BOOK REVIEWS

W. Madelung
Oriental Institute, Oxford
Quest for the Red Sulphur. The Life oflbn 'Arabt
By CLAUDE ADDAS. Translated by Peter Kingsley. Cambridge:
The Islamic Texts Society, 1993. Pp. xiv + 347. Price PB 14.95.
0-946621-45-4.
An Ocean without Shore. Ibn 'Arab?, the Book., and the Law
By MICHEL CHODKIEWICZ. Translated by David Streight. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1993. Pp. 180. Price HB $12.95.
0-7914-1625-9.
When I received the French original of Claude Addas's book Quest for the Red
Sulphur a few years ago, I read it like a novel, a novel written in a captivating
style and with a seemingly infinite love for its hero, the Great Master Ibn
'Arab!, a novel distinguished by its meticulous care for details and full of
trustworthy information taken from manuscript and printed sources. I used to

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cither an insignificant smoke screen or a later sectarian development. This was

remote from the view of Wellhausen who spoke of early Khirijism and ShTism
as religio-political factions.
Insufficient examination of pre-Umayyad history has led to some misinterpretations of Umayyad developments. Most conspicuous is the case of the
tribal group of RabTa whom the author characterizes as 'among the most
backward Arab groups in fighting ability1. Since the Umayyads had no use for
them, 'they were often shoved into marginal roles wherever they were found'
(55). In reality Rabl*a had been, just before the rise of Islam, the proud victors
at Dhfi Qar who first proved to the Arabs that they could defeat the Persian
imperial army. They played a major part in the ridda, evidently because they
resented Abu Bakr's claim that Quraysh alone were entitled to rule all Arabs,
and inflicted severe losses on Quraysh in the battle of al-'Aqraba'. They were
then prominent in the conquest of Mesopotamia and Iran. As supporters of
'Ali, the Basran Rabfa decided the battle of the Camel in his favour, humiliating
Quraysh. At Siffin it was RabTa who thwarted Mu'awiya's hopes for victory
by withstanding the onslaught of his heavily armed Syrian elite troops.
Mu'awiya vowed revenge against Rabl'a and mistreated them after his takeover of Iraq. This is the background of the antagonism between Rabra and
the Umayyads, champions of the privilege of Quraysh to rule in Islam, not any
inferior fighting qualities of Rabra. The author misinterprets the line of poetry
of a Bakri poet as an expression of the humiliation of Bakr b. Wa'il (Rabija)
(294 n. 48). It rather expresses proud defiance of Quraysh and the Umayyads,
reminding them that Islam had not come to accord Quraysh a privileged
position as they now claimed. Their defiance of the arrogance of Quraysh
drove RabT*a often to embrace Kharijism.

