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Lot Essay
This is an important early copy of four treatises by the great Sufi philosopher, Ibn al-'Arabi. It appears to be a copy made by one of his followers during his lifetime. The first treatise concerns mysticism and is introduced by a question from one of Ibn al-'Arabi's pupils, Shams al-Din Isma'il ibn Sudkin al-Nuri. The second treatise Kitab al-ba concerns the significance of words that start with that letter. The follower who is the copyist of this manuscript seems to have travelled extensively with Ibn al-'Arabi. He reports their presence in in Ta'if, Arabia on 12 Jumada I 599 (27 January 1203) f.16b. Ibn al-'Arabi had gone to Mecca to perform the Haj in the year 598/1202. The following folio records them being in al-Andalus. In 597 they are in Bijaya on the coast of Algeria (f. 21b). The colophon records the writing of the manuscript in Malatya in Anatolia. While in Mecca in 600/1204, Ibn al-'Arabi met a number of pilgrims from Konya and Malatya and accompanied them home. At the end of the manuscript is a short note stating that the manuscript was read and proofed, perhaps by Ibn al-'Arabi himself. The manuscript is written in a beautiful and legible cursive hand with features of Andalusian maghribi.