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Notes on the Mahāsin al-majālis of Ibn al-'Arif

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. J. Arberry
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Extract

The Mahasin al-majalis of Ibn al-'Arif (†536/1141) is a Sufi treatise of minor dimensions and inconsiderable importance, one of a multitude of such summaries that bridge the gap between the classical works of Kalabadhi, Qushairi, and Makki, and the phenomenal productivity of Ibn al-'Arabi. For all that, the essay (for it is little more) is not without interest; it is allusive and elliptical in style, thus affording material for commentators; and the author begins his discourse proper by quoting, though not by name, the Mawdqif of Niffari; as Ibn al-'Arabi afterwards used Ibn al-'Arif quite freely and approvingly, it is always possible that he got to know and take an interest in Niffari through this intermediary.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 3-4 , October 1948 , pp. 524 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1948

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References

page 524 note 1 Ibn al-Arif: Mahasin al-majalis. (Collection de textes inèdits relatifs á la mystique musulmane, tome ii.) Paris, 1933

page 524 note 2 For a list of known copies, see C. Broekelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Supplement), i, p. 776. Brockelmann writes Ibn al-'Irrlf.

page 525 note 1 Printed at pp. 97–8 of Palacios' edition

page 525 note 2 Cf. the beginning of the Berlin colophon:which seems to suggest quite a different book.

page 525 note 3 I have not attempted to give every single variant, but only those relevant to the reconstruction of the text, with a few eccentricities as examples.

page 531 note 1 So D. S. Margoliouth conjectures in JRAS., 1934, p. 847; the reading of CB confirms his emendation.

page 532 note 1 See D. S. Margoliouth, loo. cit., where it is pointed out that this is a line of poetry in the original.