Books
A Bad Beginning and the Path to Islam by Gai Eaton (Paperback)
Gai Eaton is the author of three major works on Islam which have
had a profound influence on young Muslims in the West,
offering them an alternative both to extremism and to the narrow
perspective of immigrant parents. Now, as an octogenarian, he looks
back on his troubled early life and on the circumstances which led him,
at the age of 30, to Islam. This autobiography is the story of a born
sceptic's search for faith while preoccupied with questions of race and
class, sex and money. After a strange childhood completely isolated
from other children, he was educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge
to become, succesively, an actor, a teacher and journalist in Jamaica
where he was involved in the island's politics, a diplomat, a writer
and finally, consultant to the leading Islamic institution in Britain.
Classification: Autobigraphy
Size: 235 x 156mm
Pages: 368
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 978-1-901383-32-4/978-1-901383-33-1
Price: £14.95
Publication date: 15 February 2010
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GAI EATON is the author of King of the Castle: Choice & Responsibilty
in the Modern World (1977), praised by Bernard Levin for its 'vigour,
clarity and wit'; Islam and the Destiny of Man (1985): 'An urgent piece
of writing, a reading of "what we are and where we are" - TLS; and
Remembering God, Reflections of Islam (2000), described by Seyyed Hussain Nasr as 'a call from the heart meant to reach across the boundaries that separate the West and the Islamic world'.
Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz by Peter Avery
Hafiz (d.1390) is honoured as the greatest lyric poet of Iran and its greatest writer of ghazals, the form which he perfected, and Peter Avery as one of the most eminent scholars of Persian poetry of the West. It was his late friend, the great Iranian scholar Parviz Natil Khanlari, who edited what is often accepted as the most reliable collection of poems, or Diván-i Hafiz.
It is this complete collection, 486 poems in all, that Avery has translated here into English for the first time with extensive annotation. A primary aim has been to render them as literally as possible while trying to convey some sense of the poetry of Hafiz, the Shakespeare of Persian literature, to the reader who lacks knowledge of Persian, as this Divan is without doubt one of mankind's greatest literary achievements.
Iranians call their great poet the Lisanu'l-ghayb, the Tongue of the Invisible. This is the only complete collection of Hafiz in English translation currently available.
Classification: general
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Pages: 604
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 9781901383263 cloth 9781901383096 paper
Price:£34.95 cloth, £19.95 paper
Publication date: Mar 2007
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Peter Avery, OBE (1923-2008) was born in Derby, England, and devoted his life to Persian literature and history. As a child he was introduced to Fitzgerald's paraphrase of Omar Khayyam's quatrains which lead to a lifelong interest in Persian poetry. He began to learn Persian during the Second World War when he was stationed in India because he wanted to be able to read Hafiz in the original. Having taken a degree at the London School of Oriental and African studies, after living in Iran and the Middle East until 1957, he became Lecturer in Persian Studies in the University of Cambridge, where he continued to teach, even after retirement, until the end of his life.
Commander of the Faithful by John Kiser
Commander of the Faithful,The life and times of Emir abd el-kader is both a biography of its main character and a history of the resistance he led to the French colonization of Algeria in the mid 1800s. When Abd el-Kader died in 1883, The New York Times hailed him as ‘one of the few great men of the century’. The warrior/saint had won the heart of the French nation, his sworn enemy and the invader of his Algerian homeland. He reached the summit of his fame after he saved the lives of thousands of Christians during a Turkish campaign in Damascus. Elkader, a town in Iowa, is named after the emir. Perhaps most importantly this book may be seen to throw light upon the concept of Jihad by showing it in action in traditional Islamic thought and practice.
Classification: History/Biography
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Pages: 384
Binding: Cloth
ISBN: 978-1-901383-31-7
Price: £14.95
Publication date: 15 November 2008
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John Kiser is the author of the award-winning (French Siloe Prize) The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria (2003); Communist Entrepreneurs, Unknown Innovators in the Global Economy; and Stefan Zweig: Death of a Modern Man.
