Más que una carta: Risāla ilà aṣḥāb al-Šayḫ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Mahdawī

In both his Iǧāza and Fihrist, Ibn al-ʿArabī referred to Risāla ilà aṣḥāb al-Šayḫ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Mahdawī as a separate work. This document is a letter written to the disciples of Šayḫ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Mahdawī of Tunisia by Ibn al-ʿArabī himself, and it has recently been determined that it also serves as a kind of prolog to Mašāhid al-asrār. This prolog covers such subjects as how the Mašāhidshould be studied and by whom, explanations of difficult words found in it, and defenses of possible criticisms of it. Ibn al-ʿArabī's letter is important in its own right: it develops the concepts of ḫatmiyya, walāya, nubuwwa, and wirāṯa in their original forms and references discussions in the scholarly circles of al-Andalus and North Africa. This paper will show how the Risālamust be understood with the Mašāhid and explore its contents in the light of Ibn al-ʿArabī's works and his social and intellectual milieu.