About this text: The Meccan Openings

الفتوحات المكية

Ibn ʿArabī (560–638/1165–1240)

The introduction and chapter 1: his meeting with the youth at the Kaʿba, checked line by line against the Konya autograph.

On the Platonic Current: Ibn ʿArabī

In the reader

112 passages · ~70 min · audio · 24 Quran quotations

6,783 words

Audio: Arabic and English
Published translation: none (the English is AI, marked as such)
Quran quotations: 24

Not yet: commentaries.

Read it →Grammar practice Study sheet (print)

Difficulty

some rare vocabulary

Lexical difficulty, from the words themselves: how many roots fall outside the 1,000 most frequent in the Quran, how long the words are, and how much of the vowelling had to be supplied by AI. It says how unfamiliar the vocabulary is, not how deep the ideas are.

Rare roots 11% · mean word length 4.3 letters · AI vowelling on 98% of words

Themes & resonances AI

What the text is about, and what it connects to across the history of thought. Every connection says what kind of claim it is: a documented lineage, a shared source, a resonance with no influence claimed, or a contrast. Mapped by AI; references are shown only once checked. Across the library

Themes

The youth met while circling the Kaʿbaالفتىal-fatāroot فتي
Circumambulation and the returning compassطوافṭawāfroot طوف
The heart as the true Kaʿbaقلبqalbroot قلب
Self-disclosure in changing formsتجلّيtajallīroot جلو
The Muhammadan reality before creationالحقيقة المحمديةal-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyyaroot حقق
The imaginal likeness and the god of beliefمثالmithālroot مثل
Every servant has a name that is his Lordاسمismroot سمو
The youth's body as the book to be readنشأةnashʾaroot نشأ

What each theme is here

The youth met while circling the Kaʿba. While circling the House, Ibn ʿArabī meets a youth who is beyond 'where' and 'when'. He kisses the youth's hand and asks to be taught, and this meeting becomes the source of the whole book (passages 75, 81-84).
Circumambulation and the returning compass. The circuits around the House stand for the seven attributes circling the Essence, and the compass that returns to its starting point is the image of the seeker returning upon himself (passages 87, 99-104).
The heart as the true Kaʿba. The heart is 'the goal intended, deposited within your visible body', and the secrets circle it as bodies circle the stones of the House (passage 103).
Self-disclosure in changing forms. The Real discloses Himself in forms that people deny. In the scene of mutual transformation the youth takes the forms of life, knowledge and will while the author takes their opposites (passages 94-98).
The Muhammadan reality before creation. The first thing the Pen writes is the intention to create the world for Muḥammad's sake, and Muḥammad is the root 'while Adam was between clay and water' (passages 14, 18-20).
The imaginal likeness and the god of belief. The opening sermon is delivered in 'the world of the realities of the imaginal likeness', and whoever restricts God to one form 'has worshipped his own imagining' (passages 6, 95).
Every servant has a name that is his Lord. Each reality is assigned a divine name that it worships and knows, so the servant of the All-Forgiving differs from the servant of the All-Thankful (passages 2, 25).
The youth's body as the book to be read. The youth tells the author to read the details of his configuration, where everything he asked about is inscribed, and the author learns that what came to him came from himself (passages 84, 107).

Connections

Lineage 8

Documented transmission: a chain of reading, teaching, translation or citation, grounded in a verified reference or in the later text itself.