Garden of Mystery: The Gulshan-i Raz of Shabistari translated by Robert Darr
In 1317, in Tabriz, western iran-less than a hundred years after the deaths of Ibn 'Arabi and Jalaluddin Rumi, and just before the time of Hafiz-Mahmud Shabistari, a follower of the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi and Attar (Rumi's literary and spiritual predecessor), composed Garden of Mystery [Gulshan-i raz] in response to questions put to him by Sayyid Husseini, a fellow mystic. The questions introduce controversies and metaphysical enigmas of Sufi thought and practice that were at the heart of spiritual inquiry of that time. In a magnificent poem of about one thousand lines, Shabistari not only answers the questions to the fullest extent possible, but also provides a coherent literary bridge between the Persian 'school of love' poetry and the rapidly growing number of metaphysical and gnostic compositions from what had come to be known as the school of the 'Unity of Being'.Garden of Mystery holds a unique position in Persian literature. It is considered one of the most remarkable and original compositions in the entire history of Persian literature. It is a compact and concise exploration of the doctrines of Sufism at the peak of their development that has remained a primary text of Sufism throughout the world from Turkey to India.
Classification: general
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Pages:224
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 9781901383218 cloth 9781901383225 paper
Price:£29.95 cloth, £11.95 paper
Publication date: Mar 2007
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Robert Abdul Hayy Darr has for thirty-five years been a student of classical Islamic culture. In the 1970s he studied North Indian classical music at The Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California and by the early 1980s he was studying Persian poetry. In 1987 he met Afghanistan's poet laureate in exile, Ustad Khalilullah Khalili and this friendship led to Darr's English translation of the poet's quatrains in 1988. In 1989 he began the study of Persian miniature painting with Ustad Homayon Etemadi, Afghanistan's last court painter and royal librarian, who was also his tutor of Persian literature.
For the last fifteen years, Darr has continued his studies of mystical poetry with the Afghan Sufi poet, Raz Mohammad Zaray.
Ibn ‘Ajiba: Two Treatises on the Oneness of Existence, by Jean-Louis Michon
Ibn ‘Ajiba (1747-1809) was a Moroccan Sufi of the Darqawi school who studied in Fez and lived all his life in and around Tetuan. Although still relatively unknown in the English- speaking world, his writings are important for an understanding of Maghribi Sufism. In this bi-lingual edition, with a Preface by Claude Addas, Jean-Louis Michon presents two short metaphysical treatises by Ibn ‘Ajiba which shed new light on the history of Sufism and show its vitality as a living tradition in eighteenth-century Morocco. The key idea underlying both treatises, the Oneness of Existence, reveals the enduring influence of Ibn Arabi, ‘Shaykh al- Akbar’, more than five centuries after his death. Students of the history of Islam in North Africa, and those interested in the Sufi tradition will welcome the publication of these treatises and the useful presentation of both Arabic text and English translation on facing pages.
Classification: Sufism
Size: 210 x 148
Pages: 96
Binding:cloth/ paper
ISBN: 9781901383393 / 9781901383157
Price: 21.95 / 12.95
Publication date: 15 October 2010
Description: English/Arabic bi-lingual on facing pages
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Jean-Louis Michon was born in Nancy, France. He has a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the Sorbonne. He was a practising architect in Switzerland and has since travelled widely in a long career working within the United Nations family of organizations. From 1972 to 1980 he was in charge of the UNESCO programme for the preservation of traditional arts and crafts in Morocco, and the establishment of the General Survey of its Cultural Property, including monuments and sites. His publications include The Autobiography of a Moroccan Sufi: Ahmad Ibn ‘Ajiba; The Moroccan Sufi Ahmad Ibn ‘Ajiba and his Mi’raj, a glossary of the technical terms of Islamic Mysticism and numerous articles on Islam, its handicrafts, art and architecture.
