From the Series: A'lam al-Fikr al-Arabi (Notables of Arab Thought): Sufi sheikh Ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi ( 560/1165 - 638/1240) was an Arab Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher from Al-Andalus. A prolific writer, Ibn Arabi's emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realizing that potential. This is a biography by Yahya Shami.