T h e n e w yo r k O p e n C e n t e r a n d t h e m u h y i d d i n I b n A r a b i S o c i e t y

Teachings for the Modern World

November 4 & 5, 2011
at Columbia University, New York City

Ibn rabi & Rumi

Friday & Saturday

p r e s e n t

Conference
James W. Morris Fatemeh Keshavarz Michael Sells Pablo Beneito Mahmud Kili Stephen Hirtenstein Cecilia Twinch Nargis Virani Salman Ahmad Omar Faruk Tekbilek Aaron Cass Ahmed Eissawi Tamir

Celebrating Sufism through Poetry, Music and Dance: A Concert

Coleman Barks David Darling Salman Ahmad Aaron Cass Sakina

Plenary Sessions & Workshops

Plenary:

Becoming Real:
KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Plenary:

Realization and Revelation in Rumi and Ibn Arabi

James W. Morris, PhD
One of the distinctive qualities of Rumi and Ibn Arabis masterpieces is their singular focus on bringing about the transformation and spiritual illumination of each reader, no matter his/her level or length of engagement with their writings. That guiding intention remains powerfully effective today, almost eight centuries later and despite all the challenges of translation, with audiences from every background. This talk will identify and explore some of the key practical and rhetorical elements of their shared devotion to the process of spiritual realization (tahqiq), as well as their common inspiration in neglected dimensions of the Quran.
Workshop:

How Sweetly with a Kiss Is the Speech Interrupted:

The Dynamism of Silence in Rumis Lyric Poetry
Fatemeh Keshavarz
In his collection of lyric poems, known as the Divan, Rumi foregrounds silence as a major theme. Based on these verses, he has, at times, been portrayed as a reluctant poet. Moreover, one may ask, If silence is such an effective tool for attaining spiritual excellence, why not remain silent? In this presentation, Professor Keshavarz explores the varieties of silence in Rumis work and their function as a literary strategy to overcome the ineffability of mystical experience.
Workshop:

Plenary:

Ibn Arabis Lyric Mysticism and the Persian-Arabic Love Affair

Michael Sells, Ph.D.
Ibn Arabis erotic love poetry emerges from within the Arabic lyrical tradition. The named beloved in the poems is Nizam, a girl from Isfahan, who has been called Ibn Arabis Beatrice. Michael Sells, who writes about and translates Ibn Arabis love poetry, will discuss how the Nizam poems intimate a cultural romance between the Arabic and Persian literary, mystical and cultural worlds in the Middle Ages.
Workshop:

The Treasury of the Heart is the Library of God. Let him not allow thoughts other than those concerning God to enter.
Ibn Arabi

In 2009, The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and the New York Open Center began the first of a series of conferences together on the great mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. We now present the second conference in this series, this one focusing on the relationship of Ibn Arabis teachings to those of Jalaluddin Rumi, the other giant of Sufi mysticism.
Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) and Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) are unquestionably the two great pillars of Islamic mysticism. They appeared in the same century, one from the Muslim West, the other from the East, bringing a glorious new vision of human potential and realization that has been a source of inspiration ever since. Their words continue to touch us directly, inviting us to explore the heart as the place of wisdom and love.

The Kaleidoscopic Postures of Love:

Fatemeh Keshavarz

Color, Shape and Movement in the Divan-e Shams

Dynamism permeates every aspect of Rumis lyric poetry in the Divan-e Shams, and striking images serve as a central driving force that propels the dynamic power of these verses. In this workshop, we will explore the importance and function of this extraordinary kaleidoscopic imagery.
Fatemeh Keshavarz, an Iranian academic, writer and literary figure, is professor of Persian Language and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. Her publications include Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran and Recite in the Name of the Red Rose: Poetics of Sacred Making in Twentieth Century Iran, and Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi. Her interview in 2007 on American Public Radio, Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi, won the Peabody Award.

Moses, Ibn Arabi, and the Voice in the Fire

Michael Sells, PhD
In this workshop we will examine the Quranic passages about Moses encounter with the divine voice in the fire and the importance the words spoken to Moses from the fire Lo, II am your lord take on in Ibn Arabis writing as a key expression of fana (mystical annihilation) and mystical union. Reading Ibn Arabis texts with the Quranic passages they evoke will allow us to explore how the identities of the speaker and the listener, the author and the reader, are transformed.
Michael Sells, PhD is the John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He is the author of many works, including: Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations; Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes; Stations of Desire; Early Islamic Mysticism; Mystical Languages of Unsaying; The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia; The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy; and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.

