place of wisdom and love. This first conference dedicated to both these spiritual masters will be a unique opportunity to explore and discuss their teachings with leading scholars in the field. There will be lectures and workshops as well as traditional and original musical/artistic performances.

In 2009, The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society and the New York Open Center began the first of a series of conferences together on the great mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. We now present the second conference in this series, this one focusing on the relationship of Ibn 'Arabi's teachings to those of Jalaluddin Rumi, the other giant of Sufi mysticism. Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) and Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) are unquestionably the two great pillars of Islamic mysticism. They appeared in the same century, one from the Muslim West, the other from the East, bringing a glorious new vision of human potential and realization that has been a source of inspiration ever since. Their words continue to touch us directly, inviting us to explore the heart as the place of wisdom and love. This first conference dedicated to both these spiritual masters will be a unique opportunity to explore and discuss their teachings with leading scholars in the field. There will be lectures and workshops as well as traditional and original musical/artistic performances.

James W. Morris, PhD, Professor at Boston College and former Chair of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter has also taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at many universities, including Princeton, Oberlin, and the Sorbonne. His many books include: Knowing the Spirit ; The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's 'Meccan Illuminations'; Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation ; and Ibn 'Arabi: The Meccan Revelations.

Ahmed Eissawi, a noted, widely published Sufi poet and former Arabic language instructor at Ain Shams University in Cairo, is: on the faculty of the Foreign Languages Program at the U.N. (since 1991); an adjunct instructor in the Foreign Languages and Translation Department at NYU; founder and director of the Arabic Language Institute in NY; and a major figure in Arab-American culture and print and televised media. Aaron Cass is an actor, musician, composer and co-founder of the Vastearth Orchestra with whom he has produced two albums of classical Middle Eastern poetry set to music, "Green Bird" and "A Garden Amidst the Flames." The music composed is based on and inspired by the readings from Ibn 'Arabi. The group performs nationally in the UK.

Fatemeh Keshavarz, an Iranian academic, writer and literary figure, is professor of Persian Language and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her publications include Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran and Recite in the Name of the Red Rose: Poetics of Sacred Making in Twentieth Century Iran, and Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi. Her interview in 2007 on American Public Radio, Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi, won the Peabody Award.

Mahmud Erol Kilic, PhD, a graduate of the University of Istanbul, did postgraduate studies and taught at the Department of Islamic Philosophy at Marmara University where he published his MA thesis, Hermes and Hermetic Sciences According to Muslim Thinkers and completed his PhD thesis, Ibn 'Arabi's Ontology (2010). Professor Kilic has contributed many articles to journals and encyclopedias and attended many international conferences on Sufism and inter-religious dialogues. His recent book, Sufi and Poetry: Poetics of Ottoman Sufi Poetry, was chosen as the book of the year by the Association of Turkish Writers. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society in Oxford.

Fatemeh Keshavarz, an Iranian academic, writer and literary figure, is professor of Persian Language and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her publications include Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran and Recite in the Name of the Red Rose: Poetics of Sacred Making in Twentieth Century Iran, and Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi. Her interview in 2007 on American Public Radio, Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi, won the Peabody Award.

Ibn 'Arabi's erotic love poetry emerges from within the Arabic lyrical tradition. The named beloved in the poems is Nizam, a girl from Isfahan, who has been called Ibn 'Arabi's Beatrice. Michael Sells, who writes about and translates Ibn 'Arabi's love poetry, will discuss how the Nizam poems intimate a cultural romance between the Arabic and Persian literary, mystical and cultural worlds in the Middle Ages.

Ibn 'Arabi often refers to God as the "One Multiple" (al-Wahid al-kathir). Human beings, created in God's image, may thus also be viewed as each containing a "multiple oneness," an "inner spiritual community" of various divine attributes. In this lecture Professor Beneito will explore this spiritual diversity in each of us by drawing from Ibn 'Arabi's "Book of the Servants of God" (K. al-'Abadila) and its 117 chapters that describe 117 different aspects of this inner community and how, taken all together, these describe the perfect human being who has integrated this multiplicity of attributes into an essential unity.

Panel discussion with all speakers, with questions submitted by the audience.

Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the best-selling author of The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, Rumi: The Book of Love and The Drowned Book. He was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers' PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life and Fooling with Words. His most recent books are Rumi: The Big Red Book and a collection of his own personal poetry, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems. David Darling is a classically trained cellist who has taught and served as orchestra conductor and faculty cellist at Western Kentucky University. In 1969, he joined the Paul Winter Consort, whose sound blended jazz with Brazilian, African, Indian and other world music. Since he left the Consort in 1978, he has dedicated himself to a solo performing and recording career, and to teaching music and improvisation. In 2010, David won the Grammy Award for his album Prayer for Compassion.

