This story begins with a divine unveiling: In 1220, a mysterious youth took the Sufi scholar, poet, and philosopher Muhyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī behind the veil of the night. There, Ibn ʿArabī first came face to face with advanced and morally ambiguous spiritual practitioners known as the Nightfolk.
In The Nightfolk, Duja Rašić offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the once-widespread beliefs about the night and its people in Muslim cultures and societies. Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials, Rašić traces these beliefs from their origins in the seventh century to their most prominent form in the thirteenth-century works of Ibn ʿArabī. Re-examining common notions of spiritual authority, ascension, self-isolation, moral choice, and transgression in Muslim cultures and societies, The Nightfolk is a crucial read for those interested in philosophical Sufism and Ibn ʿArabī’s attempts to bridge the gap between the visible world and the realms of the unseen.
Dunja Rašić is a Sufi scholar and author of The Written World of God and Bedeviled.
"The Nightfolk is a cross-cultural foray into Ibn ʿArabī’s fascinating treatment of a unique class of spiritual people whose dark nights are illuminated by retreat and prayer. This book will prove to be useful to scholars of mysticism and those who seek refuge in the silence of the night from the distracting din of the day."—Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt
"Much of current 'esoteric' writing about darkness is content to pursue the demonic or 'shadows.' Dunja Rašić instead looks at the mysterious, love-filled aspect of those whose high spiritual station is often veiled even from themselves. Through her meticulous scholarship in The Nightfolk, the nuances of their teaching as received through Ibn ‘Arabi is revealed to us."—Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University and Founder of Illuminated Courses and Tours
"Rašić gives us luminous reflections on darkness and the night through Ibn ʿArabī’s uniquely colourful window."—Aydogan Kars, author of Unsaying God: Negative Theology in Medieval Islam
244 pp.5.5 x 8.5Illus: 20 b/w figures, 2 tables
9780520422612$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
Aug 2025