Strange, Subtle Spirits in the Akbarian Cauldron. The Spiritual Recipes of Muhyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī

Abstract Himma is the oft-used term for spiritual energy, charisma and a person’s ability to cause preternatural feats and bend the world to their will in the writings of the Sufi scholar, poet and philosopher Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240). It was thought to imbue the pages of religious treatises, as well as amulets, talismans, and the graves of advanced spiritual practitioners. Ibn ʿArabī was personally convinced that any spiritual endeavor would lead to naught without himma . The present study is dedicated to Ibn ʿArabī’s proposed method of harnessing the special type of power imbuing the corporeal forms of animals, plants and minerals through food. We will examine the properties of the Akbarian spiritual cuisine and the culinary recipes Ibn ʿArabī recorded to help his readers transcend the world of gross matter and gain proximity to the Divine.