Tahqiq, human perfection, and sovereignty : Ibn al-'Arabi and early-modern Islamic empire

Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), often called the “Greatest Shaykh,” is the most discussed and debated Sufi master of the late medieval Islamic world. Although many scholars have produced works on his life, ideas, and contemporary reception, few have undertaken the task of tracing the consequences of his work for sovereignty well after the shaykh’s death. This paper argues that Ibn al-‘Arabi’s concepts of the “Oneness of Being,” the “Perfect Man,” and his distinct use of tahqiq (verification, realization) worked in tandem as a subset of ideas beneficial to leaders for establishing absolutist sovereignty in the Mughal and Safavid Empires.

This study compares the ideas found in Ibn al-‘Arabi’s works, primarily the Fusus al-Hikam and ‘Anqa’ Mughrib, to the aforementioned, early-modern Islamic governments in order to demonstrate where the shaykh’s philosophy aligns with the crafted personas of charismatic leaders. For secondary sources, this paper references themes found in Kathryn Babayan’s Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs and Azfar Moin’s Millennial Sovereign. Furthermore, the paper is indebted to scholars of Ibn al-‘Arabi such as Henry Corbin and William Chittick.

As interest in global studies and the early-modern period continues to grow, the integration, wittingly or otherwise, of Akbarian philosophy into the ethos of sovereignty will continue to be a vibrant area of research. The thought of Ibn al-‘Arabi and his intellectual descendants strongly influenced the absolutist sovereignty of the Mughal and Safavid Empires, the legacy of which reverberates to this day in the cultural memory of the Middle East and South Asia.