Ibn Khaldūn, al-Shāțibī, and Ibn al-‘Arabi: a forgotten chapter in the history of Sufism in Andalus and the Maghrib

Abstract

In the late 8th/14th century, the renowned Grenadian jurist Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388) became involved in a controversy with scholars in al-Andalus and then the Maghrib regarding the necessity of having a Shaykh, or "spiritual guide", in Sufism. He initiated a correspondence with the celebrated Moroccan jurist, Abu'l-Abbas al-Qabbāb (d. 779/1377) and the saintly scholar, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn Abbad al-Rundī (d. 792/1390) who were both in Fez. Abd al-Raḥmān Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406) also became involved in the controversy and devoted an entire treatise to the question entitled Shifă” al-sā³il ilā tahdhīb al-masā³il. We will analyze Ibn Khladūn's views on Sufism in the light of this somewhat neglected treatise (it was first critically edited in 1958), in addition to relevant passages of his Muqaddima. Further insight is provided by an equally important and almost forgotten text of his, namely a fatwa in condemnation of writings deemed opprobrious by a number of luminaries of "metaphysical" Sufism and sufi poetry: Muhyi al-Din Ibn al Arabi (d. 632/1240), ‘Abd al-Haqq Ibn Sab°in (d. 669/1270), Ibn Barrajan (d. 536/1141), Umar Ibn al-Farid (d. 632/1240) and Afif al-Din al- Tilmisānī (d. 690/1291) in which he ruled that their books should be burned.