In a new article, Gregory Vandamme revisits the relationship between Ivan Aguéli and the thought of Ibn ʿArabi. It is Gregory Vandamme, “Akbarian Anarchism: Ivan Aguéli (d. 1917) on Islam, Freedom and Shariʿa,” Religiographies 3, no. 1 (2024): 6–24. Available open access here.
To quote from Vandamme’s conclusion,
The various elements of Islamic tradition [Aguéli] engages with are deeply intertwined with his ideal of freedom… The case of Aguéli reveals the hermeneutical potential and adaptability of Ibn ʿArabi’s ideas... The defining characteristic of Ibn ʿArabi’s thought that Aguéli cultivates and develops lies in its capacity to structure itself around paradoxes that balance the informal with the formal, the universal with the particular, and the collective with the individual… While Aguéli’s philosophy ultimately operates within a metaphysical perspective, it also incorporates practical considerations and social and political reflections... The formal and normative framework of the Islamic religion is neither relativised nor undermined…
Aguéli’s philosophy also reveals the paradoxical dimension of the question of universality. Islam… is capable of preserving cultural diversity and particularities… arguing that only the union of East and West can bring about the advent of an authentic “kingdom of God.” While Aguéli can, in many respects, be considered one of the progenitors of the Traditionalist movement, his conception of Islam’s universal dimension stands apart from the views of figures with a far more pronounced influence.
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