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BOOK REVIEWS

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tell my students that this was one of the great works in our field, deserving to
be translated very soon. Here now is the fine translation by Peter Kingsley. It
is more than a translation: with the author's help some additions have been
made, some points clarified.
Could one begin a biography of the great Andalusian thinker more beautifully
than with a verse by his compatriot Ibn Khafaja about Andalusia as a paradise?
This introductory line offers the basis for the author's conviction that for Ibn
'Arab! his numerous mystical encounters with the 'spiritual earth' were more
real than the visible Andalusia where the boy, only son of a pious, well-to-do
family, experienced visions even as a child.
From their native Murcia the family went to Seville, ruled by the Almohads.
From numerous autobiographical references scattered among his vast literary
output Addas has carefully collected solid information about the great 'traveller's' life on this earth and in 'the Vast Earth' of God. His first mystical
experiences apparently took place before he was fifteen, that is, before his
famous meeting with Ibn Rushd. They were the result of a jadhba, 'attraction',
not of systematic suluk, under the guidance of a master. Importantly, his first
spiritual teacher was Jesus, and in a later vision he appeared to him along with
Moses and the Prophet. Upon the Prophet's order, 'Hold fast to me!', the youth
immersed himself in an intense study of the Qur'an and hadtth. Periods of
complete renunciation followed, as did visions of spiritual things. Then in
Cordoba he experienced his third great vision in which he was named 'the Seal
of the Saints'a topos that remained central to his life, although it belongs
'to the realm of the undemonstrable'.
The author describes the political and cultural climate in Andalusia at the
end of the twelfth century, and is able to identify young Ibn 'ArabFs masters
in mundane and spiritual matters, masters to whom he often felt superior
owing to his gnosis. At the age of thirty he wandered to the Maghrib. Returning
to Andalusia in 1194, he began to write. We follow Ibn 'Arab! to Fez. Then he
bade farewell to his friends and travelled east into an area which was in turmoil
as a result of the crusades. His pilgrimage culminated in Makka, after he had
first visited Abraham's home in Hebron, then Jerusalem, then Madina, and
finally reached the centre of the earth, the Ka'ba, where he encountered the
youth who may be explained as his own 'essential Reality' and whose appearance inspired him to start writing the Futuhat al-makldyya, which he finished
three decades later (1231). The Ka'ba remained the centre of his life and
visions, and it was here that he met the accomplished Persian lady Nizam, to
whom the Tarjuman al-ashwaq is (at least largely) dedicated.
Again he had to travel, and it took another twenty years before he settled
in Damascus. On his journeys he met Sadr al-Dln al-QunawTs mother, whom
he married, and the relation between Ibn 'Arab! and Jalal al-DIn RumI through
Sadr al-DIn has been discussed time and again. RumI was certainly on friendly
terms with Sadr al-DIn, but let it be said that he, especially in his earlier days,
was quite critical of Ibn 'Arab!, particularly because of Shams-i TabrlzTs
influence, while evidence of the Shaykh al-Akbar's influence is found in Books
III and IV of the MathnawT and in Fthi ma fihi. But this problem is beyond
the scope of this review.

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Again Addas gives a lively survey of all the cultural aspects of Ibn 'Arabrs
last home, with its great number of scholars, Sufis, and jurists; and as Andalusia,
the country of his youth, had been called 'a paradise', so Damascus too is
described in the same terms by Ibn Jubayr. Here Ibn 'Arab! was inspired
to write the Fusils al-hikam and to complete the Futuhat; and here he passed
away.
Most welcome are the appendices: a chronological table of Ibn 'Arabrs life,
a chart of his links with Sufi currents in the West and his teachers, and the
four silsilas of the khirqa akbariyya. Glossary and bibliography are equally
welcome.
Addas writes in Chapter 4: 'It is impossible to map out Ibn 'ArabT's destiny
with any real precision, and even more impossible to verify the legitimacy of
his claims in matters of walaya or sainthood.' One is entitled to one's opinion
about his enormous claims to sainthooddo not true saints hide themselves
instead of unveiling their secrets? But whatever one's attitude to him may be,
to read this book provides constant inspiration and information, and we are
very grateful to the author for producing a work that will be indispensable for
all of us and guide the researcher through some of the intricacies of the great
spiritual journey. May many of those modern 'Sufis' learn from it that Ibn
'Arabrs stria holding fast to the Law, his aversion to Sufi dance, and his
Sharfa-biscd observations on the Christians are a far cry from the sweet,
sweeping 'religion of love' which they usually associate with his name!
Ibn 'Arabrs stance as a firm upholder of the Sharta and the 'letter of the
Word of God' becomes even more evident from Michel Chodkiewicz's study
An Ocean u/Hhout Shore. The author without doubt knows Ibn 'Arab! better
than any other Western scholar. In this comparatively short book, which
appeared in French in 1989, he sums up some of Ibn 'Arabrs most important
ideas. In the introduction he traces the vast range of Ibn 'Arabrs influence on
later generations, an influence that can be detected in the furthest corners of
the Muslim world, often without being properly acknowledged and more
often watered down, like a tune whose 'echo effects' are perceptible everywhere. But Ibn 'Arabrs vocabulary is quite idiosyncratic, and only a very deep
familiarity with his rhetorical conventions makes it possible to understand
him at all.
The author emphasizes the extreme importance of the word for Ibn 'Arab!
as well as the fact that everything comes from the Qur'an. When the Qur'an
was revealed to the Prophet, 'the eternal Word was put in a form' which has
to be preserved down to the last details. The letter thus has absolute sovereignty
and the form of the Word of God has to be scrupulously adhered to. The
Qur'an may descend upon the tongue or upon the heart; this distinction has
been made by many writers, including Iqbal when he speaks in the Javidnama
about the 'world of the Qur'an' which, eternally unchangeable, yet appears to
the listener according to the exigencies of his time. According to Ibn 'Arab!, it
is exactly 'thefidelityto the letter which implies a multiplicity of interpretations'
thanks to the polysemy of the Arabic language.
The quotation on p. 27 about God as the author and speaker of the Qur'an

