Ivan Aguéli

Ivan Aguéli (Sala, 1869-Barcelona, 1917), born John Gustaf Agelii, was a Swedish painter and wandering writer who, after converting to Islam, was also known as Sheikh 'Abd al-Hādī 'Aqīlī. He is remembered above all as a painter. His work, with Post-Impressionist traits, uses the combination of colours to create a sense of depth and distance, and he is regarded as one of the founders of Swedish contemporary art. His restless life and his interest in mysticism, linked to the thought of Ibn Arabi, also shaped his path, though painting remained his main activity.

The son of a veterinarian, he studied in Gotland and Stockholm between 1879 and 1889. In 1889 he took the name Ivan Aguéli and moved to Paris, where he became a pupil of the Symbolist painter Émile Bernard. On his way back he passed through London, where he met the anarchist Kropotkin, and in Stockholm he attended the art school, where his teachers included Anders Zorn and Richard Bergh. In late 1892 he returned to Paris and, active in French anarchist circles, was arrested and tried in 1894.

After his release he travelled to Egypt, where he lived from 1895 to 1896. Back in Paris he converted to Islam and adopted the name 'Abd al-Hadi. He travelled to Colombo in 1899 and returned to France in 1900. In 1902 he settled in Cairo, where he enrolled at Al-Azhar University to study Arabic and Islamic philosophy, and was initiated into the Shadhiliyya Sufi order. Together with the journalist Enrico Insabato he founded the Italian magazine Il Convito, published in Cairo between 1904 and 1913.

In 1911 he founded Al Akbariyya, a secret Sufi society in Paris aimed at spreading the teachings of Ibn Arabi; René Guénon was among its first members. Little documentation about the society survives. In 1916 he was expelled from Spain on suspicion of being an Ottoman spy, and he was left stranded without the funds to return to Sweden. On 1 October 1917 he was killed by a train at a level crossing in Hospitalet de Llobregat, on the outskirts of Barcelona.

Prince Eugen Bernadotte, a known patron of artists, arranged for his paintings and belongings to be returned to Sweden. Today most of his works are held at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art and the Aguéli Museum in Sala, which holds the largest collection of his work. In 1969, the centenary of his birth, six of his paintings were issued as Swedish postage stamps. His remains stayed in Barcelona until 1981, when they were moved to Sala and reburied with Islamic rites.