Overview

Two important texts in the Sufi tradition made available together in English for the first time. Inscriptions of Wisdom brings together, for the first time in English, two pivotal Sufi texts that illuminate Ibn al-ʿArabī's (d. 1240) celebrated work Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. The first, Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ (the Inscription of the Fuṣūṣ), is Ibn al-ʿArabī's own distillation of Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, presenting a concise yet profound articulation of its core teachings. The second, Naqd al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ (texts commenting on Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ), by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī, is an anthology of carefully selected passages from the earliest and most authoritative interpreters of Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, enriched with Jāmī's own insights. Together, these works explore the quintessential knowledge and divine principles embodied by each of the twenty-seven major prophetic figures of the Islamic tradition, from Adam to Muhammad. If Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam represents the culmination of Ibn al-ʿArabī's thought, then Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ distills its very essence and inner mystery. Mukhtar H. Ali's meticulous presentation of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam commentarial tradition—featuring the first complete English translation of Jāmī's Naqd al-nuṣūṣ, chapter-by-chapter analysis, and extensive notes on key Sufi terms and concepts—establishes this volume as a landmark study in Islamic metaphysics and Sufi thought.

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Reviews

""Thanks to Mukhtar H. Ali's laborious efforts, we now have a complete translation of Jāmī's masterpiece of philosophical Sufism known as Naqd al-nuṣūṣ, which itself is a commentary upon Ibn ʿArabī's own summary of his extremely influential Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. One of the great merits of Jāmī’s work is that it forms a veritable anthology of the mainstream tradition of the School of Ibn ʿArabī, citing extensively from its major representatives such as Qūnawī, Kāshānī, and Qayṣarī. Inscriptions of Wisdom therefore offers contemporary readers a lively presentation of a major Sufi metaphysical text with its robust commentarial procedure, spiritual teachings, and various layers of sophisticated argumentation on full display."" — Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt

Author Information

Mukhtar H. Ali is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArab in the ""Muqaddimat al-Qaysòar.""

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