Books
The Translator of Desires. Poems by Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi.
Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation: Princeton University Press, 2021. A complete bilingual, Arabic-English facing page translation and edition of Ibn `Arabi's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq; with introduction, notes, appendixes on the manuscripts and printed editions consulted in creating the Arabic edited text, full translations of Ibn ʿArabi’s romantic prefaces and apologia, translator’s commentary on each poem, and glossaries on the personal names, place names, core vocabulary, ritual terms, and the history of translations of the Tarjumān.
Bewildered
The Post-Apollo Press / Litmus Press, 2018. Selected translations from Ibn `Arabi's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq. Cover design by Etel Adnan.
Qurʾānic Studies Today
Co-edited with Angelika Neuwirth. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016. Introduction by Angelika Neuwirth and Michael Sells. Essays by Devin J. Stewart, Nora K. Schmid, Hannalies Koloska, Walid A. Saleh, Michael A. Sells, Angelika Neuwirth, Sidney H. Griffith, Lauren E. Osborne, Ghassan el Masri, Holger M. Zellentin, and Mun’im Sirry.
Stations of Desire: Love Odes of Ibn `Arabi and New Poems
Original poems by Michael Sells and translations of love qasidas from Ibn `Arabi's Interpreter of Desires (Turjuman al-Ashwaq). Jerusalem: Ibis Press, 2000. Fourth Printing, 2003.
The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy
Co-edited with Emran Qureshi. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Introduction by Michael Sells and Emran Qureshi. Essays by Fatema Mernissi, Edward Said, Roy Mottahedeh, John Trumpbour, Rob Nixon, Mujeeb Khan, Maria Rosa Menocal, Neil MacMaster, Norman Cigar, and Michael Sells. A Choice "Academic Book of the Year" for 2004.
Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations
White Cloud Press, 1999. Renderings of the hymnic suras, with an introduction, a facing commentary on each Sura, essays on sound and meaning in Qur'anic language, sound charts for use with Qur'anic recitation, and an annotated glossary and a CD with examples of Qur'anic recitation. Seventh, Printing 2003.
Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations, Second Edition
With a new chapter on Surat al-Rahman, including a full translation of the sura, and a preface covering the 2002 UNC-Qur’an controversy (Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2006).
Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Al-Andalus
Co-edited with Maria Rosa Menocal and Raymond Scheindlin, and contributor. The volume includes 24 essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia
University of California Press, 1996. An examination of the use of religious mythology to motivate and justify genocide against Bosnian Muslims from 1992-1995. 1997 American Academy Religion Award for Excellence in Historical Studies. Second Edition with a Preface on Kosovo and BiH. University of California Press, 1998. Bosnian edition: Iznevjereni most: religia i genocid u Bosni, translated by Zoran Mutic, (Sarajevo: Sedam, 2002).
Early Islamic Mysticism
Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality Series, 1996. Introductions and translations of the Qur'an, Mi`raj Accounts, Arabic Poetry, Tustari, Ja`far as-Sadiq, Muhasibi, Junayd, Hallaj, Rabi`a, Bistami, Sarraj, Qushayri, and Niffari, with an introduction to Islamic mysticism. 3rd Printing 2003.
Mystical Languages of Unsaying
University of Chicago Press, 1994. A philosophical and literary study of apophatic language in Plotinus, Eriugena, Ibn `Arabi, Eckhart, and Marguerite Porete. With original translations from the Greek, Arabic, Latin, medieval French, and medieval German. 1995 American Academy of Religion First Book Prize (honorable mention).
Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes
Wesleyan University Press, 1989. Second Printing, 1996. Original Translations, and Critical Commentary on early Arabic odes by `Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, `Antara, Al-A`sha and Dhu al-Rumma, with a General Introduction. Major selections appear in the Harper-Collins World Reader and The Norton Anthology of World Poetry.
Book Sections
"Finhas of Medina: Islam, 'the Jews', and the Construction of Militancy," in Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts, ed. John Renard (University of California Press, 2012), 101-134.
"Bewildered Tongue: The Semantics of Mystical Union in Islam" and "Response," in Mystical Union and Monotheistic Religions: An Ecumenical Dialogue, eds. Bernard McGinn and Moshe Idel (New York: MacMillan, 1989), 87-124, 163-173, 219-230, and 248-239. This volume includes studies by McGinn (Christian Mysticism), Idel (Jewish Mysticism), Sells (Islamic Mysticism), and D. Merkur (Psychological Approaches), with a response by each to the other essays. Second Edition, Mystical Union in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (New York: Continuum, 1996).
"The Pseudo-Woman and the Meister: 'Unsaying' and Essentialism," in Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics, ed. Bernard McGinn (New York: Crossroad, 1994), 114-46.
Articles (1996-present)
Please see my Curriculum Vitae for a complete list of my article publications.
“Saudi Nationalism, Wahhabi Daʿwā, and Western Power,” in When Politics are Sacralized,, eds. Nadim H. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (Cambridge University Press, 2021): 275-306.