Ibn Arabi: The Tree of Being by Tosun Bayrak
The Tree of Being (Shajarat al-Kawn) is a treatise written by Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), one of the greatest figures in both Islamic and universal mysticism. He wrote close to five hundred books and manuscripts. Many of them are short, but some, like Fusus al Hikam and Futuhat al Makkiyah, are books of many volumes. Ibn Arabi knew and influenced the great men of his time, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Jalaluddin Rumi, Suhrawardi, and others. His influence spread beyond the Islamic world and entered medieval Europe. Asin Palacios and Salverda di Grave have pointed out that Dante in the Divina Comedia derived from Ibn Arabi the great design of Hell and Paradise and also the image of the beautified young woman as guide to the Divine. The Tree of Being is an inspired description of the cosmos and the perfect man as microcosm, expressed in beautiful metaphysical and poetic imagery. Ibn Arabi's devotion to the Prophet Muhammad as the perfect man provides instruction in Islam for the ones who are interested in learning the essence of this religion. The book has five sections. First is the translator's introduction including a biography of Ibn Arabi and a discussion of his approach to Sufism. Second is an interpretation of Ibn Arabi's Tree of Being, a commentary on the mystical elements of the Qur'an and Islam. Third is Ibn 'Arabi's description of the character and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. The fourth section is his listing of the two hundred names and attributes of the Prophet.
Classification: Sufi literature
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Pages: 245
Binding: paper
ISBN: 1-901383-11-3
Price:£11.95
Publication date: 15 August 2005
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Sheikh Tosun Bayrak, born in Istanbul, Turkey, studied Biological Sciences, BSC, Robert College, Istanbul; Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley; and History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He received a Masters in Fine Arts from Rutgers University. Sheikh Bayrak served as a government official in Ankara, Honorary Consul of Turkey in Morocco, and was also an international businessman. He has exhibited widely in the USA as an artist and art educator. He is a retired professor of art and art history, from Fairleigh Dickenson University, New Jersey.
He has devoted the last forty years of his life to Sufism and is the Sheikh of the Jerrahi-Halveti Order in the USA.
In addition to two books of poetry in Turkish and many articles about art and religion in both the USA and Turkey, Sheikh Bayrak has published following books:
The Way of the Sufi Chivalry, Inner Traditions International The Most Beautiful Names, Threshold Books Inspiration on the Path of Blame, Threshold Books
Secret of Secrets, Islamic Text Society, London, UK Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, Fons Vitae The Name and the Named, Fons Vitae, The Shape of Light, Fons VitaeHe has recently finished two interpretations to be published soon
Mecca From Before Genesis Until Now, by Martin Lings
In this his latest work, eminent Islamic scholar Martin Lings discusses the significance of the pilgrimage to Mecca in the light of the tradition of Abraham. Drawing upon his own experience of performing the pilgrimage first in 1946 and then again in 1978, as well referring to the traditional sources he describes how the Hajj, proclaimed and established by Abraham and Ishmael about 4,000 years ago, and renewed by the Prophet Muhammad some fourteen hundred years ago, has continued to be performed without a break until the present day, its spiritual meaning as profound and timeless as ever.
Author: Martin Lings
Classification: Religion, History
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Pages: 86
Binding: paper
ISBN:1-901383-07-5
Price: £9.95
Illustrations: duotones
Publication date: 2004
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Martin Lings (1909-2005) was born in Lancashire. After a classical education he read English at Oxford where he was a pupil and later a close friend of C. S. Lewis. In 1935 he went to Lithuania where he lectured on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English and subsequently he went to Egypt and and lectured mainly on Shakespeare at Cairo University. In 1952 he returned to England and took a degree in Arabic and in 1955 he joined the staff of the British Museum where from 1970–73 he was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts. For the following year he held the same post in the newly founded British Library. In addition to writing many books he is also the author of the chapter ‘Mystical Poetry’ in Abbasid Belles-Lettres, which is Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, and the chapter on ‘The Nature and Origin of Sufism’ in Vol.19 of World Spirituality, as well as articles for Studies in Comparative Religion, Sophia, The New Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Orientations: Islamic Thought In A World Civilisation by James Morris
Beneath today's violent media stereotypes of an apocalyptic 'clash of civilisations,' could we be witnessing instead the epochal and challenging birth of new spiritual, ethical and cultural forms of communion, of a nascent global civilisation that has not yet found its name? Orientations begins with those intimately familiar situations of disorientation, painful conflict and confusion-almost inescapable in the contemporary world-whose most dramatic expressions are daily so visible in emblematic images from each Jerusalem or Sarajevo. But it introduces three classical Islamic thinkers-both philosophers and spiritual teachers-whose seminal works together provide the inspiration for positive, realistic, concrete and lastingly constructive responses to those dramatic challenges, at each level of our own lives and responsibilities.
