Three Great Sufi Poets of Andalusia: Abu Madyan, Ibn ?Arabi & Al-Shushtari - Selected Poems

THREE GREAT SUFI POETS OF ANDALUSIA Abu Madyan, Ibn 'Arabi & Al-Shushtari SELECTED POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith ABU MADYAN (1126-1198) was a Sufi teacher, scholar and writer and poet. Some say he is the most important founder of Sufism in the Maghreb and Andalusia.. He received his religious education in Fez, where he underwent the influence of the teachings of Gilani, Abu Yaza, and al-Ghazali. After his pilgrimage to Mecca and studies in the Middle East, he returned to teach in Bougie, Algeria. Ibn 'Arabi called Abu Madyan 'the teacher of teachers'. IBN 'ARABI (1165-1240). In the West, he is also known as the Doctor Maximus and in the Islamic world as al-Shaykh al-Akbar (Great Master.) He was born in Murcia in Andalusia, At the age of thirty-five he left Spain intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived near Mecca for three years, where he began writing The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204 he left for Anatolia. He finished his influential and controversial book of