What Dreams May Come:

Between Stories and Dream With Rumi and Ibn Arabi
James W. Morris, PhD
In this workshop, we will look closely at a few seminal texts from Ibn Arabis 560-chapter magnum opus, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (a work that is often neglected because of its length and which was deeply informed by a vision he had near the Kaba in Mecca), in which he deals extensively with compassion. We will explore how Ibn Arabis views on the centrality of compassion fit into the broader context of Islamic and Sufi teachings.
James W. Morris, PhD, Professor at Boston College and former Chair of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter has also taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at many universities, including Princeton, Oberlin, and the Sorbonne. His many books include: Knowing the Spirit ; The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn Arabis Meccan Illuminations; Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation ; and Ibn Arabi: The Meccan Revelations.

This first conference dedicated to both these spiritual masters will be a unique opportunity to explore and discuss their teachings with leading scholars in the field. There will be lectures and workshops as well as traditional and original musical/artistic performances.

Cover photo: Generalife Garden in the Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Plenary Sessions
Plenary:

Conference Schedule
Location: Columbia University, New York
Friday Saturday, Altschul Auditorium FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
6 pm (doors open at 5 pm)
Workshop:

& Workshops
Where the Two Oceans Meet
The Way of the Mystic
Stephen Hirtenstein, MA
In this interactive workshop, we shall look at how the two masters depict the way of the mystic as opposed to the way of learning pursued by the intellectual. We will focus on a story which both tell in their different ways, and explore what mysticism implies for us today. This is also a vital question that goes to the heart of our very existence, since as Rumi puts it, Bounty is in need of beggars.
Stephen Hirtenstein, MA is the author of The Unlimited Mercifier, a spiritual biography of Ibn Arabi, and has translated three of Ibn Arabis shorter treatises, The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation, Divine Sayings and The Seven Days of the Heart. He is a senior research fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and editor of the Societys journal, as well as co-founder and director of Anqa Publishing.

Ibn Arabis Vision of the Multiple Oneness of the Inner Human Kingdom
Pablo Beneito, PhD
Ibn Arabi often refers to God as the One Multiple (al-Whid al-kathr). Human beings, created in Gods image, may thus also be viewed as each containing a multiple oneness, an inner spiritual community of various divine attributes. In this lecture Professor Beneito will explore this spiritual diversity in each of us by drawing from Ibn Arabis Book of the Servants of God (K. al-Abdila) and its 117 chapters that describe 117 different aspects of this inner community and how, taken all together, these describe the perfect human being who has integrated this multiplicity of attributes into an essential unity.
Workshop:

Plenary:

Workshop:

We Sucked Milk From Two Mothers

Ibn Arabi and Rumi as Cofounders of Ottoman Sufi Thought
Mahmud Erol Kili, PhD
Until the beginning of the modern era, Sufism was the dominant paradigm in almost all Muslim societies. Under the Ottomans, Sufism was well established and widely diffused throughout the empire. The Ottomans considered Ibn Arabi their spiritual father. His books and many commentaries about them were read widely, but the other great Sufi master, Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumis sayings were considered a poetic expression of the same values as Ibn Arabis and were equally popular, so many efforts were made to try to synthesize their ideas. In this session, a leading Turkish Ibn Arabi scholar will explore how Ibn Arabis and Rumis ideas were combined in Ottoman Sufi thought and the relevance this synthesis has for us today.
Workshop:

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
12:00 pm Lunch (breakout rooms)

Rumis Ladder to Heaven

Nargis Virani, PhD
In this workshop we will closely examine one of Rumis most unusual poems, one that brings together 17 different verses culled from a variety of suras in the Quran, and that is absolutely unique in the huge corpus of Muslim mystico-literary production, truly one-of-a-kind structurally, rhythmically, and metrically. It is also exceptionally interesting from the perspective of spiritual seeking because it provides in one short ghazal all the ingredients and steps necessary for the pilgrims progress toward higher states of consciousness.
Nargis Virani, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Arabic at The New School University Liberal Studies in New York. Her doctoral dissertation entitled, I am the Nightingale of the Merciful Macaronic or Upside Down? analyzed the Mulammaat, the mixed-language poems, in Rumis Diwan and she is currently converting this into a book which will also include a translation into English of all of Rumis multilingual verses in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Greek, and Armenian. Dr Viranis second book project is tentatively entitled, Quran in Muslim Literary Memory.