Henry Corbin's reading of the mystic youth at the KaʿbaModern scholarship · firm
Corbin placed this meeting with the youth (passages 75, 81), and the circumambulation that frames it, at the centre of his account of Ibn ʿArabī's visionary experience and his theory of the imaginal world.
Carried byالفتىal-fatāroot فتي“the youth”
In the library:Path: The Beloved's face at the House
- Henry Corbin, L'imagination créatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn ʿArabî (1958): Discusses the vision of the youth at the Kaʿba in the Futūḥāt and its place in Ibn ʿArabī's theory of imagination.
Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam: the Seal of the saints and the wall of bricksAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · firm
The vision in which the Seal sets up a pulpit for the author and calls him his peer (passages 8-10) is developed in his later teaching on the Seal of the saints, set out in the Ringstone of Seth.
Carried byخاتم الأولياءkhatm al-awliyāʾroot ختم“seal”
In the library:Faṣṣ Shīth ¶14 Faṣṣ Shīth ¶16
- Michel Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints: prophétie et sainteté dans la doctrine d'Ibn Arabî (1986): Documents Ibn ʿArabī's doctrine of the Seal of the saints across the Futūḥāt and the Fuṣūṣ, including his claims about his own rank.
Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam: the god created in belief and the mirrorAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · firm
The divine words 'whoever restricts Me to one form has worshipped his own imagining' (passage 95) state the doctrine that the Fuṣūṣ later expounds, in which the one who receives self-disclosure sees his own form in the mirror of the Real.
Carried byتجلّيtajallīroot جلو“self-disclosure”
In the library:Faṣṣ Shīth ¶11 Faṣṣ Nūḥ ¶7 Path: The mirror
- William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabi's Metaphysics of Imagination (1989): Sets out the doctrine of the 'god created in belief' and of self-disclosure in forms, drawing on the Futūḥāt and the Fuṣūṣ.
The hadith of God's transformation in forms at the Resurrection (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī)Quran and hadith · firm
Passage 94 retells the canonical hadith in which God comes to the people at the Resurrection in a form they do not recognize, and they seek refuge from Him until He appears in a form they know. Ibn ʿArabī makes it a key text for his teaching on self-disclosure.
Carried byتحوّلtaḥawwulroot حول“transformation”
In the library:Faṣṣ Shīth ¶11
- William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabi's Metaphysics of Imagination (1989): Discusses Ibn ʿArabī's use of the hadith of God's transmutation in forms at the Resurrection.
The Quran as the text the author becomes: 'I am the Qurʾān and the Seven Oft-Repeated'Quran and hadith · firm
Passage 62 identifies the speaker with the Quran and with the seven verses of the Opening, called in Q 15:87 the Seven Oft-Repeated. Ibn ʿArabī's writing is woven from Quranic citation and allusion throughout.
Carried byالسبع المثانيal-sabʿ al-mathānīroot ثني“the Seven Oft-Repeated”
In the library:al-Fātiḥa
- Michel Chodkiewicz, Un océan sans rivage: Ibn Arabî, le Livre et la Loi (1992): Shows how Ibn ʿArabī's writings grow out of the letter of the Quran and how he understood the saint's relation to it.
al-Ghazālī's saying: 'there is not in possibility anything more wondrous than what is'Sufism · firm
Passage 27 cites 'the Imām Abū Ḥāmid' by name for the claim that nothing more wondrous than this world remained possible. This claim became the subject of a long controversy, and the Book of Circles quotes the same saying.
Carried byأبدعabdaʿroot بدع“most wondrous”
In the library:Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir ¶62 Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir ¶88
- Eric L. Ormsby, Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute over al-Ghazālī's "Best of All Possible Worlds" (1984): Documents al-Ghazālī's statement and its reception by later Muslim authors, including Ibn ʿArabī.
Ibn ʿArabī's Andalusian and Maghribi masters, and his arrival at Mecca in 598/1202Sufism · probable
The long letter to his friend in Tunis (passages 45-68) belongs to the same world of named masters that Ibn ʿArabī portrays in the Spirit of Holiness. His biographer reconstructs this circle and the circumstances in which the Futūḥāt was begun at Mecca.
Carried byشيخshaykhroot شيخ“master”
In the library:Rūḥ al-quds ¶1 Rūḥ al-quds ¶13
- Claude Addas, Ibn ʿArabî ou la quête du Soufre Rouge (1989): Biography reconstructing Ibn ʿArabī's teachers in al-Andalus and the Maghrib, his journey east and the beginning of the Futūḥāt in Mecca.
Ibn ʿArabī, Tarjumān al-ashwāq: the Stone, the circuit and the heart as the place of the ritesAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · probable
The love poems Ibn ʿArabī composed in Mecca in the same years as the opening of the Futūḥāt return to the same rites: touching the Stone, circling the House, and the heart as the valley where the pebbles are cast. They carry into verse the claim of passage 103 that the heart is the true House.
Carried byاستلامistilāmroot سلم“touching the Stone”
In the library:Tarjumān al-ashwāq ¶21 Tarjumān al-ashwāq ¶44 Path: The Beloved's face at the House
- Reynold A. Nicholson, The Tarjumán al-Ashwáq: A Collection of Mystical Odes by Muḥyiʾddín Ibn al-ʿArabí (1911): Edits and translates the poems with the author's own commentary, and gives the account of their composition in Mecca.
- Claude Addas, Ibn ʿArabî ou la quête du Soufre Rouge (1989): Places the composition of the Tarjumān and the beginning of the Futūḥāt in the same Meccan period.