"The Casting: A Close Hearing of Sura ṬāHā 9–79," in Qur’ānic Studies Today, eds. Angelika Neuwirth and Michael A. Sells (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016): 125-177. Corrigendum.
"Introduction," co-authored with Angelika Neuwirth, in Qur’ānic Studies Today, eds. Angelika Neuwirth and Michael A. Sells (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016): 1-14.
"Holocaust Abuse: The Case of Hajj Amin al-Husayni," Journal of Religious Ethics (in press, scheduled for December 2015): 723-759.
"Pale Honey," a translation of poem #47 from Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 57 (2015): v-vi.
"'At the Red Rise:' Translation of Poem #57 from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq," La Corónica 43.1 (Fall 2014): 253-255.
"Al-Bistami, Mi`rāj, translation of an account of heavenly ascent attributed to Abu Yazid al-Bistami," in The Norton Anthology of World Religions, ed. Jane Dammen McAauliffe (2015): 388-439 (originally published in Michael Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, 1996, 242-250).
"'Is What You Knew Kept Secret,' ʿAlqama ibn Abada," in The Norton Anthology of World Religions, ed. Jane Dammen McAauliffe (2015), 457-464 (originally published in Michael Sells, Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes, 1989, 11-20).
"Shahrastani’s Doxology of Muslim Schools," first part, translation from Shahrastani’s Kitāb al-Milal wa al-Niḥal, in Islamic Theological Themes: A Source Editor, ed. John Renard (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015), 136-146 (originally published in Michael Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, 1996, 307-320).
"Apparition," a translation of poem #44 from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq, Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 55 (2014): v.
"Short Poems from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi Society 55 (2014): 63-70.
"'Armageddon' in Christian, Sunni, and Shia traditions," in The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, eds. Michael Jerryson, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Margo Kitts (Oxford University Press, 2012), 467-495.
"Finhas of Medina: Islam, 'the Jews', and the Construction of Militancy," in Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts, ed. John Renard (University of California Press, 2012), 101-134.
"Day Falls Night," a translation of poem #39 from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq, OccasionalReligion.Com, 29 November 2011; Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 51 (2012): i-ii.
"Dead on the Trail in Dhát al-Áda," a translation of an Arabic nasīb from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjuman al-Ashwāq, OccasionalReligion.Com, 9 June 2011. A revised version of "Dead on the Trail in Dhát al-Áda," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi Society 50 (2011): v-vi.
"Forward," in Prophecy in Islam by Fazlur Rahman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), vii-xviii.
"Tigris Song" and "Baghdad Song," Poetry 192.1 (April 2008): 26-29. [translations from the Arabic of two poems by Ibn al-`Arabi from the Turjuman al-Ashwaq, along with a translator’s note.]
"Return to the Flash Rock Plain of Thahmad: Two Nasibs by Ibn al-ʿArabi," Journal of Arabic Literature 39 (2008): 3-13.
"Iraq and Yemen Intertwined: Poem #20 from Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Turjumān al-Ashwāq (interpreter/translator/biographer of longings)" in Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Letters in Honor of Raymond P. Scheindlin, eds. Jonathan P. Decter and Michael Rand (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007), 175-180.
"Pilgrimage and 'Ethnic Cleansing' in Herzegovina," in Religion and Nationalism in Iraq, eds. David Little and Donald Swearer (Harvard University Press, 2006), 147-158.
"Crosses of Blood: Sacred Space, Religion, and Violence in Bosnia-Hercegovina," The Annual Paul Hanly Furfey Lecture, Association for the Sociology of Religion, Sociology of Religion 64:3 (2003): 309-331.
"Sacral Ruins in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mapping Ethnoreligious Nationalism," in Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity, ed. Craig R. Prentiss (New York: New York University Press, 2003): 211-233.
"Christ-Killer, Kremlin, Contagion," in The New Crusades, eds. Emran Qureshi and Michael Sells (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 352-389.
"Introduction: The Clash of Civilizations and Constructing the Muslim Enemy," co-authored with Emran Qureshi, in The New Crusades, eds. Emran Qureshi and Michael Sells (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 1-47.
"Ibn al-'Arabi and the Clash of Civilizations," Rabat, Morocco, 2003 (in press).
"The Infinity of Desire: Love, Mystical Union, and Ethics in Sufism," in Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism, eds. William Barnard and Jeffrey Kripal (New York: Seven Bridges, 2002), 184-229.
"Islam in Serbian Religious Mythology and Its Consequences," in Islam and Bosnia, ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), 56-85.
"Irremediable Ecstasy, Modes of the Lyric in Etel Adnan's The Spring Flowers Own & Manifestations of the Voyage," in Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist, eds. Lisa Suhayr Majaj and Amal Amireh (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2002): 50-66.
"The Wedding of Zein: Islam through the Modern Novel," in Teaching Islam, ed. Brannon Wheeler (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002): 145-167.
"Ibn 'Arabi and the Clash of Civilizations," Journal of the University of Riyadh Muhammad V, forthcoming.
"Serbian Religious Mythology and the Genocide in Bosnia" in In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the 20th Century, eds. Omer Bartov and Phyllis Mack (Berghahn Books, 2001), 180-205.
