The Poetics of Shuhūd – Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Enamored Heart’ and the Composition of Erotic Poetry

Abstract:

“To consider Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-ʿArabī (d.638/1240) as the expounder of his own poetic theory, or at least strands of a theory, opens up exciting opportunities for scholars and admirers of Sufism and Sufi poetry. Not only does Ibn al-ʿArabī have much to say about almost every facet of the sciences held important by Arabic writers in his age, he also usually manages to place each discussion within a larger visionary and ontological framework. That framework (even if reinterpreted and eventually somewhat altered) found a captive audience among thinkers and practitioners of Sufism to such an extent, that it is not difficult to label Ibn al-ʿArabī”