Resonance, not influence 6

Resonance, not influence: a structural or thematic likeness. No influence is claimed.

Plotinus, Ennead VI.9.8: the soul's circling around its centreNeoplatonism · probable
Plotinus describes the soul's natural motion as a circle around a centre from which it came, and passage 87 describes the compass whose leg returns to its point of beginning. The two images are alike in shape. No direct reading of this treatise by Ibn ʿArabī is claimed.
Carried byدائرةdāʾiraroot دورκέντρονkentron“centre and circle”
In the library:Ennead VI.9, ch. 8 Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir ¶56 Path: The Beloved's face at the House
Ibn Sīnā and Suhrawardī, the visionary recitals: the guide met at the edge of the worldIshraqi philosophy · probable
In the recitals the soul meets a luminous guide (the elder Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, the father on Sinai) who tells it about its own origin. Ibn ʿArabī's youth plays the same role at the Kaʿba, although here the guide is young and the teaching is read from his body (passage 84).
Carried by“the guide”
In the library:Ḥayy (Ibn Sīnā) ¶2 al-Ghurba al-gharbiyya ¶42
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Essais de Théodicée (1710): the best of all possible worldsEarly modern philosophy · probable
Leibniz also argued that the actual world is the best that could have been made. Passage 27 makes a similar claim through al-Ghazālī's saying. There is no known route of influence between the two.
Carried by“best possible world”
In the library:Inshāʾ al-dawāʾir ¶62
Nicholas of Cusa, De docta ignorantia (1440): learned ignoranceMedieval Latin philosophy · probable
Passage 105 cites the saying attributed to Abū Bakr, 'incapacity to attain perception is itself perception', and in passage 97 the author takes the form of 'the most complete ignorance'. Cusanus likewise made knowing that one cannot know God the highest knowledge. The two arrived at this through separate routes.
Carried byعجزʿajzroot عجز“incapacity as perception”
The Prologue of the Gospel of John: the Word that was in the beginningEarly Christianity and the Fathers · suggestive
In both texts a figure who comes to exist in history is also said to have existed before creation as the principle through which the world was made. Compare 'I am Aḥmad' spoken to the primordial water (passage 20) with the Word 'in the beginning'. The doctrines differ, and no influence is claimed.
Carried byλόγοςlogos“pre-existent principle”
In the library:al-Ṣalāt al-fayḍiyya ¶2
C. G. Jung: the puer aeternus, the eternal youth as an image of the selfPsychoanalysis and depth psychology · suggestive
Jung read the figure of the divine youth as an image of the self met within. Ibn ʿArabī's youth also turns out to be a mirror: 'what came upon me came from me' (passage 107). The resemblance is one of structure only.
Carried by“the youth”

Contrast 1

An instructive opposite: the difference teaches something about both.

Aristotle's unmoved mover, which moves the heavens as an object of love and does not turn toward themAristotelianism · probable
Aristotle's first principle is circled by the heavens and knows only itself. The House that 'exults in those who circle around it' (passage 79) and the Lord who speaks to the one circling it answer the circuit, so in this text the centre responds to those who move around it.
Carried byطوافṭawāfroot طوف“circling the centre”

Claude (opus) via Claude Code, headless, no web access, 2026-09-28. A reference with a check was found and checked with a web search.

