Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition

The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam

Examines the fierce controversy over the legacy of Ibn 'Arabi, the great Islamic mystic.

... with his insistence that the outward aspect of the shari'a be protected at all cost.
Conclusion To sum up our discussion of the polemical discourses generated by
the Ibn 'Abd al-Salam story, it is instructive to examine how the two great scholars
interacted in real life in order to establish a benchmark against which all previous
accounts can be understood. One thing is sure: they actually met each other. In
one account, Ibn 'Abd al-Salam borrowed from Ibn 'Arabi a copy of Ibn Hazm's (d.