Overview

Muslim Spain gave rise to two unusual figures in the mystical tradition of Islam: Ibn Masarra (269/883-319/931) and Ibn al-'Arabi (560/1165-638/1240). Representing, respectively, the beginning and the pinnacle of Islamic mysticism in al-Andalus, Ibn Masarra and Ibn al-'Arabi embody in their writings a type of mystical discourse which is quite different from the Sufi discourse that evolved in the Islamic east during the 9th-12th centuries. In Mysticism and Philosophy in al-Andalus, Michael Ebstein points to the Isma'ili tradition as one possible source which helped shape the distinct intellectual world from which both Ibn Masarra and Ibn al-'Arabi derived. By analyzing their writings and the works of various Isma'ili authors, Michael Ebstein unearths the many links that connect the thought of Ibn Masarra and Ibn al-'Arabi to the Isma'ili tradition.

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Ebstein has shown in convincing detail the debt of the great mystic to the works in the Ismaʿili tradition. Michael Brett in , Volume 7, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2016. This book is an important and welcome contribution to modern scholarship, written with a remarkable sense of clarity, an impressive erudition, and constant attention to basing the discussion on textual evidence itself. Godefroid de Catalay in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77.3 (2014), 582-584. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X14000640

This book is an important and welcome contribution to modern scholarship, written with a remarkable sense of clarity, an impressive erudition, and constant attention to basing the discussion on textual evidence itself. Godefroid de Catalay in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77.3 (2014), 582-584. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X14000640

Author Information

Michael Ebstein, Ph.D. (2012), is a Martin Buber fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published various articles on Islamic history and thought, and is mainly interested in Islamic mysticism and the Shi'i-Isma'ili tradition.

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