Versions

16 layers, each with its licence

The original

The OpenITI text of the Beirut 1998 print (O)Dār Iḥyāʾ al-turāth al-ʿarabī, al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr / OpenITI · 1418/1998Open licence

By: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-turāth al-ʿarabī (publisher of the print); al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr / OpenITI (digitisation) · 1418/1998
Source:: OpenITI 0638IbnCarabi.FutuhatMakkiyya.JK009237-ara1 (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-turāth al-ʿarabī, Beirut 1998; digitised by al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr): ll. 40–428 (khuṭba) and 2314–2551 (chapter 1); vol./page 1:34–44 and 1:88–93 · link ↗
In the reader:: In full as corrected: the khuṭba (juzʾ 1 of the author's division) and chapter 1, each passage linked to its OpenITI line
Licence:: OpenITI: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 for the corpus
Notes: The only digital text; unvowelled. Corrected line by line against the Konya autograph wherever the autograph reads substantively differently. OpenITI's editorial apparatus removed: the heading «مقدمة المؤلف», bracketed verse references, verse numbers, round brackets and quotation marks round Quran and hadith, the «[ & ]» placeholders (the autograph writes the eulogy out). Not included: the table of chapters (fihrist) and the muqaddima (OpenITI ll. 430–2313).

The Konya autograph (K), second recensionIbn ʿArabī · 636/1238UNVERIFIED

By: Ibn ʿArabī (author's own copy) · 636/1238
Source:: Konya autograph of al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya, second recension (completed 636/1238), 37 safars (Konya, Yusuf Ağa / Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu). Safar 1: khuṭba fols. 2b–15a (PDF pp. 5–17), chapter 1 fols. 44b–52a (PDF pp. 88–95); folio = the pencil foliation; 13–17 lines per page · link ↗
In the reader:: Its substantive readings are in the text (each change with folio and line); its vowels are the only source vowels; every passage cites its Konya page
Licence:: The text is the author's (public domain); the rights in the page images (watermarked TYEK) are not stated: read for collation only, images not reproduced
Notes: The author's own final copy, sparsely vowelled by the author. Its orthographic habits (omitted hamza, undotted final yāʾ, tāʾ marbūṭa without dots, alif al-wiqāya) are not adopted. Faded lines (fol. 12b–13a; p. 91 right ll. 5–12; p. 95 left ll. 16–17) need the original or a better photograph. 27 marginal notes recorded (readers' «بلغ» notes, quire notes, glosses).
UNVERIFIED:: The licence of the TYEK page images of the Konya autograph (archive.org) is not stated in the repo.

The Būlāq print (B), 1269/1853Būlāq press · 1269/1853Public domain

By: Būlāq press (printer) · 1269/1853
Source:: al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya, Būlāq 1269/1853, vol. 1 (University of Toronto copy; scanned back to front: printed page p = leaf n 806 − p): khuṭba pp. 2–11, chapter 1 pp. 51–57 · link ↗
In the reader:: 159 substantive differences from the adopted text, with page and line (orthography ignored)
Licence:: Public domain
Notes: Collated as a comparison witness, word by word. Notable: B adds a clause at O 382, rewrites 403, has another heading at 234, ends the khuṭba without the closing formula.

Our edition

Our edition: O corrected against the autographClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (collation from the page images (K in bands of 3–4 lines, B in bands of 5–8), each part read twice) · 2026-09-28
Source:: data/sources/futuhat-1-base.json (changes, comparison, uncertain, marginalia); text record docs/texts/futuhat-1.md
In the reader:: In full, 112 passages (0–71 khuṭba, 72–111 chapter 1); every change listed with O line, K folio/line, B page/line and reason
Licence:: Ours
Made by:: UNVERIFIED (the text record says "Claude" and "three workers" without naming the model), 2026-09-28 (AI reading of the page images of K and B against O)
Notes: 58 changes to O (+ 18 Quran replacements): 27 where K and B agree against O, 15 K alone, 13 OpenITI artefacts (including a duplicated block, ll. 2458–2483, and a skipped clause at 2499 restored from K = B), 2 marginal additions, 1 omission in K. 31 doubts listed (O kept wherever K could not be read securely). Vowel signs only where K writes them (1,156 vowelled words). Not yet reviewed by a person (above all the K-only readings and O 2521).
UNVERIFIED:: The model of the AI workers that collated the Futūḥāt from the page images is not named in the text record.

