IBN 'ARABI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith In the West he is known as the Doctor Maximus and in the Islamic world as The Great Master. Born in Murcia in Spain in 1165 his family moved to Seville. At thirty-five he left for Mecca where he completed his most influential book of poems The Interpreter of Ardent Desires and began writing his masterpiece, the vast Meccan Revelations. A prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabi is generally known as...