Creative Imagery, Poetics of Nature, Dreams and Movement as Manifestations of Ḥajj ‘Pilgrimage’ in Tarjumān al-Ashwāq by Muḥyīddīn Ibn ʿArabī

Abstract

This thesis is a literary study that investigates the poetics of creative imagery in Tarjumān al-Ashwāq by Muḥyīddīn Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240 CE), focusing on three interrelated themes: nature, temporality and movement, and dreams. Grounded in a phenomenological exploration of khayāl, this thesis looks at how the Andalusī ṣūfī par excellence constructs his cosmological vision through the imaginative faculty, interrogating the ontological significance of the poetic image (ṣūra) and its connotations within the Dīwān. Although Ibn ʿArabī’s work has garnered extensive scholarly attention, this study concentrates on a close reading of Tarjumān al-ashwāq, with selective references to al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya to contextualize and expand his mystical lexicon and cosmogony. Visions and esoteric experiences are essential to understanding time and temporality in Ṣūfī spiritual experience, as opposed to serial, linear time or time that is chronological. Therefore, the first and second chapters focus on the imaginative nature of such oneiric experiences, drawing out their link to Ibn ʿArabī’s journeying and the connotations of time embedded within it. Moreover, they explore Ibn ʿArabī’s encounter with Niẓām, who—following Henry Corbin’s interpretation—embodies Sophia aeterna, the eternal feminine. Her visionary presence is examined as the catalyst for an inner spiritual voyage that mirrors the pilgrimage (ḥajj), positioning her as inspiratio divina—the divine inspiration animating his poetic imagery. These chapters also frame dreams and movement as epistemological entry points, reconfiguring time and space, and positioning Niẓām as central to the rearticulation of image (ṣūra), ruined dwelling (ṭalal), and imagination (khayāl). The third chapter—forming the thesis’s core—investigates the poetics of nature as an earthly abode of beauty and situated knowledge, and argues that Ibn ʿArabī’s portrayal of the natural world is deeply interwoven with his articulation of time and movement (ḥaraka) within the framework of waḥdat al-wujūd (Oneness of Being). Sublunary elements (arkān) function not only as metaphors of transformation but as dynamic agents of inner spiritual travel. This reading makes audible the creative force of khayāl, particularly through barzakh imagery, conceived as an ontological liminality wherein the dichotomy between perception and perspective dissolves. Ultimately, the thesis proposes that Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of khayāl not only legitimizes but actively enables the dismantling of hierarchical structures of meaning and perception—offering an emancipatory model of poetic vision bound in movement, speculative resonance, and ontological variability. It likewise encourages diverse modes of rational speculation (naẓar), through which the poetic image is brought into realization.