Published translations

Chodkiewicz et al., The Meccan RevelationsMichel Chodkiewicz (ed.) et al. · UNVERIFIEDCopyrighted: cited only

By: Michel Chodkiewicz (ed.) et al. (translators) · UNVERIFIED
Source:: M. Chodkiewicz (ed.), The Meccan Revelations (UNVERIFIED: volumes, publisher and year not recorded in the repo)
In the reader:: Not used
Licence:: In copyright: cited only
Notes: Named in the text record as a published translation not used for our English.
UNVERIFIED:: Chodkiewicz et al.'s translation: the full citation (and whether it covers the khuṭba and chapter 1) is not recorded in the repo.

W. C. Chittick's translations from the FutūḥātWilliam C. Chittick · UNVERIFIEDCopyrighted: cited only

By: William C. Chittick (translator) · UNVERIFIED
Source:: W. C. Chittick (UNVERIFIED: which work, publisher and year not recorded in the repo)
In the reader:: Not used
Licence:: In copyright: cited only
Notes: Named in the text record as a published translation not used for our English.
UNVERIFIED:: Chittick's Futūḥāt translation: which work and its citation are not recorded in the repo.

Eric Winkel's translation of the FutūḥātEric Winkel · UNVERIFIEDCopyrighted: cited only

By: Eric Winkel (translator) · UNVERIFIED
Source:: Eric Winkel, translation of al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya (ongoing; UNVERIFIED: title, publisher and year not recorded in the repo)
In the reader:: Not used
Licence:: In copyright: cited only
Notes: Named in the text record as a published translation not used for our English.
UNVERIFIED:: Winkel's Futūḥāt translation: title, publisher and year are not recorded in the repo.

AI layers

Vowels supplied by AIClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (vowelling) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: Underlined in amber in the reader (6,619 of 6,783 words carry at least one AI mark)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus; exact version not recorded), 2026-09-28 (scripts/recitals/prepare.py futuhat-1 (headless, model opus); date = first commit of app/src/data/futuhat-1.json)
Notes: The autograph's vowels (1,156 words) and the 18 Tanzil quotations are the source vowels; the AI completed the rest, 112/112 passages (passage 51, a poem, redone alone after failing the letter check three times). No authoritative vowelled edition compared. Every letter checked unchanged; the AI's marks are kept apart from the source's (vowelMask a / t).

English translationClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (translator) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: Under each passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus; exact version not recorded), 2026-09-28 (scripts/recitals/translate.py futuhat-1 opus; date = first commit of app/src/content/ai/futuhat-1.json (the file has no generatedOn))
Notes: Translated from the Arabic with the glossary in data/sources/futuhat-1-meta.json; 112/112 passages. Not a published translation; not scholar-reviewed.

Word glossesClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (glosses) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: Every word glossed, in the word card
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus; exact version not recorded), 2026-09-28 (made with the translation, same file and call (app/src/content/ai/futuhat-1.json); date = its first commit)

Term notesClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (term notes) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: In the word card (672 notes)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus; exact version not recorded), 2026-09-28 (made with the translation (app/src/content/ai/futuhat-1.json); date = its first commit)

Themes and resonancesClaude (AI) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (map of themes and connections) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: On the About page (whole-text level)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus; exact version not recorded), 2026-09-28 (generatedOn of app/src/content/resonances/futuhat-1.json (scripts/resonances.py))
Notes: Made by the method in docs/RESONANCES-METHOD.md, without web access. Every connection states its kind; parallels are resonances, not claims of influence. External references are shown only after an agent verified them with a web search.

Automatic analysis

Word analysis: CAMeL ToolsCAMeL Tools 1.6 (CAMeL Lab, NYU Abu Dhabi), scripts/fusus/analyze.py · 2026-09-28Open licence

By: CAMeL Tools 1.6 (CAMeL Lab, NYU Abu Dhabi) (morphological analyser (calima-msa-r13 + MLE)); scripts/fusus/analyze.py (our pipeline) · 2026-09-28
Source:: CAMeL Tools 1.6, calima-msa-r13 database with the MLE disambiguator, constrained by the text's vowelling (scripts/fusus/analyze.py futuhat-1.json futuhat-1-analysis.json u1) · link ↗
In the reader:: Lemma, root, part of speech and clitics in the word card, with a grey "Automatic" badge
Licence:: Code MIT; calima-msa-r13 database GPL v2 (used offline to produce our analysis layer, not redistributed)
Notes: Automatic, not generative AI. 6,783 words, 4,313 with a root, 809 distinct roots, 292 vowel conflicts. Date: first commit of data/sources/futuhat-1-analysis.json.