"The 'Work' of Love: Marguerite Porete, Nizam, and Ibn 'Arabi" (Tresseguidores de la religion de l'amor: Nizam, Ibn 'Arabi, y Marguerite Porete), translated into Spanish by Ana Iribas Rubin, in Mujeres de Luz: Proceedings of the Congreso Internacional Sobre Mistica Femenina, Avila 29-31 Octubre, 1999, ed. Pablo Beneito (Avila: Centro Internacional de Estudios Misticos, 2001), 137-157.
"Preface," in 'Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verse, Saintly Life, ed. and trans. Emil Homerin (New York: Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality, 2001), xi-svii.
"Preface," in Anatomy of Genocide, eds. Alexandre Kimenyi and Otis Scott (Edwin Mellen, 2001).
"Sound, Spirit, and Gender in Surat al-Qadr," anthologized in The Qur'an: Style and Contents, ed. Andrew Rippin (Variorum, Aldershot UK, 2001), 332-353.
"Meister Eckhart and Ibn `Arabi on the Mysticism of Perpetual Transformation," Eckhart Review 8 (Spring 2000): 3-18.
"A Literary Approach to the Hymnic Suras of the Qur'an: Spirit, Gender, and Aural Intertextuality" in Literary Structures of Religions Meaning in the Qur'an, ed. Issa J. Boullata (London: Curzon Press, 2000), 3-25.
"Vuk's Knife: Kosovo, the Serbian Golgotha, and the Radicalization of Serbian Society," in Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions, ed. William J. Buckley (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 133-141.
"To al-Andalus Would She Return the Greeting: Ibn Zaydun's Nuniyya (Poem in N), Complete Translation," in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus, eds. Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Sells, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 489-496.
"Love," an essay on love poetry in Islamic Andalus, in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus, eds. Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Sells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 126-158.
"Balkan Islam and the Mythology of Kosovo," ISIM (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World) Newsletter, no. 3, 1999.
"The Wiles of Women and Performative Intertextuality: `A'isha, the Hadith of the Slander and the Sura of Yusuf," co-authored with Ashley Manjarrez Walker, Journal of Arabic Literature 30.1 (Spring, 1999): 1-23.
"Sufism Toward the Year 1240 CE," in Jewish Mystical Leadership in the Thirteenth Century, ed. Mortimer Ostow (Jason Aronson Press, 1999).
"Preface on Kosovo and BiH from 1995-1998," for the new, paperback edition of The Bridge Betrayed, Religion and Genocide in Bosnia by Michael A. Sells (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
"Serbian Religious Nationalism, Christoslavism, and the Genocide in Bosnia, 1992-1995," in Religion and the War in Bosnia, ed. Paul Mojzes (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998): 196-207.
Four Poems Translated from Ibn `Arabi's Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (Translation of Desires), Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi Society 23 (1998): 53-57.
"Heart-Secret, Intimacy, and Awe in Formative Sufism," The Shaping of An American Islamic Discourse: A Memorial to Fazlur Rahman, eds. Earle Waugh and Frederick Denny (Atlanta: Scholars Press, Studies on Religion and the Social Order, 1998), 165-188.
"Longing, Belonging, and Pilgrimage in the Poetry of Ibn `Arabi," in Languages of Power in Islamic Spain, ed. Ross Brann (CDL Press: Occasional publications of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program of Jewish Studies, Cornell University, 1997), 178-96.
"'Christ Killer' Mythology and the Tragedy in the Balkans," Explorations: Rethinking Relationships Among Protestants, Christians and Jews 11.3 (1997): 5.
"Toward a Multidimensional Understanding of Islam: The Poetic Key," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64.1 (1996): 145-66.
"Religion, History, and Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina," in Religion and Justice in the War over Bosnia, ed. G. Scott Davis (New York: Routledge, 1996), 22-43.
"The Mu`allaqat," in Harper-Collins Great Literature of the Eastern World, ed. Ian McGreal (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 457-61.
"Early Islamic Mysticism," in The Muslim Almanac, ed. Azim Nanji (Detroit: Gale Research, 1996), 215-21.
Online Publications
"Day Falls Night," translation of a nasib by Ibn al-`Arabi, OccasionalReligion.com, November 29, 2011
"Mark Twain's Palestine," at frequencies: a collaborative geneology of sprituality, November 3, 2011
"Flight Four" (poem), OccasionalReligion.com, September 1, 2011
Draft: Breivik, Trifkovic, and Bat Ye'or, Part I, July, 2011
"For You Alone" (translation of a ghazal by Hafez), OccasionalReligion, July 27, 2011
"Shrine Destruction in Bahrein," Sightings, June 9, 2011
"Dead on the Trail of Dhat al-Ada," translation of a nasib by Ibn al-`Arabi, OccasionalReligion.com, June 9, 2011
"Ghazal (You the Dawn and I)," translation of a ghazal by Hafez, OccasionalReligion.com, April 22, 2011
"War as Worship, Worship as War," Religion and Culture Forum, December 2006