Quest for the Red Sulphur

Claude Addas' "Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn Arabi" is the first work of its kind: a comprehensive overview of the life and works of Ibn Arabi, known to some as "Shaykh al-Akbar", the `Greatest of Sufi Masters'. Until recently, anyone who wanted to learn about the life of Ibn Arabi has had little choice of material to work from. "Quest for the Red Sulphur" by Claude Addas has helped to fill in this gap by basing itself on a detailed analysis of a 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 hand, the `Night Journey' which carried him along the paths of asceticism and prayer to the ultimate stage of revelation of his mystic quest. "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 make this volume compulsory reading for anyone interested in Islamic mysticism.