Quran quotations (Tanzil)Tanzil Project, scripts/quran_refs.py · 2026-09-28Open licence

By: Tanzil Project (Uthmani Quran text); scripts/quran_refs.py (automatic skeleton match) · 2026-09-28
Source:: Tanzil Uthmani text; quotations verified when the text was established, plus an automatic skeleton match against the Tanzil Quran (runs with at least two distinctive words); no AI · link ↗
In the reader:: Quran quotations marked in the text, with their verse
Licence:: Tanzil: free to use with attribution and a link to tanzil.net; the text may not be modified
Notes: 18 exact quotations replaced by the verbatim Tanzil text (their vowelling is Tanzil's, not the autograph's); allusions left as written (4:171, 27:22, 46:30 adapted). Automatic, not generative AI. Date: first commit of app/src/data/quran-refs/futuhat-1.json.

Audio

Machine voice: Arabicar-SA-HamedNeural (Azure AI Speech) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: ar-SA-HamedNeural (Azure AI Speech) (text-to-speech) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: Each passage can be heard, each word highlighted as it is read
Licence:: Ours; generated on Azure's paid tier, whose terms allow the audio output to be published
Made by:: ar-SA-HamedNeural (Azure AI Speech), 2026-09-28 (first commit of app/src/data/futuhat-1-audio.json)
Notes: Machine voice reading the vowelled Arabic; a reading aid, not a recitation.

Machine voice: Englishen-GB-RyanNeural (Azure AI Speech) · 2026-09-28AIOur work

By: en-GB-RyanNeural (Azure AI Speech) (text-to-speech) · 2026-09-28
In the reader:: Each passage can be heard, each word highlighted as it is read
Licence:: Ours; generated on Azure's paid tier, whose terms allow the audio output to be published
Made by:: en-GB-RyanNeural (Azure AI Speech), 2026-09-28 (first commit of app/src/data/futuhat-1-audio-en.json)
Notes: Machine voice reading the AI English translation; a reading aid, not a recitation.

✦ marks AI that no person has reviewed yet; ✧ marks AI reviewed by a named person. Copyrighted works are cited, never shown. All sources · How texts are established

The text record

Our working notes on this edition: status, witnesses, the decisions taken and why, and what AI supplied. This is a working edition, not an authority.Show the notes

Work / author / dates	al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya fī maʿrifat al-asrār al-mālikiyya wa-l-mulkiyya (الفتوحات المكية) · Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (560–638 AH / 1165–1240 CE). Second recension completed 636/1238 (the Konya autograph).
Part added	(1) The author's introduction (khuṭba, = juzʾ 1 of his own division, ending «انتهى الجزء الأول»): the doxology, the praise of the Prophet and the vision of the Seal, the letter to ʿAbd Allāh Badr al-Ḥabashī and its poems. (2) Chapter 1, «الباب الأول في معرفة الروح …»: the circumambulation poem, the meeting with the youth (al-fatā) at the Black Stone, «مشاهدة مشهد البيعة الإلهية», «مخاطبات التعليم …», ending with the announcement of chapter 2. Not included: the table of chapters (fihrist) and the muqaddima (creeds, masāʾil) that stand between them (OpenITI ll. 430–2313).
Id / files	`futuhat-1` · `data/sources/futuhat-1-base.json`, `futuhat-1-meta.json`, `futuhat-1.json` (vowelled), `futuhat-1-analysis.json` (ids `u1:…`), AI layer `app/src/content/ai/futuhat-1.json`
Status	working edition, established 28 Sept 2026 by Claude (collation from page images) · reviewed by a person: —

