Mizan; Theory of Art and Beauty in the Mysticism of Ibn ʿArabī

Searching and analyzing the classical texts of Islamic mysticism and wisdom with the aim of extracting foundations and concepts that can have commonalities and affinities with the modern perception of art and beauty is one of the main and fundamental goals of theoretical studies of Islamic art. Based on this, this article aims to research the concept of Al-Fann (Art) and Alsinaeat (Craft) from the perspective of Ibn ʿArabī, one of the leaders of theoretical mysticism in Islamic civilization, referring to his great encyclopedia of thought, the book Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations), on the one hand, and explaining the meaning and concept. “Al-Mizan” as an answer to the question of what and how tangible artworks are formed, on the other hand. The main question of the research is the conceptualization of art and industry, as well as the explanation of the principle of “Al-Mizan” by referring Ibn ʿArabī's ruling and mystical opinions. This research is based on the hypothesis that Ibn ʿArabī proposes the idea of “Al-Mizan” in response to what or how art works are formed and created. The purpose of writing this article is not to present a theoretical model for the creation of works of art in the contemporary Islamic world, but to delve into the history of theoretical reflections on art and beauty in the history of Islamic mysticism and wisdom. The results of the research show that Ibn ʿArabī not only did not have a neutral thought about the meaning and concept of “Art” and “Industry” and was familiar with the mentioned concepts in his time, but also in the theoretical dimension, works of art in one of he has highlighted his most important works and has made a thoughtful and serious entry into the theoretical field of art and beauty. On the other hand, his theoretical reflections in the field of art and beauty show that these two concepts were under the absolute control of Ibn ʿArabī's “Existential Unity” school. Since Islamic art has a history of more than thirteen centuries and despite the production and presentation of works that testify to the creative imagination and knowledge and skill of Muslim artists, it still faces serious challenges in the theoretical dimension. The challenges that caused the existence of Islamic art to be denied in some cases and its nature to be doubted in other cases. For this reason, the need to conduct research of this kind should be in the focus of attention of researchers of theoretical issues of Islamic art. Based on this, drawing the view of Muslim sages and mystics towards what are known as works of art today can be an acceptable point of departure. For this purpose, it is inevitable to refer to the original Islamic and philosophical sources in Islamic civilization, especially the works of Muslim sages, with the aim of extracting their views on works of art, as well as their theoretical reflections on art. This essay has chosen the book Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations) by the famous Andalusian mystic of the 6th and 7th Hijri centuries, Ibn ʿArabī, for the research of his familiarity with works of art in the first step, and then a reflection on the theoretical foundations of art and craft in Islamic civilization. This article has been done using the analytical-interpretive method and based on the data collected by relying on library sources.