Ibn 'Arabi Society

Angela Jaffray holds a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. Her translation of Ibn 'Arabi's al-Ittihad al-kawni (The Universal Tree and the Four Birds) was published by Anqa Publications in 2007. She has recently completed a translation of and commentary on Ibn 'Arabi's Isfar 'an nata'ij al-asfar (Unveiling from the Results of the Voyages), which will be published by Anqa Publications. For the past three years she has lived in Jerusalem. Narrated by Cecilia Twinch.

Jaakko Hameen-Anttila (b. 1963) is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Helsinki University (Finland). He has published on Classical Arabic literature and cultural history. His latest book is "The Last Pagans of Iraq. A Study on the Religious, Philosophical, and Literary Aspects of Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture"

James Morris is Professor of Islamic Studies at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the IIS in Paris and London. Professor Morris has published and lectures widely on many areas of religious thought and practice, including the Islamic humanities and poetry, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and the Qur'an. His most recent books include Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabiis "Meccan Illuminations" (2005); Ostad Elahi's Knowing the Spirit (2007) and Openings: From the Qur'an to the Islamic Humanities (forthcoming).

Todd Lawson, PhD, teaches Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. His interests include the Qur'an and its interpretation over time, Islamic Gnosis, Shi'ism and its later developments such as the Babi and Bahai religions. He has published numerous articles on these and other topics as well as two books, Reason and Inspiration in Islam (London 2005) and The Crucifixion and the Qur'an (Oxford 2009). His book Gnostic Apocalypse in Islam is scheduled to appear later this year.

Jane Clark is a teacher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying Ibn 'Arabi's thought for nearly thirty years as a student of the Beshara School, and in 2000 took a degree at Oxford in order to read him in the original Arabic. She is particularly interested in the way that his ideas have spread throughout the world, and as Society Librarian has done research work on the early manuscripts. She has written and lectured on Ibn 'Arabi's thought and is most concerned with the universal appeal of his writings, especially as revealed in Fusus al-hikam.

Venerable Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist Master of the Kagyu Order. He was born in 1952 in Kham, East Tibet. From 1957 to 1959 he fled from Tibet with his family before the Chinese Communist occupation. Since then he has lived in Sikkim, India. Rinpoche has served as Professor of Tibetology in Sikkim for 17 years. He is deeply involved with the exchange of knowledge between religious scholars and scientists, and has a particular concern to participate in dialogues that contribute to mutual understanding, tolerance and peace in the world.

Prof. George Pattison is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and has published a number of books on modern philosophy of religion. His two forthcoming books are God and Being: An Enquiry (OUP, September 2010) and a translation of Kierkegaard's Devotional Writings: Gift, Creation, Love (Harper, Fall 2010).

When Chinese Muslims began in the 17th century to write about their ancestral religion in their native language - that is, Chinese - they produced a body of literature that is a synthesis of the Neo-Confucian and Islamic worldviews. On the Islamic side, they drew largely from Sufi teachers in the lineage of Ibn 'Arabi. Sachiko Murata, one of the great specialists of this insufficiently known but fascinating syncretic tradition at the crossroads of two great civilizations, shares her insights about this unique religious culture and how two such seemingly different approaches to life as passionate Sufi mysticism and Confucian discipline can coexist.

After graduating from Aleppo University (Syria) in 1990, he did a Masters degree in Physics at Cambridge University. After teaching Physics for several years in the UAE, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in 2005. The subject of his research was "The Concept of Time in Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology". A book based on this research, called Ibn 'Arabi - Time and Cosmology was published by Routledge in 2007. He has written other books related to Ibn 'Arabi including Shams-al-Magreb (in Arabic) which contains a detailed biography of Ibn 'Arabi. In addition he founded and runs the website www.ibnalarabi.com. Currently he is teaching at the United Arab Emirates University.

Stephen Hirtenstein is editor of the Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal. He studied at the Beshara School in Scotland, and is co-founder of Anqa Publishing. His publications include a biography of Ibn 'Arabi, "The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi" (1999), a translation with Pablo Beneito of Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad as "The Seven Days of the Heart" (2000) and with Martin Notcutt of Ibn 'Arabi's Mishkat al-anwar as "Divine Sayings" (2005). He is currently working on a translation of some of Ibn 'Arabi's shorter texts.

William C. Chittick, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies in the Asian and Asian American Studies Dept. at Stony Brook, has spent forty years studying Ibn 'Arabi and the pre-modern Muslim intellectual tradition. Among his thirty books, five deal with Ibn Arabi's thought: The Sufi Path of Knowledge, Imaginal Worlds, The Self-Disclosure of God, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets, and (as co-author) The Meccan Revelations.

Prof. Michael Sells (University of Chicago), one of the foremost translators of the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, gives an introduction to the poetry of Ibn Arabi, and recites some of his unpublished poems. Aaron Cass and Taoufiq Ben Amor also recite poetry, alternating between English translation and original Arabic.

William C. Chittick is professor of religious studies in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has spent forty years studying Ibn Arabi and his followers, not to mention the pre-modern Muslim intellectual tradition in general. Among his thirty books, five deal specifically with Ibn Arabi's thought: The Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989), Imaginal Worlds (1992), The Self-Disclosure of God (1998), Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (2005), and, as co-author, The Meccan Revelations (2002).

After graduating from Aleppo University (Syria) in 1990, he did a Masters degree in Physics at Cambridge University. After teaching Physics for several years in the UAE, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in 2005. The subject of his research was "The Concept of Time in Ibn 'Arabi's Cosmology". A book based on this research, called Ibn 'Arabi - Time and Cosmology was published by Routledge in 2007. He has written other books related to Ibn 'Arabi including Shams-al-Magreb (in Arabic) which contains a detailed biography of Ibn 'Arabi. In addition he founded and runs the website www.ibnalarabi.com. Currently he is teaching at the United Arab Emirates University.

James Morris is Professor of Islamic Studies at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and comparative religious studies at Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the IIS in Paris and London. Professor Morris has published and lectures widely on many areas of religious thought and practice, including the Islamic humanities and poetry, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and the Qur'an. His most recent books include Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2004); The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabiis "Meccan Illuminations" (2005); Ostad Elahi's Knowing the Spirit (2007) and Openings: From the Qur'an to the Islamic Humanities (forthcoming).