Idries Shah

The appeal of Nasrudin is as universal and timeless as the truths he illustrates. His stories are read by children, by scientists and scholars, and by followers of philosophy. Idries Shah assembled this collection of Nasrudin's trials and tribulations from ancient manuscripts and oral literature, from sources in North Africa and Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Many were known to the great Sufi masters, Rumi, Jami, and Attar the chemist.

The appeal of Nasrudin is as universal and timeless as the truths he illustrates. His stories are read by children, by scientists and scholars, and by followers of philosophy. Idries Shah assembled this collection of Nasrudin's trials and tribulations from ancient manuscripts and oral literature, from sources in North Africa and Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Many were known to the great Sufi masters, Rumi, Jami, and Attar the Chemist.

The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, teachings and classical writings, as a basic course of Sufi study. The author begins with the outward aspects of the teaching most likely to puzzle the student coming fresh to the subject. He considers various attitudes to Sufi ideas, and evidence of their absorption into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism and modern philosophical teachings. The greater part of the book illuminates aspects of Sufi activity and practice relevant to the contemporary world.

Small in size, but with a powerful punch, Idries Shah's Reflections is a collection of fables, aphorisms, and statements that challenge the conditioned mind. The book confronts the reader with unaccustomed perspectives and ideas, in an attempt to set the mind free, to see how things really are. As the book's foreword states, 'Do you imagine that fables exist only to amuse or to instruct, and are based upon fiction? The best ones are delineations of what happens in real life, in the community and in the individual's mental processes'.

When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject of Sufi Thought. Rich in scope, author Idries Shah explained clearly the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time. In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West. Containing detailed information on the major Sufi thinkers, and literary characters, such as Nasrudin, it is regarded as a key work on both Sufism and Eastern Philosophy. A text in scores of leading universities around the world for courses on Sufism, Eastern thought and Islamic philosophy, The Sufis has been used by psychologists and physicists, by school teachers, lawyers, social workers, and by ordinary members of the public.

What is Sufism? The book follows the Sufi principle of 'scatter' in answering this unanswerable question. It deliberately shies away from offering an ordered definition. Instead, it throws out ideas. Like fragments of light on dust particles, they reveal the shape of something intangible. Neither emotionalist nor academic, this book offers the closest thing a written work can to an experience of Sufism. When it came out in 1964 it was incredibly influential, attracting admirers such as Robert Graves (who wrote the introduction), Ted Hughes and Doris Lessing. It's the most important modern book written on Sufism. A must-read for any serious student of Sufi thought.

A fascinating journey through the history of Sufism, this classic volume recounts the spread of this religious tradition from the seventh century through the present. This history explains how the origin of Sufism is not solely based on Eastern philosophies but rather emerged from a mix of Eastern as well as Western religious influences. The study also explores Sufism as a representation of the hidden tradition behind all religious and philosophical systems: being in the world but not of the world; being free of ambition, greed, and intellectual pride; and revering tradition and authority. A trav s de un fascinante recorrido de la historia del sufismo, este volumen cl sico se concentra en la propagaci n del pensamiento sufi desde el siglo VII hasta el presente. Esta historia del sufismo explica que su origen no proviene solamente del Oriente, c me obstantemente se supone, sino que es una mezcla de las influencias del Oriente con las del Occidente. El sufismo representa, precisamente, la tradici n secreta que se encuentra detr s de todos los sistemas religiosos y filos ficos: el estar en el mundo sin ser del mundo, el liberarse de las ambiciones, codicias, orgullos intelectuales, al igual que la obediencia ciega a las tradiciones y a la autoridad.