Introduction: New York Open Center / Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

6:30 pm
Keynote Speaker:

Afternoon Workshops Sessions I & II

1:30 pm Workshops Session I Options

Becoming Real: Realization and Revelation in Rumi and Ibn Arabi

James W. Morris 730 pm

Where the Two Oceans Meet: The Way of the Mystic

Stephen Hirtenstein

From Separation to Union in Sufi Thought and Practice

Mahmud Kili

Recitation of Ibn Arabi and Rumi Poetry in English, Arabic and Persian
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Ahmed Eissawi and Aaron Cass 8:30 pm

What Dreams May Come: Between Stories and Dream With Rumi and Ibn Arabi
James W. Morris

Rumi in Spirit

Sufi Devotional Music

Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Salman Ahmad

Rumis Ladder to Heaven

Nargis Virani
Workshop:

On the Seriousness of Rigorous Hilarity in the Masnavi

Pablo Beneito, PhD
Professor Beneito believes no description need be provided for this session, describing it only as an anti-workshop and an extraordinary session of God knows what.
Dr. Pablo Beneito, PhD is Professor Titular at the Department of Translation and Interpretation, Facultad de Letras, University of Murcia. He has been visiting Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne), the University of Kyoto (ASAFAS), the Universidad Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil), and the Escuela de Traductores de Toledo in Spain. He previously taught at the University of Seville in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and has collaborated in the editing and translation of several of Ibn Arabis works: including the Mashahid al-asrar, the Kashf al-maana, and Ibn Arabis Awrad. He is now working on the critical edition and Spanish translation of Ibn Arabis Kitab al-Mim wa-l-waw wa-l-nun, on the Science of Letters, and, with Souad Hakim, is preparing an edition of his Kitab al-Abadila, on the spiritual typologies.

From Separation to Union in Sufi Thought and Practice

Mahmud Erol Kili, PhD
Professor Kili will examine Sufi perspectives on the stages of the path from separation to union as described by Ottoman commentators on Ibn Arabi and Rumi, such as Ismail Bursevi, Niyazi Misri, and Salahaddin Ushshaqi.
Mahmud Erol Kili, PhD, a graduate of the University of Istanbul, did postgraduate studies and taught at the Department of Islamic Philosophy at Marmara University where he published his MA thesis, Hermes and Hermetic Sciences According to Muslim Thinkers and completed his PhD thesis, Ibn Arabis Ontology (2010). Professor Kili has contributed many articles to journals and encyclopedias and attended many international conferences on Sufism and inter-religious dialogues. His recent book, Sufi and Poetry: Poetics of Ottoman Sufi Poetry, was chosen as the book of the year by the Association of Turkish Writers. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society in Oxford.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
9 am 12 noon

3:00 pm Workshops Session II Options

Morning Plenaries Ibn Arabis Lyric Mysticism and the Persian-Arabic Love Affair
Michael Sells

On the Seriousness of Rigorous Hilarity in the Masnavi

Pablo Beneito

Ill Meet You There...

Cecilia Twinch, MA
The heart is the meeting place for those who leave aside their particular beliefs in order to be transformed by love. Yet only the true knower of reality can discover who the Beloved really is. Ibn Arabi and Rumi both invite us to participate in that journey of transformation. Despite the specific religious and cultural contexts from which they emerged, they still speak to all who yearn to go beyond a limited idea of the self in order to discover their true nature. This workshop will include the exploration of texts which help open us up to the understanding that what we are looking for is always present.
Cecilia Twinch, MA read modern and medieval languages at Cambridge, and is a senior research fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, Oxford. She has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn Arabi and mysticism worldwide. Her publications include an English translation (with Pablo Beneito) of Ibn Arabis Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and a forthcoming new translation of Know Yourself: The Treatise on Unity .