1. Witnesses

Siglum	Witness	Kind	Vowelled?	Licence	Location
K	Konya autograph, second recension, 37 safars (Konya, Yusuf Ağa / Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu; archive.org item `09_20251218_20251218_2246`). Safar 1, the small "_text.pdf" (167 spreads, c. 2,200 px per spread; enough for reading, faded ink in places). Khuṭba = PDF pp. 5–17 (fols. 2b–15a); chapter 1 = PDF pp. 88–95 (fols. 44b–52a). Folio = the pencil foliation on the left-hand pages (left page = recto a, right page = verso b of the previous leaf); 13–17 lines per page.	autograph MS	sparsely, by the author	see archive.org item (watermarked TYEK)	the private layer; single pages the private layer
O	OpenITI `0638IbnCarabi.FutuhatMakkiyya.JK009237-ara1` (Dār Iḥyāʾ al-turāth al-ʿarabī, Beirut 1998; digitised by al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr): ll. 40–428 (khuṭba) and 2314–2551 (chapter 1); vol./page 1:34–44 and 1:88–93.	digital (of a modern print)	no	OpenITI (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 for the corpus)	OpenITI (local copy)
B	Būlāq 1269/1853, vol. 1 (Toronto copy, archive.org `alfutuhatalmakki01ibnauoft`; scanned back to front: printed page p = leaf n 806 − p): khuṭba pp. 2–11, chapter 1 pp. 51–57.	early print	lightly	public domain	leaf images kept locally

2. Base and why

O is the only digital text; K is the author's own final copy. As asked: base = O, checked line by line against K and corrected wherever K reads substantively differently; B collated as a comparison witness. Rules:

K's orthographic habits are not adopted (omitted hamza, undotted final yāʾ, tāʾ marbūṭa without dots, alif al-wiqāya); O's standard spelling stays.
Vowels only where K writes them (1,156 vowelled words in the base, all from K; Quran quotations excepted, below).
O's editorial apparatus removed: the heading «مقدمة المؤلف», bracketed verse references «[ القلم : 1 - 5 ]», verse numbers «( 2 )», round brackets and quotation marks round Quran and hadith, the «[ & ]» placeholders (K writes the eulogy out).
Verse: K writes one verse per line; here hemistichs are separated by « . . . ».

3. Collation

Done by three workers from the page images (K in bands of 3–4 lines, B in bands of 5–8 lines), then a second pass each: khuṭba first half — K twice (second pass on shifted crops), B word by word in full; khuṭba second half — K twice, B word by word in full (pp. 6–11); chapter 1 — K once in full and a second full independent pass (every row word by word, 261 vowel signs added that the first reading had missed, 4 removed, 1 consonantal fix), B in full once. Working files: …/scratchpad/fut/{khutba-a,khutba-b,bab1}.collation.json (row per MS line), not kept in the repo; the base carries every change, variant, doubt and marginal note.

Changes to O: 58 (+ 18 Quran replacements): 27 K = B against O, 15 K alone, 13 OpenITI artefacts, 2 marginal additions, 1 omission in K; the full list is in changes (each with O line, K folio/line, B page/line, reason). Grouped:
- OpenITI artefacts (13): editorial matter (above); a duplicated block in O (ll. 2458–2483 repeat 2433–2458) and a repeated closing fragment (2548–2550), both deleted; a skipped clause at 2499 restored from K = B («أجمعين كعبتي هذه قلب الوجود وعرشي لهذا القلب جسم محدود وما وسعني واحد منهما ولا أخبرني بالذي»); the misplaced hemistich break at 2326–7.
- K = B against O (27), e.g. ذروة الخلفاء (not دورة), يأتي الآخر (not يثبت), يا ليت شعري, والفعل, لمشرَبه, حرجا, المتجلي, فقالت, الأعم, عني, رواء, الأقباء, مشرقي, ولتشكرن.
- K alone (15; four of them are O's «[ & ]» placeholders that K writes out as صلى الله عليه وسلم), e.g. فهو الواهب سبحانه, وليس معه شيء, على ما عليه كانت, وثبت عنده هذا, مما أودعت, مُدَلَّهٌ, وعاينت, كثّرتُ, يصح منه ذلك, برهانها; one omission in K (فقال أنت).
- Author's marginal additions with renvoi (verses at O 325 and 347, «سيدي» at 404) are in the text; O already had them.
Būlāq differences from the adopted text: 159 (comparison.variants, with page and line). Notable: B adds a clause at O 382 («فما كان انشادي لهم مع معرفتي بقلة حرمتي عندهم الا…»), rewrites 403, has another heading at 234 («كتبتها بالتماس بعض الفقراء»), ends the khuṭba without the closing formula; الأب الثالث for الثاني (218), أمينين for إمامين (175; K has أمينين as a marginal gloss).
Chapter 1, O 2521: pass 1 adopted «لي لِمَ» (with B); pass 2 read K as «لِمَ لَمْ تسألني» (= O) at 10×: O kept, B's reading recorded. Review.

