The Foreign and Imaginal In Ibn ‘Arabī’s Turjuman al-Ashwaq

Abstract

Turjumān al-ashwāq is a mystical treatise that was penned by the great Sufi saint Ibn ‘Arabi. This work, which was rendered into English under various appellations, reflects his orthodoxy of love and serves as a plea for initiating friendly relations amidst cultures and world nations. The allegorical poems and annotations underscore that Ibn ‘Arabi possessed a third eye and clairvoyance when he approached specific truths around him. Building on Henry Corbin’s framework of “creative imagination” and Stuart Hall’s theoretical model of “preferred reading”, I showcase how Ibn ‘Arabi’s inner and insightful journey to the realm of the heart shaped his knowledge and simultaneously unleashed his cognition about dialogue and Otherness. Keywords: Ibn ‘Arabi; Kashf; Turjumān al-ashwāq; the Foreign; Preferred Reading.