Hi,

I wonder if anyone can recommend a useful book on Ibn Arabi's ideas about astrology? I've got Titus Burckhardt's Mystical Astrology According to Ibn Arabi as you might expect. But it's pretty terse, and isn't great at explaining what bit(s) of Arabi he's referring to at any given point.

I think Burckhardt's main source may be the Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya - translated as Meccan Openings/Illuminations/Revelations and things like that. Rather than try to wade through the whole thing (which I believe is huge, and largely untranslated in any case), I'm wondering about The Self-Disclosure of God by Chittick, which seems to be a sort of digest of the Al Futuhat. The particular angle that interests me is Ibn Arabi's view of astrology as being both a science and a matter of divine inspiration - at least I think that's his view, this is what I'm trying to get clear on. It's just touched on at pp46-7 of Burckhardt. Any suggestions gratefully received!

Garry

Hello Garry,

I will not pretend to have any insights on the complex issues you are wrestling with.

However, here are links to two websites devoted exclusively to Ibn Arabi. They both have list publications that may assist your quest further.

http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/index.html

http://www.ibn-arabi.com/aboutia.htm

Hi Garry,

As touched on in other thread, Seyyed Hossein's"An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines" I believe would be of assistance.

You may have already read these, but a couple of others that may also contribute are:

"The Seven Days of the Heart" by Ibn Arabi - Appendix A is on "Time According to Ibn Arabi's Ayyam al-sha'n", The Circle of Time.

Also perhaps "Journey to the Lord of Power - A Sufi Manual on Retreat" by Ibn Arabi.

Where this one's concerned, there's also:

"Ibn 'Arabi and the Mystical Journey: A First Attempt to Understand Ibn ?Arabi?s The Journey to the Lord of Power" by John G. Sullivan, Department of Philosophy, an on-line link here:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/sufilit/AL-ARABI.htm

And another perhaps is "THE SEALS OF WISDOM" by Ibn al-'Arabi an online interpretation/link here:

http://bewley.virtualave.net/fusus.html

Hope this is of some assistance.

Warmly,
TS

Thanks, MC & TS, there are riches a-plenty here. I've ordered a copy of the Nasr and will see where I go from there I think. Thanks again.
Garry

Dear Lord, just when I thought I could enjoy some of his poetry in peace...

I guess one of the really nice things about the poetry is the identification of "what is out there" with "what is in here in the mind", to put it in pedestrian terms. It implies subversion of the ancient (2,500+) year old epistemic prejudice that objects cause our knowledge. There aren't many (western) philosophers who rejected that prejudice - even Kant succumbed, but found it so intolerable he had to stand it on its head. J.F. Fries and Leonard Nelson are two who escaped the poison pill. But the logic of their arguments include a justification that appears more obscure than the problem it's supposed to solve.