Classification: religion, Islam, sufism
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Pages: 128
Binding: paper, 4-colour cover
ISBN: 1-901383-10-5
Price:£9.95
Publication date: May 2004
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Beneath today's violent media stereotypes of an apocalyptic 'clash of civilisations,' could we be witnessing instead the epochal and challenging birth of new spiritual, ethical and cultural forms of communion, of a nascent global civilisation that has not yet found its name? Orientations begins with those intimately familiar situations of disorientation, painful conflict and confusion-almost inescapable in the contemporary world-whose most dramatic expressions are daily so visible in emblematic images from each Jerusalem or Sarajevo. But it introduces three classical Islamic thinkers-both philosophers and spiritual teachers-whose seminal works together provide the inspiration for positive, realistic, concrete and lastingly constructive responses to those dramatic challenges, at each level of our own lives and responsibilities.
The purpose of this study, through the far-reaching insights and guidance of these three masters, is to turn our attention toward those universal elements of Islamic thought and spirituality which are explicitly grounded in the deepest common dimensions of human experience: dimensions that can alone provide us with the indispensable foundations for true communication, for genuine moral and spiritual communities rooted at every level-from family to workplace and beyond-in our shared responsibilities of spiritual insight, clarity, creativity and the uniquely human processes of realisation and transformation. The focus of Orientations is on those recurrent human tasks and challenges which these three thinkers and their traditions can help illuminate, even today.
Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes by Shems Friedlander
This account of the Sufi order of Mevlevi dervishes and its founder,
the poet and mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, presents the esoteric
wisdom of the Sufis as it has been handed down from the great
teachers of the past. In addition to Rumi's life story, accounts of
dervishes past and present are included. Featured are excerpts from
Rumi's poetry, teachings of other Sufi masters, descriptions of the
dervish lodges and the symbolism of the dervish ceremony, and an
overview of the music that accompanies the Mevlevis' sacred dance.
Fully illustrated with evocative pictures of dervishes in traditional
dress this book provides a glimpse of ceremonies rarely seen by the
public.
Classification: religion, sufism, Rumi
Size: 276 x 195 mm
Pages: 168
Binding: paper, 4-colour cover
ISBN: 1-901383-08-3
Price:£16.95
Publication date: September 2003
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Shems Friedlander must be congratulated on composing a book which
reflects the authentic Mevlevi tradition and emphasises the concrete
practices and spiritual attitudes of the Order. He has made it
possible for the general public to understand better the spiritual
ambience and especially the sama or spiritual concert and sacred
dance which provided the immediate context for the composition of
much of Rumi's poetry, a poetry which because of the depth of its
meaning is also of the greatest universal import today."
-Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Rumi, The Hidden Treasure by Shems Friedlander
Rumi, one of the greatest mystics of Islam, is known both for his poetry (he is apparently today’s bestselling poet in the USA, inspiring Madonna, Deepak Chopra, and Coleman Barks among others) and for having founded the Mevlevi order, sometimes known as the ‘whirling dervishes’ famous for their ecstatic dancing and music (sema). This book allows fresh insights into the world of Rumi which has lasted over seven hundred years and brings it up to the present with numerous illustrations of the sema today. As well as explaining the significance of the music, the clothing and the ritual that takes place within the Hall of Celestial Sounds, it also presents for the first time a description of the ‘secret’ sema.
Classification: Rumi, poetry
Size: 216 x 126 mm
Pages: 84
Binding: paper
ISBN:1-901383-04-0
Price:£10.95
Illustrations: 12 duotones, and calligraphy
Publication date: Sep 2001
Stations of the Sufi Path: The One Hundred Fields (Sad Maydan) of Abdullah Ansari of Herat by Nahid Angha
Stations of the Sufi Path: The One Hundred Fields (Sad Maydan) of Abdullah Ansari of Herat, is a key Sufi text and the first in Persian to address the stages, or stations, of the Sufi way. Its author Abdullah Ansari (396/1006—448/1056) is considered one of the greatest and most prolific of the Persian Sufi scholars, and his works constitute an important contribution to the intellectual history of Islam His writings address both exoteric philosophy and esoteric understanding, and range from Qur’an exegesis to devotional invocations and biographies of the Sufis, from literature and poetry to civil morality and ethics, always emphasizing the divine law as well as the divine truth as the way toward understanding. The One Hundred Fields was written by a spiritual teacher to serve as a Sufi manual for guiding novices. Its clearly defined and detailed descriptions of each ‘station’ make this work an esoteric masterpiece, almost one thousand years old, that still invites the reader on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.