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BOOK REVIEWS

Annemarie Scbimmel
Bonn

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is strongly reminiscent of Niffarfs Mawaqif, as Ibn 'Arab! was well acquainted

with this Iraqi mystic's writings (see Addas, p. 127).
The Qur'5n appears as an inexhaustible ocean; its shore is the sacred Law,
and Ibn 'Arab! felt himself to be a mujtabid. Yet, despite the absolute validity
of the legal prescriptions, the feeling of God's mercy supersedes everything, for
'the God who dictated the Law is also the God who said: "My mercy comprises
all things!'" (Sura 7:156).
Just as Ibn 'Arab! was able to recognize a special order, a relation of affinity,
in the Qur'an, he experienced such a mysterious ordering principle also in his
own Futuhat. Chapter 3 explains this order as far as possible: this is a most
ingenious deciphering of allusions in the Futuhat which can be discovered only
after years of meditation (such as the inverse progression between Qur'anic
sQras and certain parts of the FutUhSt). For want of space we cannot enter into
a discussion of this truly breathtaking discovery.
Remarkable is Ibn 'Arabrs emphasis upon the twin function of Shaifa and
haqiqa, 'daughters of the same father': only by obeying the law to its last letter
and by each limb following the exact legal prescriptions can the Muslim
experience higher revelations and visions.
The last chapter is devoted to prayer (after all, it is the fifth chapter and
thus is related to the five ritual prayers), and is also worthy of detailed analysis.
In preferring the fara'id over the nawafil, Ibn 'ArabT is much closer to the
so-called 'prophetic' type of piety than to the 'mystical' type; his whole work
is far from what one might call 'mystical intoxication' or overflowing love of
mysticism. It is rather the intellectual but loving expression of a spiritual
experience. This approach leads the magister magnuf also to definitions of
hierarchies, groups of saints (including women) and structures of the sacred,
explanations of creation and eschatologydefinitions which, to a simple mystical heart, would seem impious: who wants to know all these details? Would
one not rather pray with Yahya ibn Mu'5dh: 'Forgive me, for I belong to
Thee!'? In this approach to the sacred lies the root of Massignon's aversion to
Ibn 'Arab!. Hallaj represented the type of 'voluntaristic' mysticism which was
typical of early Sufism, while Ibn 'Arab! is the paragon of the 'theosophic'
(in the classical sense of the word) approach to the Divine. But it was
probably exactly this systematization of religious thought and experience
which made Ibn 'ArabT so important at a time when the Muslim world
was having to recover from the Mongol onslaught and when new structures
were required.
Chodkiewicz's book is proof of a growing appreciation of Ibn 'Arabrs work
since the days of H. S. Nyberg, A. A. Afifi, and others. It will remain indispensable for our understanding of his grand systema system which can be admired
(with some awe, to be sure!) even by those who, with all due respect, still
prefer a simple line of poetry by Ruml, Yunus Emrc, or Shah Abdul Latjf to
this well-structured spiritual cosmos, which the author has explained so lucidly.
We hope for more works of this kind from his pen, insha Allah!