Reading the document
The Arabic source presents seventy numbered entries drawn from the ijaza, with modern identifications, dates and references in parentheses. This English version covers all seventy entries in order. It abbreviates long genealogies and editorial digressions while retaining named books, modes of transmission and significant uncertainties.
An ijaza is an authorisation to transmit. Hearing a text, reading it to a teacher, having a teacher read to oneself, receiving a book by hand and receiving a written or general authorisation are different acts. A name in this register does not by itself prove a personal meeting.
The document’s Ayyubid recipient, al-Malik al-Muzaffar Baha al-Din Ghazi, should not be confused with Muzaffar al-Din Gökböri of Erbil, the ruler described on the site’s separate al-Muzaffar page. The Arabic introduction refers readers to Shams al-Maghrib for the edited document.
Entries 1–10
1. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Khalaf ibn Safi al-Lakhmi. The account records reading the Qur’an in the seven readings and al-Kafi of Muhammad ibn Shurayh, transmitted through the author’s son Shurayh. The editor identifies the teacher as a Sevillian who died in 585 AH and cites Futuhat I, pp. 331, 425, 649, and IV, p. 550, alongside Ruh al-Quds.
2. Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghalib al-Sharrat. A Qur’anic teacher from Cordoba, identified by the editor as having died in 586 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records reading al-Kafi with him, through Shurayh, the author’s son, from Muhammad ibn Shurayh himself.
3. The judge Abu Muhammad Abd Allah al-Tadili. The editor identifies him as the judge of Fez, who died in Meknes in 597 AH. The entry records al-Tabsira on the seven readings by Makki ibn Abi Talib, through Abu Bahr Sufyan ibn al-Qadi from its author, other works of Makki, and a general authorisation.
4. The judge Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Jamra. The annotated list identifies this scholar with Murcia and gives his death as 599 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing al-Taysir of Abu Amr al-Dani, transmitted through the teacher’s father from its author, together with al-Dani’s other writings and a general authorisation.
5. The judge Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Said ibn Zarqun. The source gives his death in Seville in 586 AH. The entry records hearing al-Taqassi of Ibn Abd al-Barr through Abu Imran Musa ibn Abi Bakir from its author. It also names al-Istidhkar, al-Tamhid, al-Istiab and al-Intiqa, and records general permission and permission to transmit the teacher’s own writings.
6. Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq al-Azdi al-Ishbili. The editor identifies him as Ibn al-Kharrat, who died in Bejaia in 581 AH. The entry names Talqin al-Mubtadi, the smaller, larger and intermediate Ahkam, al-Tahajjud and al-Aqiba, together with his verse and prose. It also records transmission of a work of Ibn Hazm through Abu al-Hasan Shurayh ibn Muhammad ibn Shurayh.
7. Abd al-Samad ibn Muhammad al-Harastani. The editor describes him as a Damascene judge and mufti who died in 614 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing Sahih Muslim through al-Furawi, Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, al-Juludi and Ibrahim al-Marwazi from Muslim, and receiving general authorisation. The source notes a marginal variant, al-Qari, alongside al-Farisi.
8. Yunus ibn Yahya al-Abbasi al-Hashimi. Known in the editorial identification as al-Qassar al-Baghdadi, he lived in Mecca and died there in 608 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing many works of hadith and devotional counsel, including Sahih al-Bukhari through Abu al-Waqt, al-Dawudi, al-Hamawi and al-Firabri from al-Bukhari. The editor also relates his conferral of the Qadiri cloak and cites Futuhat I, p. 32; II, pp. 338, 348, 408; IV, p. 524.
9. Abu Shuja Zahir ibn Rustam al-Isfahani. The editor gives his birth as 526 AH and death in Mecca in 609 AH. The entry records the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi through al-Karukhi, al-Awraji, al-Jarrahi and al-Mahbubi from al-Tirmidhi, and general authorisation. The editorial note mentions his learned sister Fakhr al-Nisa and identifies his daughter Nizam as Ibn al-Arabi’s wife. That last identification is the editor’s interpretation, discussed separately in the Nizam article; it is not part of the transmission formula.
10. Abu al-Futuh Nasr ibn Ali al-Husri. The editor identifies him with the Hanbali prayer station in Mecca and gives his death as 619 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing the Sunan of Abu Dawud through a chain naming Abu Jafar al-Simnani, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-Qasim ibn Jafar al-Hashimi and Ali ibn Muhammad al-Lului, and receiving general authorisation. The entry also names works of al-Khatib through Abu Jafar al-Sijistani. The supplied chain and the dates in the annotations require textual verification; they are not silently repaired here.
Entries 11–20
11. Salim ibn Rizq Allah al-Ifriqi. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing al-Mulim bi-Fawaid Muslim of al-Mazari, transmitted from its author, together with the author’s other works, and receiving general authorisation. The editor says that no biography of this teacher was located.