Dr. Ann Coxon has been associated with the Society for many years and was the Fellows' Representative in 2005. She had an international childhood exposed to many religious faiths, and was educated in convent schools. She is a respected Consultant Physician and Neurologist, in full time Medical Practice in London at the age of 70. She says "she is still looking for the relationship between Medicine and Healing". As a child she realised that religion does not necessarily result in goodness, but that did not deter her from the search for a spiritual path. She is due to go on Hajj for the second time; the first time she was one of the pilgrims from the UK being followed by television. Ann describes herself as being an "unconventional Muslim" and believes "each person seeks and finds their own spiritual path".

James W. Morris, PhD, Professor at Boston College and former Chair of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter has also taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at many universities, including Princeton, Oberlin, and the Sorbonne. His many books include: Knowing the Spirit ; The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's 'Meccan Illuminations'; Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation ; and Ibn 'Arabi: The Meccan Revelations.

Alison Yiangou read physics and psychology at Bristol and Oxford and then trained in business management and human relations before joining her husband to found Yiangou Architects in 1981. A long-time student of the Beshara School and member of the Ibn 'Arabi Society, she has lectured internationally and has published in the Society's Journal. She recently helped establish the "Self-Knowledge and Global Responsibility" Journal

Cemalnur Sargut received her BSc in Chemical Engineering from the State Academy of Architecture and Engineering in 1974 and taught Chemistry to high school students in Istanbul for 20 years. For the last 25 years, she has been carrying out research and studies on Ahmad alRifai,Kenan Rifai and Rumi as well as Ibn 'Arabi, Niyazi Misri, Shibli, Qunawi and Jilli. She is President of the Turkish Women's Cultural Association (TURKKAD), Istanbul

Eric Geoffroy is Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Strasbourg. He also teaches at the Open University of Catalonia and at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). He is a specialist in the study of Sufism and sanctity in Islam

Samir Mahmoud is currently the Agha Khan Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He recently submitted his doctoral dissertation on Ibn 'Arabi at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Dot Clark is an experienced PersonCentred psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh. Her study relates the Metaphysics of Unity of Ibn 'Arabi to psychotherapy.

Mohammed Rustom is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author of The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mulla Sadra, and the main editor of an anthology of William Chittick's writings entitiled In Search of the Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought.

Wahid Amin is a D Phil candidate at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the development of post-Avicennan philosohy in the 13th Century with a special focus on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and the school of Maragha philosophers

William Chitick is Professor of Religious Studies at Stony Brook University and has published extensively on both Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi. His most recent books are In Search of the Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought and Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God

Carl Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. He is the William P. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His most recent publications are How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations and Islamophobia in America.

Todd Lawson is Associate Professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. He teaches courses on the Qur'an, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and related topics. His most recent book is Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam. He is now writing a book on the Qur'an as sacred epic.

Nargis Virani is Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at The New School in New York City. She has a PhD from Harvard University. Her research explores intersections between The Qur'an and Literatures originating in Muslim milieu. She has just completed two books on Rumi's multilingual poetry: I am the Nightingale of the Merciful: Translation of Rumi's Multilingual Poems with an Introductory Essay, and Keeping God's Secrets: Multilinguality and Mystical Discourse

Olga Louchakova-Schwartz is Professor of Psychology and Comparative Religion at Sofia University and spiritual teacher in the traditions of Advaita Vedanta, Kindalini, Yoga and Prayer of the Heart. Her numerous publications cover a broad range of topics including autoimmune diseases of the nervous system, psychosomatic mysticism and non-dual consciousness

Jane Clark is a teacher and independent scholar who has been studying Ibn 'Arabi for more than thirty years. She is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, working particularly on the Society's archiving project. Her recent publications include "Establishing Ibn 'Arabi's Heritage" (JMIAS 2013) and "Towards a Biography of Sadr al-diin al-Qunawi" (JMIAS 2011)

Prof. Georg Bossong has been full professor of Romance philology (especially Ibero-Romance linguistics) at the University of Zurich since 1994, and visiting professor at many other universities. Some of his published articles can be downloaded from his web page at the University of Zurich. He is currently preparing a translation of the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq into German

