Overview

"The thirteenth century mystic Ibn `Arabi was the foremost Sufi theorist of the premodern era. For more than a century, Western scholars and esotericists have heralded his universalism, arguing that he saw all contemporaneous religions as equally valid. In Rethinking Ibn `Arabi, Gregory Lipton calls this image into question and throws into relief how Ibn `Arabi's discourse is inseparably intertwined with the absolutist vision of his own religious milieu--that is, the triumphant claim that Islam fulfilled, superseded, and therefore abrogated all previous revealed religions. Lipton juxtaposes Ibn `Arabi's absolutist conception with the later reception of his ideas, exploring how they have been read, appropriated, and universalized within the reigning interpretive field of Perennial Philosophy in the study of Sufism. The contours that surface through this comparative analysis trace the discursive practices that inform Ibn `Arabi's Western reception back to the eighteenth and nineteenth century study of ""authentic"" religion, where European ethno-racial superiority was wielded against the Semitic Other-both Jewish and Muslim. Lipton argues that supersessionist models of exclusivism are buried under contemporary Western constructions of religious authenticity in ways that ironically mirror Ibn `Arabi's medieval absolutism."

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Rethinking Ibn Arabi provides the first critical study of how the great Andalusian Sufi, Ibn Arabi, has been turned into a universalist by modern interpreters. Lipton's convincing intervention demands that we read this central figure in a different way. --Carl W. Ernst, translator of Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr Lipton's mastery of Ibn Arabi's writings in some ways mimics the Sufi tradition's own internalizing techniques, but he does not simply reconstruct and assess Ibn Arabi's thought, but performs a very delicate and painstaking archaeology of Ibn Arabi's place in European scholastic Sufism and the broader politics of perennial religion. This is a must read for anyone interested in the European appropriation of Sufism and the vagaries of translating Sufi thought for the West. --Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Vanderbilt University Using critical discourse analysis and careful study of primary sources, Lipton raises provocative questions about scholarly approaches to the work of Ibn Arabi. Rethinking Ibn Arabi not only places Ibn Arabi's thought within its social and historical context, but also challenges the way we think about translation and interpretation, which--Lipton reminds us--are never ideologically neutral undertakings. Cyrus Ali Zargar, author of The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism Gregory Lipton's Rethining Ibn 'Arabi is a crucial intervention in the studies of Sufism more particularly and mysticism more broadly. No matter how we imagine to be simply reading medieval texts directly, we are always reading these texts through a framework that is also shaped by our own theoretical lens. Lipton's work reminds us that our categories of universalism and mysticism are shaped also by the categories of 19th and 20th century, particularly those shaped by profoundly problematic racial categorizations. It is a work that is urgently recommended for all scholars of Sufism, Islamic studies, and comparative mysticism. --Safi Omid, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University, Trinity College of Arts and Science

Gregory Lipton's Rethinking Ibn 'Arabi is a crucial intervention in the studies of Sufism more particularly and mysticism more broadly. No matter how we imagine to be simply reading medieval texts directly, we are always reading these texts through a framework that is also shaped by our own theoretical lens. Lipton's work reminds us that our categories of universalism and mysticism are shaped also by the categories of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly those shaped by profoundly problematic racial categorizations. It is a work that is urgently recommended for all scholars of Sufism, Islamic studies, and comparative mysticism. * Omid Safi, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University, Trinity College of Arts and Science * Using critical discourse analysis and careful study of primary sources, Lipton raises provocative questions about scholarly approaches to the work of Ibn `Arabi. Rethinking Ibn `Arabi not only places Ibn `Arabi's thought within its social and historical context, but also challenges the way we think about translation and interpretation, which-Lipton reminds us-are never ideologically neutral undertakings. * Cyrus Ali Zargar, author of The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism * Lipton's mastery of Ibn `Arabi's writings in some ways mimics the Sufi tradition's own internalizing techniques, but he does not simply reconstruct and assess Ibn `Arabi's thought, but performs a very delicate and painstaking archaeology of Ibn `Arabi's place in European scholastic Sufism and the broader politics of perennial religion. This is a must read for anyone interested in the European appropriation of Sufism and the vagaries of translating Sufi thought for the West. * Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Vanderbilt University * Rethinking Ibn `Arabi provides the first critical study of how the great Andalusian Sufi, Ibn `Arabi, has been turned into a universalist by modern interpreters. Lipton's convincing intervention demands that we read this central figure in a different way. * Carl W. Ernst, translator of Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr *

Rethinking Ibn `Arabi provides the first critical study of how the great Andalusian Sufi, Ibn `Arabi, has been turned into a universalist by modern interpreters. Lipton's convincing intervention demands that we read this central figure in a different way. --Carl W. Ernst, translator of Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr Lipton's mastery of Ibn `Arabi's writings in some ways mimics the Sufi tradition's own internalizing techniques, but he does not simply reconstruct and assess Ibn `Arabi's thought, but performs a very delicate and painstaking archaeology of Ibn `Arabi's place in European scholastic Sufism and the broader politics of perennial religion. This is a must read for anyone interested in the European appropriation of Sufism and the vagaries of translating Sufi thought for the West. --Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Vanderbilt University Using critical discourse analysis and careful study of primary sources, Lipton raises provocative questions about scholarly approaches to the work of Ibn `Arabi. Rethinking Ibn `Arabi not only places Ibn `Arabi's thought within its social and historical context, but also challenges the way we think about translation and interpretation, which--Lipton reminds us--are never ideologically neutral undertakings. Cyrus Ali Zargar, author of The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism Gregory Lipton's Rethining Ibn 'Arabi is a crucial intervention in the studies of Sufism more particularly and mysticism more broadly. No matter how we imagine to be simply reading medieval texts directly, we are always reading these texts through a framework that is also shaped by our own theoretical lens. Lipton's work reminds us that our categories of universalism and mysticism are shaped also by the categories of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly those shaped by profoundly problematic racial categorizations. It is a work that is urgently recommended for all scholars of Sufism, Islamic studies, and comparative mysticism. --Omid Safi, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University, Trinity College of Arts and Science

Gregory Lipton's Rethinking Ibn 'Arabi is a crucial intervention in the studies of Sufism more particularly and mysticism more broadly. No matter how we imagine to be simply reading medieval texts directly, we are always reading these texts through a framework that is also shaped by our own theoretical lens. Lipton's work reminds us that our categories of universalism and mysticism are shaped also by the categories of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly those shaped by profoundly problematic racial categorizations. It is a work that is urgently recommended for all scholars of Sufism, Islamic studies, and comparative mysticism. * Safi Omid, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University, Trinity College of Arts and Science * Using critical discourse analysis and careful study of primary sources, Lipton raises provocative questions about scholarly approaches to the work of Ibn `Arabi. Rethinking Ibn `Arabi not only places Ibn `Arabi's thought within its social and historical context, but also challenges the way we think about translation and interpretation, which-Lipton reminds us-are never ideologically neutral undertakings. * Cyrus Ali Zargar, author of The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism * Lipton's mastery of Ibn `Arabi's writings in some ways mimics the Sufi tradition's own internalizing techniques, but he does not simply reconstruct and assess Ibn `Arabi's thought, but performs a very delicate and painstaking archaeology of Ibn `Arabi's place in European scholastic Sufism and the broader politics of perennial religion. This is a must read for anyone interested in the European appropriation of Sufism and the vagaries of translating Sufi thought for the West. * Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Vanderbilt University * Rethinking Ibn `Arabi provides the first critical study of how the great Andalusian Sufi, Ibn `Arabi, has been turned into a universalist by modern interpreters. Lipton's convincing intervention demands that we read this central figure in a different way. * Carl W. Ernst, translator of Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr *

Author Information

Gregory Lipton is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Macalester College, where he also held a Berg Postdoctoral Fellowhip in Religious Studies.

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