12. Muhammad ibn Abi al-Walid ibn Ahmad ibn Shibl. The source reports the variant Ibn Sunbul in the Princeton copy and identifies the teacher as Ibn Rushd the grandson, who died in 595 AH. The entry records reading many of his writings and receiving a legal work by hand. The editor treats the manuscript’s apparent three titles as one work and relates its later transfer from Ibn al-Arabi’s son Sad al-Din to al-Qunawi, documented in 641 AH. These identifications and the reconstructed title belong to the editor’s discussion, not a newly collated text.
13. Abu Abd Allah ibn Aysun. The source records Ibn Isa in the Zahiriyya and Princeton copies. The entry transmits a work of the judge Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi al-Maafiri from its author and records general authorisation. The editor reports that no biography was located.
14. Abu al-Wail ibn al-Arabi. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing Siraj al-Muhtadin of the judge Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi al-Maafiri through his cousin, the teacher named here, and receiving general authorisation. The editor gives the author’s death as 543 AH.
15. Abu Sad Abd Allah ibn Umar al-Saffar. Identified as a Nishapuri who died in 600 AH. The entry records written transmission of al-Wahidi’s works through Abd Allah al-Jabbar ibn Muhammad al-Hawari from their author. The name is reproduced as supplied; the transmission is specifically written.
16. Abu al-Thana Mahmud ibn al-Muzaffar al-Labban. The editor identifies him as a Qur’an reciter of Mosul, where he died in 605 AH. The entry records Ibn Khamis’s works from him, and al-Humaydi’s works through Ibn Khamis from al-Humaydi.
17. Abu al-Futuh Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Bakri. Identified as a Nishapuri Sufi who died in 615 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records hearing al-Qushayri’s Risala through Abu al-Asad Abd al-Rahman and Abd al-Wahid ibn Abd al-Karim ibn Hawazin al-Qushayri, from their grandfather the author, and receiving general authorisation. The relationships in the supplied chain are retained for comparison with the Arabic.
18. Diya al-Din Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ali ibn Sukayna. The editor identifies him as the shaykh of shaykhs in Baghdad, who died in 607 AH. The entry records general authorisation and reciprocal learning: “he took from me, and I took from him.” It names al-Qushayri’s writings through his son Abd al-Wahhab and records hearing them at the teacher’s ribat in Baghdad with his son Abd al-Razzaq present.
19. Abu al-Khayr Ahmad ibn Ismail al-Taliqani al-Qazwini. The editor gives his death as 590 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records al-Bayhaqi’s writings through Muhammad ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Furawi from al-Bayhaqi, and general authorisation. The note cites Muhadarat al-Abrar I, p. 15.
20. Abu Tahir Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Silafi. The editor identifies him as an Isfahani who spent more than sixty years in Alexandria and died there in 576 AH. The entry records a general authorisation and his transmission from Abu al-Hasan Shurayh. It also records written permission for the works of Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami through Muhammad ibn Nassar al-Thaqafi from their author.
Entries 21–30
21. Abu al-Walid Jabir ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyub al-Hadrami. The editor associates him with Seville and dates his death to 596 AH. The entry records general authorisation and transmission from Abu al-Hasan Shurayh and the historian Ibn Asakir. The editorial note argues that displaced marginal material in the manuscript tradition can misleadingly suggest direct authorisation from Ibn Asakir to Ibn al-Arabi. The editor relocates that material and prints the next teacher separately. This is an editorial reconstruction requiring consultation of the witnesses.
22. Muhammad ibn Said ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini. Listed among those who granted a general authorisation. Some copies read Ibn Ismail rather than Ibn Said. The editor says that no biography was located.
23. Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn Bashkuwal. The annotated list identifies him as the Cordoban scholar Khalaf ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Bashkuwal al-Khazraji, who died in 578 AH. He appears in the continuing list of those granting authorisation; no book or individual chain is specified here.
24. Yusuf ibn al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Baqa. Identified in the note as al-Aquli al-Baghdadi, who died in 587 AH. No individual work or chain is added to this entry.
25. Abu al-Abbas, brother of Yusuf. The entry explicitly says that his brother also granted authorisation. The editor supplies the name Ahmad and gives his death as 608 AH.
26. Abu al-Qasim Dhakir ibn Kamil ibn Ghalib al-Khaffaf. The annotated list gives his death as 591 AH. No individual book is named in this entry.
27. Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Ali al-Ghaznawi. The editor adds the designation Abu al-Fadl al-Hanafi and gives his death as 599 AH.
28. Abu Tahir ibn Awf. The editor supplies Ismail ibn Makki ibn Isa al-Zuhri and gives his death in Alexandria as 581 AH.