Dr Cyrus Ali Zargar is Assistant Professor in Religion at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in the USA. He is interested in using the study of literature in Persian and Arabic, especially lyric poetry, to explore Sufism and Shi'i mysticism. He recently published Sufi Aesthetics, which explores the spiritual writings and poetry of Ibn al-'Arabi and Fakhr al-Din 'Iraqi (d. 1289)

Omer Colakoglu teaches English at a school in Istanbul, and continues to work as a translator between Turkish and English. He has translated 14 books (two of them into English, the others into Turkish), and hundreds of articles. He is part-way through an MA program in Fatih University's School of Divinity

Dr. Kazuyo Murata is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at King's College London. Her ongoing work includes a study of the so-called jamal-parasti ("adoration of beauty") in the history of Sufism, also an investigation of the Quran commentary by Ruzbihan Baqli Shirazi, with a particular attention to his understanding of prophets.

Yafiah Katherine Randall is a doctoral student in the department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Winchester. Her thesis investigates Sufism among Israeli Jews and Muslims in Israel and explores its potential contribution to reconciliation and conflict transformation

Stephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Society's Journal for 30 years. He is co-founder and director of Anqa Publishing and author of The Unlimited Mercifier, a spiritual biography of Ibn 'Arabi. He has translated the Mishkat al-Anwar, Ibn 'Arabi's collection of hadith qudsi, and three of Ibn 'Arabi's shorter treatises including The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation (2008). He has lectured around the world and leads courses at the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education. He was awarded the first Tarjuman Prize by MIAS-Latina in 2012 (along with Maurice Gloton)

Jaume Flaquer is a Jesuit priest and Professor of Interreligious Dialogue in the Faculty of Theology of Catalonia in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the Sorbonne; his thesis was on Jesus according to the Sufi mystic Ibn 'Arabi. Publications include Christianity and Fundamentalism (1997) and Travelling Lives (2007). He gave a paper at the Second International Symposium of the MIAS-Latina in 2013 on The Spiritual Qualities of Jesus according to Ibn 'Arabi.

Michael Sells is Professor of Islamic History and Literature at the University of Chicago. He teaches courses on the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, Arabic religious texts, and Ibn 'Arabi. His publications include: Approaching the Quran: the Early Revelations (2007) and Mystical Languages of Unsaying (1994). He is also well-known for his translations of Arabic poetry including Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes (1989) and Stations of Desire - Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi And New Poems (2000)

Michael Sells is Professor of Islamic History and Literature at the University of Chicago. He teaches courses on the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, Arabic religious texts, and Ibn 'Arabi. His publications include: Approaching the Quran: the Early Revelations (2007) and Mystical Languages of Unsaying (1994). He is also well-known for his translations of Arabic poetry including Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes (1989) and Stations of Desire - Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi And New Poems (2000). John Mercer is an actor and writer, and formerly the Secretary of the Ibn 'Arabi Society and a founding member

Zachary Markwith is a doctoral student and instructor at the Graduate Theological Union where he specializes in early Islamic spirituality and comparative religious studies. He is the author of One God, Many Prophets: the Universal Wisdom of Islam, and is writing his dissertation on sanctity in the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.

MOHAMMED RUSTOM is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University. He is the author of the award-winning book The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mulla Sadra and Assistant Editor of The Study Quran: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary (Editor-in-Chief, Seyyed Hossein Nasr).

MARIA DAKAKE, researches and publishes on Islamic intellectual history, Quranic studies, Shi'ite and Sufi traditions, and women's spirituality and religious experience. She has just completed work on a major colloaborative project to produce the first HarperCollins Study Quran, a verse-by-verse commentary on the Quranic text

CYRUS ALI ZARGAR is an associate professor of religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. His book, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn 'Arabi and 'Iraqi, was published in 2011 by the University of South Carolina Press.

Robert Abdul Hayy Darr has been a student of the spiritual culture of Islam for 45 years. In the late 1960s, he studied North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California. By the early 1980s, Darr began studying Persian literature where he first encountered the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi in the works of Abdurrahman Jami of Herat. This began a life-long interest in the Shaykh's profound teachings. In 1987, Darr met Afghanistan's poet laureate in exile, Ustad Khalilullah Khalili and this friendship led to his English translation of the poet's quatrains in 1989. From 1988-2007, Darr was tutored in Persian miniature painting by Ustad Homayon Etemadi, Afghanistan's last court painter and royal librarian. Darr was the disciple of the Afghan Sufi poet Raz Mohammed Zaray from 1992 until the poet's death in 2010.