Workshop:

Rumi in Spirit
Salman Ahmad
Ever since the 13th century, countless poets, musicians, writers and dancers from a wide range of countries have been inspired by the work and spirit of the Mevlana (i.e., the founder of the Mevlevi Order), Jalaluddin Rumi. This evening, the renowned South Asian cultural figure Salman Ahmad, founder of the legendary Sufi rock group Junoon, will highlight some of these transcultural cross-pollinations through song, poetry and video, exploring Rumis continuing impact on religion, literature and the arts in both Muslim and non-Muslim contexts.
Salman Ahmad, born in Pakistan and raised in New York and Lahore, is a musician who founded South Asias most popular rock band, Junoon, in 1990. He is also a physician, U.N. goodwill ambassador, professor at Queens College, and the co-founder of the Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, focused on interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, global health and music education.

We Sucked Milk from Two Mothers: Ibn Arabi and Rumi as Co-founders of Ottoman Sufi Thought
Mahmud Kili Break

Moses, Ibn Arabi, and the Voice in the Fire

Michael Sells

Ill Meet You There...

Cecilia Twinch

Ibn Arabis Vision of the Multiple Oneness of the Inner Human Kingdom
Pablo Beneito

The Kaleidoscopic Postures of Love: Color, Shape and Movement in the Divan-e Shams
Fatemeh Keshavarz 4:30 5:30 pm

How Sweetly with a Kiss Is the Speech Interrupted: The Dynamism of Silence in Rumis Lyric Poetry
Fatemeh Keshavarz
P o s t- Co n f e r e n c e E v e n t:

Panel Discussion and Q & A with Presenters

5:30 pm

Conference Ends

Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 pm

Coleman Barks & David Darling, Salman Ahmad, Sakina & more

Music & Poetry

F R I Day e v e n i n g e v e n t

Friday Night

Registration
Conference Fee
(Pre-registration is recommended) $175 (booking code 11WSSS13S)
Please call for group & student discounts. When registering, please, have your two afternoon workshop choices ready.

Post-Conference Event
S AT U R DAY e v e n i n g e v e n t

Saturday Night

and Poetry Recitations in Arabic, Persian and English

Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Featuring the Music of

Location
Morningside Campus of Columbia University at the Altschul Auditorium in the International Affairs building. The building is at 420 W. 118th Street, on the south side of 118th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Avenue (closer to Amsterdam). Altschul Auditorium is located in the lobby of the building on the first floor, room 417.

Coleman Barks with David Darling,

Featuring

Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Saturday Concert
Tamir is a busy actress who appears in productions across the U.S. and in Europe, a dancer, playwright, author, sought-after voiceover artist, Iyengar Yoga instructor, and performer (including two one-woman shows based on the books of Amos Oz). She has produced several CDs of devotional poetry (including Rumis) accompanied by renowned musicians, including Poetry on Prayer, The Way of the Heart and, most recently, Soul of Love (featuring the poetry of Sant Darshan Singh). Conference attendees: $18 General audience: $28 (booking code: 11WSSS15S)
Please call for group rates of 5 or above.

Salman Ahmad, Sakina and Aaron Cass

Whirling Dervishes

Coleman Barks
Rumis Community

A Performance of Sufi Devotional Music

Accompanied by Aaron Cass on percussion and Tamir on vocals
Omar Faruk Tekbilek, a Turkish musical prodigy, began playing traditional pieces on the kaval (a small diatonic flute), ney (bamboo flute), zurna (double-reed oboe-like instrument), baglama (long-necked lute), and oud (the classic lute), as well as percussion. A seasoned traditional performer by age 12, he gradually explored a wide range of musical genres, absorbed mystical influences from the Mevlevi Dervishes, and eventually became one of the worlds foremost exponents of Middle Eastern music.

with David Darling

Celebrating the Eternal Rumi with Poetry and Music
Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the best-selling author of The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, Rumi: The Book of Love and The Drowned Book. He was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life and Fooling with Words. His most recent books are Rumi: The Big Red Book and a collection of his own personal poetry, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems. David Darling is a classically trained cellist who has taught and served as orchestra conductor and faculty cellist at Western Kentucky University. In 1969, he joined the Paul Winter Consort, whose sound blended jazz with Brazilian, African, Indian and other world music. Since he left the Consort in 1978, he has dedicated himself to a solo performing and recording career, and to teaching music and improvisation. In 2010, David won the Grammy Award for his album Prayer for Compassion.

