The Sufi Doctrine of Man: Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī’s Metaphysical Anthropology, by Richard Todd

Abstract

First Paragraph: Richard Todd’s recent work should be welcomed as a very useful short and accessible introduction to the work of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, who, as Todd describes, was an important figure in Turkish Islamic history as a main expositor and disseminator of the teachings of and the foremost disciple of the great Andalusī mystic, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). Al-Qūnawī was one of the most influential Muslim intellectual figures of his day, a Sufi master, religious scholar, and a lucid thinker, actively involved in the intellectual and spiritual life of the Near East. Al-Qūnawī was able to expound and interpret Ibn ʿArabī’s thought to a wide circle of students and peers. He interpreted Ibn ʿArabī’s thought and systematized its structure and scope but was also a talented meta-physician in his own right.