Ibn 'Arabi Society

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translators of the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, gives an introduction to the poetry of Ibn Arabi, and recites some of his unpublished poems.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).

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.

Sebastian Brock is an authority in the field of Syriac language. He is a former Reader in Syriac Studies at the University of Oxford's Oriental Institute and currently an Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. Sebastian Brock completed his BA degree at the University of Cambridge, and a D. Phil at Oxford. He is the recipient of a number of honorary doctorates and has been awarded the Medal of Saint Ephrem the Syrian by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch. He is a widely published author on Syriac topics. His best known books are The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian and The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life.

Katia Holmes MA, MSc, Post-grad. Anthropology, spent three years lecturing at Paris University in the early 70s. A sabbatical at Samye Ling (Scotland) with Akong Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan lamas in the West, led to a lifetime of study and practice of Buddhism. She has translated core Tibetan texts, interpreted for major Kagyu lineage masters and researched Tibetan medicine, besides translating professionally for French publishers. She is particularly interested in the issue of transposing concepts between cultures. Years of turning inwards and patient chiselling has made her appreciate the fragile power of words to evoke the ineffable.