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 resear ... Show More
Jan 1
Divine Necessity Of The Comprehensive Being: Unlocking Ibn al-'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam through the Adamic Fass
This paper explores the pivotal role of the Adamic fass in unlocking the profound metaphysical framework of Ibn al-'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam. Centering on the concept of the comprehensive Being (al-kawn al-jami'), a term mentioned in the opening paragraph of the Fusus, the Adamic f ... Show More
56m 2s
Oct 25
Human and Divine Breaths: Mirrors of Creation, Language and Love
Ibn 'Arabi states in Futuhat that 'the breath of the creatures comes from the divine breath' or that 'the human breath has the same form as that of the Merciful.' Parting from this idea, a whole set of implications related with the articulation of language, the act of praising, t ... Show More
46 m
Jun 2020
Lara Harb, "Arabic Poetics: Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Lara Harb’s Arabic Poetics: Aesthetic Experience in Classical Arabic Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is a delightful and formidable study on the details and development of poetics and aesthetics in medieval Arabic literature. The central theme of this splendid book ... Show More
1h 3m
May 2021
Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, "The Translator of Desires: Poems" (Princeton UP, 2021)
In this ground-breaking work, Michael Sells (the Barrows Professor Emeritus of the History and Literature of Islam and Professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of Chicago) translates sixty-one poems that form the Tarjuman al-ashwaq or The Translator of Desir ... Show More
1h 4m
Sep 2023
Peter Adamson, "Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): a Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Peter Adamson's book Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): a Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2023) provides an introduction to the most important philosopher of the Islamic world, Ibn Sīnā, often known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna. After introducing the man and his works, with an ... Show More
51m 46s
Oct 2023
James White, "Persian and Arabic Literary Communities in the Seventeenth Century: Migrant Poets between Arabia, Iran and India" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
A wealth of scholarship has highlighted how commercial, political and religious networks expanded across the Arabian Sea during the seventeenth century, as merchants from South Asia traded goods in the ports of Yemen, noblemen from Safavid Iran established themselves in the court ... Show More
1h 8m
Mar 2021
Hawraa Al Hassan, "Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba'thist State" (U Edinburgh Press, 2020)
Hawraa Al Hassan’s Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba’thist State: Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968-2003 (University of Edinburgh Press, 2020) is unique because it both explores discourse concerning women and how women themselves used literature to create ... Show More
54m 54s
Feb 2020
Book Launch - Utopia and Civilisation in the Arab Nahda
Peter Hill (Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), gives a talk on his new book, Utopia and Civilisation in the Arab Nahda. Chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan (St. Antony's College, Oxford). Peter is a historian of the modern Middle East, specialising in the intellectual an ... Show More
47m 28s
Apr 2024
Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, "A Nose and Three Eyes" (Hoopoe, 2024)
Written by iconic Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, this classic of love, desire, and family breakdown smashed through taboos when first published in Arabic and continues to captivate audiences today
It is 1950s Cairo and 16-year-old Amina is engaged to a much older man. De ... Show More
39m 3s
<p>In this very long episode, I give an introduction to one of the most significant, yet often misunderstood thinkers and mystics in history - Ibn 'Arabi.</p><br><p>Sources:</p><p>Chittick, William (2005). "Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets". OneWorld Publications.</p><p>Chittick, ... Show More
