ANSIE - Academic Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism

07/09/2026

***Publications***
Esotericism and Mathematics – in the Islamicate tradition, this combination has been elaborated to an extreme degree. One of the corresponding phenomena is highlighted in a recent publication by Jean-Charles Coulon, ‘Magic Squares: Mathematical Tricks and Angels in Islamicate Occult Sciences: Perspectives from the Būnian Corpus’. This article is part of a Springer Nature open access volume by Senthil Babu D. and Roy Wagner, entitled 'Normative Texts and Occupational Practices. Towards New Social Histories of Mathematics', which is available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-28419-8_9.

Magic squares were a fundamental element of Islamicate Arabic occult sciences, particularly with the development of the “science of letters, names and magic squares.” This science transmitted many of the magic squares developed in mathematical treatises. However, as occultist practitioners were not necessarily high-skilled mathematicians, certain treatises on this science shared techniques and mnemonics describing how to easily build magic squares for practical purposes. In this paper, I propose a reconsideration—from the perspective of history of texts—of the methods of building magic squares attributed to al-Būnī (d. 622/1225 or 630/1232), a major authority in this science. I specifically study a section of his al-Lumʿa al-nūrāniyya and a late apocryphal opuscule entitled Bughyat al-mushtāq wrongly attributed to him. This last text also introduces an occult terminology for magic squares.

03/09/2026

***Publications***

Already a couple of weeks ago, a fascinating new article by Cyril V. Uy II has appeared in Sophia – International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions:

Taking Ibn ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Allusions of the Qurʾān in the World of Man as its point of departure, this article explores jazz as a framework for the study of medieval Sufi knowledge. The first half introduces the jazz standard and develops its possibilities as a theoretical lens. Coupling musical analysis with the work of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Ingrid Monson, and Fumi Okiji, the author frames jazz performance as a creative form of knowing/being constituted by a self-reflexive negotiation of ambivalence, multiplicity, and tension. The second half uses these reflections to guide a close reading of Ibn ʿArabī’s Allusions. (Re-)articulating Qurʾānic language and themes through the particularities of his own experience, the author argues that Ibn ʿArabī’s writing opens up a play of identity and alterity that (re-)iterates the self-disclosure of God in/as creation. Through a subtle manipulation of allusion, rhyme, and rhythm, the shaykh shows his readers how multiplicities are unified through irreducible particularities and how unities make manifest irresolvable differences. In so doing, Ibn ʿArabī vaunts himself as the Perfect Human Being who not only comprehends reality, but consciously takes part in its production.

The article is available open access at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11841-026-01143-8.

28/08/2026

25/08/2026

***Conferences***

ANSIE's Social Media is back from its summer break with a very early CfP, concerning a fascinating conference in Oxford next July:

The Mystical Theology Network invites abstracts for Mysticism and the Everyday, the annual conference of the Mystical Theology Network. The conference seeks to engage scholars and creative practitioners in a multi-disciplinary examination of the ways in which mysticism and everyday interact and interrelate. The conference will also include a mini-symposium: 'Mysticism in the Classroom', with a particular focus on Medieval Scholarly engagement with Mysticism across Religious Traditions.

The conference invites contributions touching upon a large number of themes, all available at https://www.mysticaltheologynetwork.org/annual-conference.

Deadline for abstracts is 31 January 2027.

14/07/2026

***Summer Holidays***
With [European] academia shifting into its quiet summer break, also we at ANSIE will be away from screen for a holiday break.

Enjoy the sun, (maybe) the sea, and some good reads on Islam and Esotericism (check our posts for recommendations)! We are looking forward to seeing you again on our page in August! 🌞⛱📚

10/07/2026

***Publications***

Hot off the press this month in De Gruyter Brill’s series on Sufism Studies is Zhinia Noorian’s contribution on a forgotten Persian-language female poet, ‘A Lost Voice in Persian Literature and Sufism. Jahān-Malik Khātūn’s Ghazals’.

Jahān-Malik Khātūn (d. after 784/1382) is the only Persian female poet of medieval times who has a substantial Dīvān (‘poetry collection’), most of which is written in the poetic form of ghazal. Yet, she has been marginalised and her work has remained understudied. This book investigates different aspects of Jahān-Malik Khātūn’s ghazals to find the reasons for the obscurity of work despite its high quality and substance. It offers a critical analysis of Jahān-Malik Khātūn’s medieval reception history in which she was slandered by sexually suggestive remarks and excluded from the literary and Sufi tradition. It engages with her contemporary reception history in which she remains an outsider to Persian Sufi poetry. With a new conceptual model to explore the Persian ghazal as a medium for intellectual discourse, this book sheds light on Jahān-Malik Khātūn’s agency despite her marginalisation as a woman. The author investigates the codification of Persian ghazal as Sufi poetry to explain Jahān-Malik Khātūn’s exclusion from the Persian Sufi tradition.

Find all information and the link to purchase at: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/9783112233856/html.

06/07/2026

We are delighted to announce the launch of ANSIE, the Academic Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism, formerly ENSIE.

Our information has now been updated on our new website, ansie.org. The new name reflects the network’s broader international scope while continuing the aim to support and connect scholars working on Islam, esotericism, mysticism, the occult sciences, and related fields across historical periods and regions that ENSIE has pursued for the past nine years. We look forward to developing ANSIE’s activities in this new phase and to continuing the conversations, collaborations, and scholarly exchanges that have shaped the network so far.

All information on membership and past and future activities is available on our website, ansie.org. Please share and distribute widely!