The Eye of Reflection: Al-Nabulusi’s Spatial Interpretation of Ibn ʿArabi’s Tomb

Upon his takeover of Damascus in 1516, Sultan Salim hurriedly commissioned the building of a religious complex over the grave of the celebrated thirteenth-century Andalusian Sufi master Ibn ʿArabi, an act that was and still is shrouded with mystery and intrigue. The complex was constructed on a stee...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Akkach, Samer (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Brill 2015
Dans: Muqarnas
Année: 2015, Volume: 32, Numéro: 1, Pages: 79-95
Sujets non-standardisés:B Ibn ʿArabi
 al-Nabulusi
 tomb
 sirr
 sacred architecture
 Damascus
 al-Ṣaliḥiyya
 Qasiyun
 Salim
 Ottoman
 spatial reflection
 Ibn Tulun

Accès en ligne: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Résumé:Upon his takeover of Damascus in 1516, Sultan Salim hurriedly commissioned the building of a religious complex over the grave of the celebrated thirteenth-century Andalusian Sufi master Ibn ʿArabi, an act that was and still is shrouded with mystery and intrigue. The complex was constructed on a steep site at three levels, comprising a mosque, a tomb chamber, and an external garden. For 160 years following its construction, the building itself played no role in the intensifying debates over Ibn ʿArabi’s controversial, yet influential, teachings. In 1678, however, ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, a passionate follower and defender of Ibn ʿArabi, incorporated for the first time the architecture of the tomb in his multifaceted polemics. In a treatise titled Al-Sirr al-mukhtabī fī ḍarīḥ ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Nabulusi presented a sophisticated spatial interpretation of this rather humble building—its setting, design, and spatial layout—based on complex visual hermeneutics, according to which visible and invisible reality interplayed to construct a unique understanding of the tomb’s spatiality. This essay examines the sophisticated visual strategy with which al-Nabulusi interpreted the building to reveal its concealed mystery.

ISSN:2211-8993
Contient:In: Muqarnas
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22118993-00321P06