29. Abu Talib al-Lakhmi. The entry associates him with Alexandria. The editor supplies Ahmad ibn al-Muslim ibn Raja and gives his death there as 578 AH.
30. Abu Hafs Umar al-Mayyanashi. The source gives the fuller name Umar ibn Abd al-Majid ibn Umar ibn Hasan ibn Umar ibn Ahmad al-Qurashi. The editor describes him as a shaykh of the sanctuary in Mecca and gives his death there as 581 AH.
Entries 31–40
31. Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn al-Jawzi. The editor identifies the Baghdadi scholar who died in 597 AH. Ibn al-Arabi records written permission to transmit all his writings, poetry and prose. The named works include Sifat al-Safwa and Muthir al-Azm al-Sakin ila Ashraf al-Masakin.
32. Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Fath al-Sijistani. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
33. Al-Mubarak ibn Ali al-Tabbakh. The editor supplies the fuller identification Abu Muhammad al-Mubarak ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Tabbakh al-Baghdadi and gives his death as 575 AH.
34. Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ustadh, known as Ibn Alwan. The editor identifies him as Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah, associated with Aleppo, where he died in 623 AH.
35. Abd al-Jalil al-Zanjani. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
36. Abu al-Qasim Hibat Allah ibn Ali ibn Masud ibn Shaddad al-Mawsili. The note also records Abu al-Abbas and the name Ahmad. It identifies a reciter and coppersmith born in Mosul in 545 AH, later resident in Aleppo, and cites a transmission at Mosul in 611 AH in Futuhat IV, p. 549.
37. Ahmad ibn Abi Mansur. The editor tentatively identifies him with Abu al-Abbas al-Isfahani, Ahmad ibn Abi Mansur Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Zibriqan, born in 500 AH and deceased in 591 AH. The identification remains explicitly uncertain.
38. Muhammad ibn Abi al-Maali Abd Allah ibn Mawhub ibn Jami ibn Abdun. Identified as Abu Abd Allah al-Baghdadi al-Sufi, known as Ibn al-Banna. The note associates him with Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi and gives his death at the Sumaysatiyya khanqah in Damascus as 612 AH.
39. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Tusi. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
40. Al-Muhadhdhab ibn Ali ibn Hibat Allah. The editor identifies him as Abu Nasr al-Khayyat, also known as Ibn Qunayda al-Azajji, a blind physician who died in 626 AH.
Entries 41–50
41. Rukn al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Tusi al-Khatib. The editor identifies him through his father, Abu al-Fadl Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Qahir, the preacher of Mosul associated with the date 578 AH. An extended note traces a report on reciting al-Fatiha in one breath, heard in Mosul in 601 AH, through Abu al-Hasan, Ibn Abi al-Fath and that father. The note concerns a chain of transmission; its date should not be silently assigned to the son.
42. Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah, brother of Rukn al-Din. The source names his brother and supplies the same family line, Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Qahir al-Tusi al-Khatib.
43. Al-Uryani in Baghdad. The editor explicitly marks the following phrase as unclear and offers a possible reading concerning transmission in the collections of al-Ansari. The uncertainty is preserved; this entry does not securely identify him with the similarly named spiritual teacher al-Uryabi.
44. Thabit ibn Anbar al-Halawi. The entry says that he read a number of his own compositions to Ibn al-Arabi and endowed them at his zawiya in the mosque of Imad ibn al-Huduth in Mosul. The direction of reading is important: the teacher reads to Ibn al-Arabi here. The note cites Muhadarat al-Abrar II, p. 219.
45. Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Akhdar. The editor identifies him as Abu Muhammad Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Nasr Mahmud ibn al-Mubarak ibn Mahmud al-Janabadhi al-Baghdadi, who died in Baghdad in 611 AH.
46. Abu Umar Uthman ibn Abi Yala ibn Abi Umar al-Abhari. The source describes him as a Shafii and a descendant of the Companion al-Bara ibn Azib. The date 72 AH in the note concerns al-Bara, not this teacher. The editor says that no biography of Abu Umar was located.
47. Arabshah ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Maali. The editor adds al-Alawi, al-Tanukhi and al-Khabushani and cites Muhadarat al-Abrar II, p. 99, and Futuhat I, p. 223.
48. Abd al-Hamid ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi al-Rashid al-Qazwini. The editorial note cites Muhadarat al-Abrar I, p. 11. The entry adds no named book or individual chain.
49. Abu al-Najib Haydar al-Qazwini. The editorial note cites Muhadarat al-Abrar I, p. 17.
50. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Karim al-Tamimi al-Fasi. The editor supplies Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Qasim and gives his death as 603 AH. The entry says that he read all his own compositions to Ibn al-Arabi. The note identifies him as author of al-Mustafad fi Manaqib al-Ubbad bi-Madinat Fas and recalls their companionship during Ibn al-Arabi’s visits to Morocco.
