Knowledge and Causality in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Book of Giving, and the Buddhist Notion of Dependent Origination

Abstract

This paper introduces the otherwise unstudied Arabic treatise on knowledge, the Book of Giving, penned by the influential Muslim mystic, Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240). It presents a critical edition, English translation, and initial analysis of this short yet original work. It authenticates this work, situates it in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s career, and analyzes its content. Combining textual scholarship and intellectual history with a comparative perspective, it discusses some outstanding features of the Book of Giving in light of Buddhism in order to provide an initial philosophical bridge between the two intellectual traditions. It argues that knowledge is presented in the Book of Giving as a causal relationship constructed in the mind. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s approach to causality is one of philosophical idealism, and it contains significant parallels with the notion of dependent origination in Buddhism.