Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Ibn Arabi's Small Death is a richly imagined historical novel tracing the life of the great Andalusian Sufi philosopher, mystic and poet Ibn Arabi (1165–1240).

Told in the first person, the novel follows his journey across Al-Andalus, North Africa, Mecca, Anatolia and Damascus, weaving together political upheaval, exile, scholarship and spiritual awakening. Rather than treating Ibn Arabi as a distant historical monument, Alwan restores him as a searching, uncertain and deeply human figure whose intellectual life is inseparable from his emotional and religious one.

Questions of love, knowledge, power, faith and language unfold against the collapse of dynasties and shifting centres of learning, while the philosophical traditions of Sufism remain accessible without being simplified. Originally published in Arabic in 2016 as Mawt Ṣaghīr, this acclaimed English translation introduced one of the Arab world's most significant contemporary historical novels to a wider readership. Essential for readers interested in Islamic philosophy, medieval history, literary fiction and historical novels that treat ideas as seriously as character.

Paperback. First English edition, 2021. Very light shelf wear with a clean, bright interior and a tight binding.