Entries 51–60
51. Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ubayd Allah ibn al-Hasan al-Razi. The editor identifies him as the hadith scholar Munjab al-Din, author of al-Fihrist, from the family of al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Babawayh, and notes that he was alive in 585 AH.
52. Ahmad ibn Mansur ibn al-Jawzi. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
53. Abu Ishaq Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Ali. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
54. Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Hajri. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located.
55. Abu al-Sabr Ayyub ibn Ahmad al-Fihri. The note supplies the fuller lineage Ayyub ibn Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Umar, associates him with Ceuta and gives his death as 609 AH.
56. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Salashki ibn Malik. The entry records transmission of al-Hariri’s Maqamat from its author. The editor says that no biography was located. The unusual name is transliterated from the supplied reading.
57. Abd al-Wadud ibn Samhun. Identified as the judge of al-Munakkab, the coastal town south of Granada now called Almuñécar. The editor gives his death as 608 AH and recalls the town’s association with Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil’s arrival in al-Andalus.
58. Abd al-Munim ibn al-Qurashi al-Khazraji. The editor identifies him as Abu Muhammad Abd al-Munim ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahim ibn Said ibn Hisham, the Maliki judge of Granada known as Ibn al-Faras, who died in 597 AH.
59. Ali ibn Abd al-Wahid ibn Jami al-Najjar. The editor tentatively connects him with Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Jami, from whom Ibn al-Arabi received the cloak of al-Khidr in Mosul in 601 AH, citing Futuhat I, p. 187. This is a proposed identification, not a resolved equivalence of the names.
60. Abu Bakr ibn Husayn, judge of Murcia. The entry identifies his judicial office. The editor says that no biography was located.
Entries 61–70
61. Abu Jafar ibn Yahya al-Wazghi. The editor supplies Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, describes him as a Cordoban preacher and scholar, adds al-Himyari and al-Kutami, and gives his death as 610 AH.
62. Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Hudhayl. The editor identifies a Valencian Qur’an reciter who died in 564 AH and tentatively proposes that he may have been Ibn al-Arabi’s earliest Qur’anic teacher. That proposal depends on an uncertain early-life connection and is not established by the name alone. The note also quotes Ibn al-Abbar’s praise of the reciter’s learning and piety.
63. Abu Zayd al-Suhayli. The editor supplies Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah and a longer genealogy, giving his death as 581 AH. The entry records al-Rawd al-Unuf, a commentary on Ibn Hisham’s biography of the Prophet, al-Maarif, al-Ilam, and all his compositions, including the work printed here as Hilyat al-Nabil fi Muaradat Ma fi al-Sabil.
64. Abu Abd Allah ibn al-Najjar al-Malaqi. The editor identifies Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Khalaf, also known as Ibn al-Fakhkhar, a hadith scholar associated with the judge Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi. The note praises his knowledge of texts, chains, transmitters and language, and gives his death in Marrakesh in Shaban 590 AH, aged eighty.
65. Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Saigh. The note describes an ascetic hadith scholar of Ceuta, from the descendants of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, and cites Futuhat II, p. 528, and III, p. 334.
66. Abd al-Jalil al-Qasri. The editor supplies Abu Muhammad Abd al-Jalil ibn Musa, gives his death as 591 AH and names al-Mushkil fi al-Hadith and Shuab al-Iman among his works.
67. Abu Abd Allah ibn al-Mujahid. The editor supplies Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari al-Andalusi, describes an ascetic, jurist and reciter, and gives his death as 574 AH. The note says that Ibn al-Arabi learned self-examination and the recording of thoughts from him, with references to the Futuhat and Ruh al-Quds.
68. Abu Imran Musa ibn Imran al-Mirtuli. The note supplies Musa ibn al-Husayn ibn Musa, adds al-Qaysi and gives his death in Fez as 604 AH. It describes him as an influential spiritual educator frequently remembered in the Futuhat and Ruh al-Quds.
69. Al-Hajj Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Rahib Abu al-Rabi al-Maqwami. A name in the continuing list. The editor says that no biography was located. The transliteration follows the supplied reading without attempting to resolve its uncertain components.
70. Ali ibn al-Nadran. The last numbered name in the list. The editor says that no biography was located.
Limits and source references
The source closes by saying that many further teachers, encounters and readings could have been mentioned. Seventy is therefore the number of entries on this page, not a claim that Ibn al-Arabi had only seventy teachers.
Page references and manuscript variants above are transmitted from the website’s annotations. The source’s identifications, reconstructed chains and historical arguments have not been independently collated against manuscripts. Where the Arabic editor says that no biography was found, that describes the editor’s search, not proof that no information exists.