ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. Sabʿīn al-Mursī محمدبن عبدالحق بن سبعين | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1216/1217 CE |
| Died | March 21, 1271 CE (9Shawwal 669 AH) |
| Philosophical work | |
| School | Founder of theSab'iniyya |
| Main interests | Sufism andphilosophy |
| Notable works | Sicilian Questions |
Ibn Sab'īn (Arabic:محمدبن عبدالحق بن سبعينʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. Sabʿīn al-Mursī) was anArab[1][2]Sufi philosopher, the last[citation needed]philosopher of theAndalus in the west land ofIslamic world. He was born in 1217 inSpain and lived inCeuta. It has been suggested that he was a Neoplatonic philosopher, a Peripatetic philosopher, a Pythagorean philosopher, a Hermeticist, an alchemist, a heterodox Sufi, a pantheist, though none of these adequately characterise Ibn Sab'in.[3] He was also known for his knowledge ofesotericism and was well versed in the knowledge of Islam and of other religions.[4]
From his time and continuing through to today, Ibn Sabʿīn has been criticized for his views, though often by detractors who did so without an in-depth knowledge of his works, as many of the accusations against Ibn Sabʿīn are invalidated by Ibn Sabʿīn’s own writings, and suggest that some of our author’s critics were not even familiar with his works.[5]
Ibn Sabʿīn is most famously remembered for his replies to the questions sent to him byFrederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and published asالكلام على المسائل الصقليةal-Kalam 'ala al-Masa'il as-Siqiliya (Discourse on the Sicilian Questions)[6] which were first popularised in the West in 1853 by Sicilian OrientalistMichele Amari[7] who recognised Ibn Sab'in as the author, among others, of the responses to the Sicilian Questions.
In addition to the Sicilian Question, his other major work and longest isبد العارفBudd al-Arif (The Essential of the Gnostic), which is extant in manuscript and an edited version. His writing style has been described as composite and cryptic, which some of the modern publishers had difficulty understanding. He authored a number of epistles and books, some of which have been published byAbderrahman Badawi among others.
In his workBud al-'Arif (The Essential of the Gnostic), Ibn Sab'in virulently criticizedAverroes and considered him a fanaticAristotelian who always sought to validate Aristotle's ideas even when they were absurd. In this work, Ibn Sab'in states:[8]
In approximately 668/1270 Ibn Sabʿīn died in Mecca, under suspicious circumstances.[9] There are two descriptions of his death, one that states that he was poisoned and another that reports that he committed suicide.[3] However there is evidence indicating that the story of Ibn Sabʿīn’s suicide was fabricated. Casewit states that “his alleged suicide seems untenable firstly because it was related by one of Ibn Sabʿīn’s foes, and secondly because suicide is wholly contrary to both Islamic law and Ibn Sabʿīn’s philosophical beliefs.”[10] Despite the mutually exclusive versions, it is the more controversial suicide adopted by Massignon and Corbin that is repeatedly stated, and even fictionalised by Bensalem Himmich inA Muslim Suicide.[11]
