IBLIS

iblis, or eblis, in moslem mythology the counterpart of the christian and jewish devil. he figures oftener in the koran under the name shaitan, iblis being mentioned 11 times, whereas shaitan appears in 87 passages. he is chief of the spirits of evil, and his personality is adapted to that of his jewish prototype. iblis rebelled against allah and was expelled from paradise. the koranic legend is that his fall was a punishment for his refusal to worship adam. condemned to death he was afterwards respited till the judgment day (koran vii. 13). see gustav weil, _the bible, the koran and the talmud_ (london, 1846). ibn 'abd rabbihi [abu 'umar ahmad ibn mahommed ibn 'abd rabbihi] (860-940), arabian poet, was born in cordova and descended from a freed slave of hisham, the second spanish omayyad caliph. he enjoyed a great reputation for learning and eloquence. no diwan of his is extant, but many selections from his poems are given in the _yatimat ud-dahr_, i. 412-436 (damascus, 1887). more widely known than his poetry is his great anthology, the _'iqd ul-farid_ ("the precious necklace"), a work divided into twenty-five sections, the thirteenth being named the middle jewel of the necklace, the chapters on either side of this being named after other jewels. it is an _adab_ book (see arabia: _literature_, section "belles lettres") resembling ibn qutaiba's _'uyun ul-akhbar_, from which it borrows largely. it has been printed, several times in cairo (1876, 1886, &c.). (g. w. t.) ibn 'arabi [muhyiuddin abu 'abdallah ibn ul-'arabi] (1165-1240), moslem theologian and mystic, was born in murcia and educated in seville. when thirty-eight he travelled in egypt, arabia, bagdad, mosul and asia minor, after which he lived in damascus for the rest of his life. in law he was a zahirite, in theology a mystic of the extreme order, though professing orthodox ash'arite theology and combating in many points the indo-persian mysticism (pantheism). he claims to have had conversations with all the prophets past and future, and reports conversations with god himself. of his numerous works about 150 still exist. the most extensive is the twelve-volume _futuhat ul-makkiyat_ ("meccan revelations"), a general encyclopaedia of sufic beliefs and doctrines. numerous extracts from this work are contained in sha'rani's (d. 1565) manual of sufic dogma (_yawaqit_) published several times in cairo. a short account of these works is given in a. von kremer's _geschichte der herrschenden ideen des islams_, pp. 102-109 (leipzig, 1868). another characteristic and more accessible work of ibn 'arabi is the _fusus ul-hikam_, on the nature and importance of the twenty-seven chief prophets, written in 1230 (ed. bulaq, 1837) and with the _commentary_ (cairo, 1891) of qashani (d. 1350); cf. analysis by m. schreiner in _journal of german oriental society_, lii. 516-525. of some 289 works said to have been written by ibn 'arabi 150 are mentioned in c. brockelmann's _gesch. der arabischen litteratur_, vol. i. (weimar, 1898), pp. 441-448. see also r. a. nicholson, _a literary history of the arabs_, pp. 399-404 (london, 1907). (g. w. t.)