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    • Dunja Rašić, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and Tampere University
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  • Publisher:
    Cambridge University Press
    Publication date:
    30 November 2025
    08 January 2026
    ISBN:
    9781009777032
    9781009777407
    9781009777018
    Dimensions:
    (229 x 152 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.281kg, 80 Pages
    Dimensions:
    (229 x 152 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.13kg, 80 Pages
  • Series:
    Elements in Magic
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    Series:
    Elements in Magic

    Book description

    Step outside laboratory, and into the world of nature. The books on cannon law can be left behind as well, for Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) believed there is one Sharia for humans and another for minerals. This Element rethinks what it means to be an alchemist and Muslim, by shifting its focus to the religious practices of sentient minerals, as described in Ibn ʿArabī's oeuvre and the Qur'an. Common stones and metals undergo their spiritual feats with the single goal in mind: to gain proximity to the Divine by turning themselves into gold. Alchemists sought to facilitate this process through elixirs and sorcery. Setting allegories and metaphors aside, this Element examines ontological principles governing the struggles of iron to become gold, and the human strivings to better the world of nature.

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