Ibn 'Arabi Society

Pablo Beneito is currently Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpretation, Facultad de Letras, University of Murcia. He has collaborated in the editing and translation of several of Ibn 'Arabi's works: the Mashahid al-asrar; the Kashf al-ma'na, and Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad. He is now working on the critical edition and Spanish translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Kitab al-Mim wa-l-waw wa-l-nun on the Science of Letters, and with Souad Hakim is preparing an edition of his Kitab al-'Abadila, on the spiritual typologies. He has many other publications in this area.

Nick Yiangou holds a Master's degree in Transpersonal Psychology and currently works as an IT manager in the software industry in California. He is a director of the United States branch of the Ibn 'Arabi Society, which promotes the teachings and translations of this great spiritual teacher. He is an ongoing student of the Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education in Scotland, which is based on the principles and teachings of the way of oneness and unification, and previously served on the board of the Beshara Foundation in the US.

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.