Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi

Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma'il al-Nabulusi was the most prominent scholarly Sufi (Islamic mystic) of Ottoman Syria. He was born in Damascus on 5 Dhu'l-Hijja 1050 AH (19 March 1641 CE) into a learned family that traced its name to the town of Nablus. He showed early scholarly promise — sources report that he taught and issued fatwas (legal opinions) before the age of twenty — and was affiliated with two Sufi paths, the Qadiriyya and the Naqshbandiyya.

He is best known as a defender and expositor of the teachings of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), the controversial Andalusi mystic whose ideas on the "unity of being" were disputed among scholars; al-Nabulusi wrote extensive commentaries upholding them. He produced a very large body of work — later estimates run to over 200 titles — spanning Sufism, jurisprudence, poetry, dream interpretation, and even agriculture and the lawfulness of tobacco.

After a reported period of seclusion, he undertook a series of journeys recorded in vivid travel memoirs (rihlas): to Istanbul, to Lebanon and the ruins of Baalbek, to Jerusalem and Hebron, and a long pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca and Medina. These accounts dwell on visits to saints' tombs and mystical encounters rather than topography.

He died in Damascus on 24 Sha'ban 1143 AH (5 March 1731 CE), in his Salihiyya home, and was buried in the city. Whether al-Nabulusi is best read as a strict traditionist or a daring mystic remains debated among scholars.