Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Arabi al-Hatimi at-Tai al-Andalusi al-Mursi al-Dimashqi (26 July 1165-16 November 1240), better known as Ibn Arabi, was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, philosopher, and Sufi saint.
Biography[]
Abu Abd Allah al-Andalusi was born in Murcia, al-Andalus on 26 July 1165 to a Moorish family; his father was of Arab descent and his mother was of North African Berber descent. As a young man, Ibn Arabi became secretary to the Governor of Seville, and he later moved to Fez, Morocco to dedicate his life to Sufism and the spiritual path. He left Spain for the last time in 1200, settling in Tunisia before going on the hajj in 1202 and living in Mecca for three years. He then travelled throughout Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Anatolia, becoming a writer during his travels. Ibn Arabi wrote 700 works, and his cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Islamic world. While Ibn Arabi was a Sunni Muslim, he was admired by Shi'ites for his writings on the Twelve Imams. During his travels, he met the Turkish warrior Ertugrul, first encountering him by a stream on the road to Aleppo, Syria in 1225. He would later live among the Kayi tribe and serve as a spiritual advisor to Ertugrul and his friends, and he died in 1240.