Nahid Angha provides the first complete annotated translation into English together with a full introduction. The Foreword is by Leonard Lewisohn. It will be of interest to the specialist in Sufism as well as to the general reader.
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Nahid Angha is Co-Director of the International Association of Sufism (IAS), USA, Executive Editor of the quarterly journal, Sufism, and founder of the International Sufi Women Organization. Dr Angha is also chief representative of the IAS to the United Nations, and her dedication to peace has led her to serve in various leadership roles in interfaith organizations.
Cover picture:
Abdullah Ansari and his disciples. From the Majālis al-ʿushshāq, 959/1552. MS. Ouseley Add. 24, fol. 39 verso. Courtesy of the Bodleian Library.
Classification: general
Size: 230 x 153 mm
Pages: 175
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 9781901383362 cloth 9781901383355 paper
Price:£29.95 cloth,
£12.95 paper
Publication date: Nov 2010
The Eleventh Hour: The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition & Prophecy by Martin Lings
Martin Lings give us from the outset powerful reasons for believing that we have now reached a point in time from which ‘the end’ — whatever that may mean — is already in sight without being immediately imminent. The Eleventh Hour has its roots in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. The following questions run through the book: why did the latecomers receive the same wage as those who had laboured throughout the heat of the day? Why were they the first to be paid? And why, did Christ say ‘And the last shall be first?’ These questions are answered in the light of the concept of the Millennium, which is clearly the equivalent of the new Golden Age of the next cycle of time, and which is found in all three monotheistic religions, bringing them into line, in this respect, with Hinduism, Greco-Roman Antiquity and Buddhism.
This new and expanded edition now includes the fascinating ‘St Malachy’s Prophecy of the Popes’, a remarkable twelfth-century prophecy which Lings analyses in depth, according to which the end of time is predicted and also an appendix concerning the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Garabandal and other places.
Classification: general
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Pages: 160
Binding: paper
ISBN:1-901383-01-6
Price:£12.95
Publication date: Jun 2002
Revised and expanded edition
New in paperback
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Martin Lings (1909 - 2005) was born in Lancashire. After a classical education he read English at Oxford where he was a pupil and later a close friend of C. S. Lewis. In 1935 he went to Lithuania where he lectured on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English and subsequently he went to Egypt and and lectured mainly on Shakespeare at Cairo University. In 1952 he returned to England and took a degree in Arabic and in 1955 he joined the staff of the British Museum where from 1970–73 he was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts. For the following year he held the same post in the newly founded British Library. In addition to writing many books he is also the author of the chapter ‘Mystical Poetry’ in Abbasid Belles-Lettres, which is Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, and the chapter on ‘The Nature and Origin of Sufism’ in Vol.19 of World Spirituality, as well as articles for Studies in Comparative Religion, Sophia, The New Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The Secret of Shakespeare: His Greatest Plays seen in the Light of Sacred Art by Martin Lings
Martin Lings clarifies the essential greatness of Shakespeare by focussing our attention on the total impact his best plays make on us when acted. For this purpose he concentrates on the texts and their theatrical rendering, in such a way as to transmit to us, at the same time, a powerful impression of Shakespeare the man such as perhaps no other book can give us.
For the second edition the chapters on Macbeth and The Tempest were rewritten to more than twice their original length; and now, for this third edition, the same has been done for the chapters on Hamlet, King Lear and The Winter’s Tale, as well as for ‘Notes on Performance and Production’, with additions to other chapters also.
One reviewer wrote: ‘This book should be read on both sides of the curtain’, and there have in fact been reviews not only from in front but also from behind it. Here is one from each side:
‘This short book says more to reveal or suggest what is Shakespeare is the quintessence of his greatness than the most laborious exposition could ever do.’ Kathleen Raine. ‘Refreshing and invigorating . . . it should be on every bookshelf of real lovers of the real Bard.’ Sir Donald Wolfit.