4. Decisions / doubts

31 items in uncertain (O kept wherever K could not be read securely), e.g. المتلوف (B المكتوف), والمتحدات (B والمخدرات; a small ḥāʾ mark under the word in K favours O), فكانت/وكانت (149), عدنية/عزنية (196), حقيقة/دقيقة الأين (205), يقص المهامه (271: B يقضي fits the metre; K faded), برهانها (ending doubtful), سهمو (K seems to write سهمُ). Faded lines in K: fol. 12b–13a (O 338, 413–416), p. 91 right ll. 5–12, p. 95 left ll. 16–17: need the original or a better photograph. 27 marginal notes (readers' «بلغ» notes, quire notes, glosses) in marginalia.

5. Quotations verified

Against the Tanzil Uthmani text: 18 exact quotations replaced by the verbatim Tanzil text (their vowelling is Tanzil's, not K's): 42:11, 53:9, 56:79, 68:1–5 (the author's "Sūrat Nūn" after a basmala), 37:180 (K «فسبحان»: replaced from ربك on), 13:2, 23:61, 9:46, 33:4, 35:28, 2:67, 6:125 (two parts), 74:11. Allusions left as written: 4:171 (أن يكون له ولد), 27:22 (هدهد الفهم من سبا), 46:30 adapted (يهدي إلى العلم وإلى طريق مستقيم). Hadith: «إن رحمة الله سبقت غضبه» (Bukhārī, Muslim), «كان الله ولا شيء معه …» (the Sufi form, cf. Bukhārī Badʾ al-khalq 1). Basmalas are not treated as quotations. scripts/quran_refs.py not run (hard-coded list; §12).

6. Vowelling

K's vowels and the Tanzil quotations (mask t, 2,020 marks) + AI (Claude Opus, scripts/recitals/prepare.py futuhat-1, mask a), letters verified unchanged; 112/112 passages (passage 51, a poem, failed three times on letter verification and was redone alone by a one-off copy of the script). The 18 quotations were checked verbatim after vowelling. No authoritative vowelled edition compared.

7. Segmentation and word IDs

112 passages (0–71 khuṭba, 72–111 chapter 1), 7,814 words, cut at sentence ends and the author's headings; poems whole or split between verses. Each passage: label, konya (e.g. "Konya autograph, safar 1, PDF p. 89 right (fol. 45b) l. 14–16"), konyaPages, openitiLines, openiti (vol:page), openitiUrl (GitHub line anchors), bulaqAtKonyaPages. Word ids u1:<passage>:<token>.

8. Analysis layer

scripts/fusus/analyze.py futuhat-1.json futuhat-1-analysis.json u1 (CAMeL Tools): 6,783 words, 4,313 with a root, 809 distinct roots, 292 vowel conflicts.

9. Commentaries

None yet.

10. Translation

AI (Claude Opus, scripts/recitals/translate.py futuhat-1 opus), marked AI, glossary in futuhat-1-meta.json: 112/112 passages, every word glossed. Published translations (Chodkiewicz et al., Chittick, Winkel) not used.

12. Open questions / to review

A person should review the 58 changes, above all the K-only readings and O 2521, and the 31 doubts.
The fihrist and the muqaddima are not included.
quran_refs.py needs futuhat-1 in TEXTS; prepare.py drops extra passage fields (label, konya, openiti…), copied back by a one-off step.

13. Change log

2026-09-28: khuṭba and chapter 1 established from O against K (fols. 2b–15a, 44b–52a) and B; Quran verified; AI-vowelled, analysed (u1), AI-translated.