Sakina: The Dance of the

Dionesia Garcia (aka Sakina), has been a member of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order of dervishes for a decade and has trained intensely in Sufism and in the discipline of whirling, in which she has led workshops for several years, including a monthly session at the Jerrahi Dergah in NYC. She is also a rigorously trained, award-winning flamenco dancer and teacher from Spain now based in New York City, performing widely throughout Europe and the Americas.

Refunds
Refunds are available minus a processing fee of $15 if you cancel up to two weeks prior to the first day of the program. Course credits are available minus a processing fee of $15 if you cancel up to 48 hours prior to the first day of the program. Course credit is valid for one year, and may be applied to memberships or courses by pre-registration only. Any processing of a refund or credit is pending until you receive notice that the Registration Department has received your request and deemed it valid. There are no refunds or course credits for the Saturday evening concert.

How to Get There

For detailed directions on how to get to Columbia University, please visit the Columbia website at: http://www.columbia.edu/content/morningside-heights.html

Ahmed Eissawi: Recitation of Ibn Arabis Poetry in Arabic

English rendition by Aaron Cass
Ahmed Eissawi, a noted, widely published Sufi poet and former Arabic language instructor at Ain Shams University in Cairo, is: on the faculty of the Foreign Languages Program at the U.N. (since 1991); an adjunct instructor in the Foreign Languages and Translation Department at NYU; founder and director of the Arabic Language Institute in NY; and a major figure in Arab-American culture and print and televised media.

To register visit: www.opencenter.org/ibn-arabi or call 212-219-2527 x 2

Salman Ahmad:
Blues for Rumi
Salman Ahmad, born in Pakistan and raised in New York and Lahore, is a musician who founded South Asias most popular rock band, Junoon, in 1990. He is also a physician, U.N. goodwill ambassador, professor at Queens College, and the cofounder of the Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, focused on interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, global health and music education.

Partners
The New York Open Center is the largest urban center of holistic learning and world culture in the U.S. Since 1984, more than 250,000 have come through its doors to find educational programs and cultural events that expand the mind and spirit, and to hear fresh alternative voices on matters of perennial concern. In addition, it has become a platform for the worlds most accomplished writers, scholars, activists and visionaries, including spiritual teachers such as Karen Armstrong, Thich Nhat Hanh, Cornel West, Robert Thurman, and others too numerous to list here. The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society is a registered non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1977. Twenty years of presenting annual symposia have established the Society as the leading international organization promoting the remarkable spiritual legacy and teachings of Ibn Arabi. The Society publishes a journal and newsletter, maintains a library and digital manuscript archive, hosts numerous public events, and has a website with many articles for online reading, podcasts of talks and information about events and books. www.ibnarabisociety.org

Aaron Cass is an actor, musician, composer and co-founder of the Vastearth Orchestra with whom he has produced two albums of classical Middle Eastern poetry set to music, Green Bird and A Garden Amidst the Flames. The music composed is based on and inspired by the readings from Ibn Arabi. The group performs nationally in the UK.

Fatemeh Keshavarz: Recitation of Rumis Poetry in Persian

Readings from Rumis Mathnawi
Fatemeh Keshavarz reads first from the original Persian, then gives a rendition in English.

Conference Organizers
New York Open Center E. Aracely Brown, Conference Director Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society Nick Yiangou and Jane Carroll, Program Directors Co-Sponsors The Middle East Institute at Columbia University, WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio, Beshara Publications Anqa Publishing, Institute of African Studies at Columbia University, SUNY Press

Aaron Cass: Music

and Poetry of Ibn Arabi
Aaron Cass who has put some of Ibn Arabis most beautiful love poetry to music will read and perform with local New York musicians.

22 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016

The New York Open Center is a non-profit organization

T h e n e w yo r k O p e n C e n t e r a n d t h e m u h y i d d i n I b n A r a b i S o c i e t y

Teachings for the Modern World

November 4 & 5, 2011
at Columbia University, New York City

Ibn rabi & Rumi

Friday & Saturday

p r e s e n t

The movement which is the existence of the universe is the movement of love.
Ibn Arabi

Artwork displayed at the conference by Fereydoun (Fred) Nazem, the founder of Flagship Patient Advocates Inc. and former chairman of Oxford Health Plans, is a veteran venture capitalist (especially in healthcare) and award-winning philanthropist who also has a lifelong love of Jalaluddin Rumi and has produced a series of callgraphy paintings inspired by Rumis poems.