The Divine Names: A Mystical Theology of the Names of God in the Qurʾan (by ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, translated by Yousef Casewit)

Abstract

The publication of The Divine Names: A Mystical Theology of the Names of
God in the Qurʾan marks a noteworthy addition to the growing body of
literature on Islamic metaphysics, Qurʾanic hermeneutics, and Sufi theology.
Composed by the understudied yet intellectually formidable North
African Sufi ʿAfīf alDīn alTilimsānī, this work represents one of the
most philosophically nuanced treatments of the divine names (alasmāʾ
alḥusnā) in the intellectual tradition left by Ibn al-ʿArabī. AlTilimsānī
is directly linked to Ibn al-ʿArabī through his master Muʾayyad al-Dīn
al-Jandī (d. 690/1291) and his master’s master Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī
(d. 673/1274), Ibn al-ʿArabī’s direct disciple/stepson. Casewit’s preface
details alTilimsānī’s multi-lingual cosmopolitan training and travels from
Zayyanid-ruled Tlemcen to Seljuk/Mongol-ruled Konya to Mamluk-ruled
Cairo and Damascus. These cities, we are informed, form a pan-Islamic
Sunni Sufi nexus threaded across a cluster of Sunni dynasties of the time.
Contextualized, edited from multiple manuscripts, translated, explicated,
and intertextually grounded by Yousef Casewit, this bilingual volume
brings to light a major source that has hitherto remained inaccessible to
non-Arabic-speaking audiences.