The Foreword to this edition was written by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.
Classification: Shakespeare, Literature
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Pages:224
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 1-870196-15-5 cloth 1-870196-14-7 paper
Price:£19.95 cloth, £9.95 paper
Publication date: Dec 2002 (3rd edition, revised, expanded)
Thirty Poems of Hafiz of Shiraz by Peter Avery
Very little is known about the life of Hafiz, except that he was born in Shiraz and died there in 1389, making him almost an exact contemporary of Chaucer. As well as being a court poet he lectured in Qur'anic exegesis. His pen-name 'Hafiz' means 'one who can recite the Qur'an by heart'. Hafiz lived in the 'time of troubles' of the Iranian civilisation that was then subject to much internal strife between marauding princes and under constant threat from the nomads of Central Asia under Timur. He was said to have received the gift of poetry miraculously from Khidr, literally 'the green one', a mysterious figure associated with the esoteric. The poems of Hafiz have many levels of significance but have come to be interpreted above all in terms of Sufi mystical theology. His reputation to this day makes him the Shakespeare of Persian literature. This volume, first published in 1952, makes accessible in English, thirty poems by the greatest of Persian writers, beautifully and faithfully rendered into English as a result of the close collaboration of a scholar and a poet.
Classification: general
Size: 234 x 156 mm
Pages:224
Binding: cloth/paper
ISBN: 1-870196-15-5 cloth 1-870196-14-7 paper
Price:£19.95 cloth, £9.95 paper
Publication date: Dec 2002 (3rd edition, revised, expanded)
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Peter Avery, OBE (1923-2008) was born in Derby, England, and devoted his life to Persian literature and history. As a child he was introduced to Fitzgerald's paraphrase of Omar Khayyam's quatrains which lead to a lifelong interest in Persian poetry. He began to learn Persian during the Second World War when he was stationed in India because he wanted to be able to read Hafiz in the original. Having taken a degree at the London School of Oriental and African studies, after living in Iran and the Middle East until 1957, he became Lecturer in Persian Studies in the University of Cambridge, where he continued to teach, even after retirement, until the end of his life.
John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs OBE (9 July 1918 - 26 December 2006) was an English poet and translator, known for his verse influenced by classical myths, and the long Arthurian poem Artorius (1972).
Review:
"Among the more recent translations, those of Avery and Heath-Stubbs are probably the best of the free verse translations. They present each bayt in an unrhymed couplet of loose six-stress lines, which preserve something of the essentially symmetrical form of the original." Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.XI
When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra by Shems Friedlander
Here, in the first UK edition of this timeless classic, the ancient wisdom of the Sufis is distilled, bringing spiritual insight to contemporary Western lives in an extraordinarily accessible way.
“When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra speaks in the idiom of the Sufi—tales and parables that instruct the inner self. This handbook of the perennial psychology is for those who seek to awaken to a life of clarity and meaning from the sleep of modern times.”
Daniel Goleman, author of the bestselling Emotional Intelligence
Shems Friedlander has studied with Sufi Shaykhs throughout the Middle East — in Makkah, Madinah, Cairo and Istanbul. Here he presents ancient Sufi teaching stories rooted in the Islamic tradition. With common sense and insightful wit he addresses questions and problems of contemporary life and awakens our attention to the often overlooked moments that give importance and meaning to our lives. Through the re-telling of classical stories and his own commentary, a pattern unfolds that helps to distinguish knowledge from information, reality from imagination, and makes what seems to lie beyond our perception — understanding and belief — accessible. Our spiritual potential as human beings is realised in When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra.
Classification: Sufism
Size: 203 x 137mm
Pages: 162
Binding: paper
ISBN: 1901383199
Price: £11.95
Publication date: 15 October 2006
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Author biography
Shems Friedlander is a professor at the American University in Cairo and the author of Rumi: The Hidden Treasure, and Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes. He has had many exhibitions of his photography and paintings and has won more than 30 awards, including the Silver Award of the New York Art Directors’ Club for graphic design. He has also directed and produced several short films including, Rumi: The Wings of Love. His films and books are available from Archetype.