QUEST FOR THE RED SULPHUR- The Life of Ibn ‘Arabi Claude Addas

This excellent biography is the first of its kind. This major study is based on a detailed analysis of the whole range of Ibn `Arabi’s own writings as well as a vast amount of secondary literature in both Arabic and Persian. The result is the first-ever attempt to reconstruct what proves to have been a double itinerary; on the one hand, the journey that took Ibn `Arabi from his native Andalusia to Damascus— and on the other, the `Night Journey’ which carried him along the paths of asceticism and prayer to the ultimate stage of revelation of his mystic quest. The writings of Ibn ‘Arabi are inseparable from his life. They cannot be isolated from the various stages of his inner experience or from his lengthy wanderings from West to East, across the Muslim world, which was menaced on the one hand by the “Reconquista” and on the other by the Crusades. In the drama of both his inner and outer life, his companions and his contemporaries were far from being mere onlookers. The places where he stayed, and the events he lived through, represent a great deal more than so many anecdotal details providing the background for his spiritual quest.
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“Quest for the Red Sulphur is undoubtedly a landmark in Ibn ‘Arabi studies, and its author’s gift of narrative allied to a consummate understanding of the subject should make this volume compulsory reading for anyone interested in Islamic mysticism.” – Washington Post