Eastern Thought Catalogue Central

EASTERN THOUGHT

EASTERN THOUGHT

SUFI STUDIES

The Commanding SelfIDRIES SHAH

The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology,is that mixture of the primitive andconditioned responses, common to everyone,which inhibits and distorts human progressand understanding. This book was describedby Shah as the key to understanding hisentire corpus of work. While complete initself as an anthology of hitherto unpublishedwork, it serves to illustrate and amplifyIdries Shah’s preceding books on the SufiWay. In its introduction, he writes,‘Thousands of books and monographs havebeen written on Sufism and the Sufis,almost all of them from the point of view ofother ways of thinking. The result has beenchaos in the literature, and confusion inthe reader. Over the centuries, some of theworld’s most eminent scholars have falleninto the trap of trying to examine, access orconsider the Sufi phenomenon through aset of culture-bound preconceptions.’

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 66 7 £15.95PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 70 5 £8.95

First Among SufisThe Life and Thought of al-AdawiyyaWIDAD EL-SAKKAKINI

A Glossary of Sufi Technical Terms‘Abd al-Razzaq Al-QashaniTRANSLATED BY DR. NABIL SAFWAT,REVISED & EDITED BY

DAVID PENDLEBURY

Madame Sakkakini, a major contemporarynovelist and scholar, here provides animpressionistic account of the life and workof Rabia, the extraordinary Sufi woman saint.Born into eighth century Basra, Rabiabecame an ascetic, before passing beyondthis stage to that of Sufi and reputedmiracle worker. She was one of the first topoint out that religion, correctly understood,is not to be confused with emotionality.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 45 6 £11.50

‘Required reading’ in Sufi circles for the lastsix and a half centuries, this is the onlyreadily accessible version of this key workin a Western language.

‘Thanks be to God,’ says the 14thcentury author in his introduction, ‘whohas… delivered us from all useless andsuperfluous talk…’

True to his word A Glossary of SufiTechnical Terms is both concise, andbrimming with ideas. It providesexplanations of the concepts andterminology used in Sufi works. It is aninvaluable work of reference, which mayalso be read as a continuous text. Both theannotated translation and the originalArabic are presented in this edition.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 32 2 £25.50

Knowing How to KnowIDRIES SHAH

Contemporary esoteric systems almostalways play on the desire of mankind to seekor acquire knowledge. All but universallyneglected in such systems are the – oftenunrecognized – barriers which preventknowledge and understanding. Beforelearning can take place, certain conditionsand basic factors must be in place; in theindividual or the group. Building on thefoundations laid in Learning How to Learnand The Commanding Self, Idries Shah inKnowing How to Know illuminates thosefactors. Like an ultra-violet light shone ontothe petals of flowers, it reveals concealedpatterns, normally invisible to our customarymodes of thought.


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EASTERN THOUGHT

Learning How to LearnIDRIES SHAH

100 CONVERSATIONS WITH IDRIES SHAH

Condensed from over three million words,these conversations involve housewives andcabinet ministers, professors and assembly-line workers, on the subject of howtraditional psychology can illuminate currenthuman, social and spiritual problems. Morethan a hundred tales and extracts from Sufilore, ranging from the eighth century Hasanof Basra, to the modern Afghan poetKhalilullah Khalili, are woven into Shah’snarratives of how and why the Sufis learn,what they learn: and how spiritualunderstanding develops and deteriorates inall societies.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 59 6 £15.95*PAPERBACK ISBN 0 140195 13 0 £9.99

Neglected Aspects of Sufi StudyIDRIES SHAH

Based on lectures delivered by Idries Shahin the United States, this slim volumeencompasses a multitude of themes, whichhad scarcely impinged upon Westernconsciousness before. Some – such as thedisabling effect of emotion, assumptions andsocial conditioning – feed into and havesometimes triggered contemporarypsychological research. However, the bookgoes much further than this, providing a succinct and informative overview of Sufi practice.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 78 0 £10.95

Oriental MysticismNasafi’s Remotest AimPRESENTED BY E. H. PALMER

Dedicated to Napoleon III of France,Professor Palmer’s systematisation of variousSufi materials has been regarded as essentialreading in its subject for many years.

The author makes a genuine attempt –brave for its time – to present an overviewof Sufi doctrine without inserting criticalinterference of his own. As well ascataloguing the doctrines professed bythose he calls the ‘philosopher poets of the East’, this book contains an importantglossary of Sufi terms, which is indispensablefor students seeking to read classicalPersian poetry.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 34 0 £10.95

Seeker After TruthIDRIES SHAH

The SufisIDRIES SHAH

When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufiswas welcomed as the definitive work on thesubject: rich in scope, clearly explainingthe traditions and philosophy of the Sufisto a Western audience for the first time. Inthe four decades since its release, the bookhas been translated into more than a dozenlanguages, and has found a wide readershipin both East and West. It is used as a textin scores of leading universities around theworld, and the material contained within it has been applied by psychologists andphysicists, by school teachers, lawyers,social workers, and by ordinary members of the public. Ted Hughes wrote of it: ‘An astonishing book. The Sufis must bethe biggest society of sensible men onearth’; and Doris Lessing said of it: ‘I hadwaited my entire life to read this book.’

‘Perhaps the best introduction to the bodyof Shah’s work, the most comprehensivelyinformative. And one is immediatelyforced to use one’s mind in a new way.’

– The New York Times

‘A seminal book of the century.’– The Washington Post


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*THIS EDITION IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR RESALE

A treasure house of teaching materials,assembled in the Sufi manner, Seeker AfterTruth contains both traditional tales andstories gleaned from contemporary sources,and snippets of table talk, discussions andteachings, letters and lectures by Idries Shah.Taken together, it constitutes a handbookof materials designed to provoke a differentkind of thought.

‘Unlike anything our society has produced…in its capacity to shock us into seeingourselves as others see us, both personallyand as a society.’

– Literary Review


Sufi Thought and ActionINTRODUCTION BY IDRIES SHAH

Previously published only as separateessays, Sufi Thought and Action – assembledand introduced by Idries Shah – covers anextraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas andactivities in many countries and cultures.Included in the volume are papers on SufiPrinciples and Learning Methods; Ritual,Initiation and Secrets in Sufi Circles; andKey Concepts in Sufi Understanding. Thevolume stands as a clear and simplehandbook to many facets of Sufi study andthought. Shah’s introduction begins, ‘Theobject of Sufi spiritual teaching can beexpressed as: to help to refine the individual’sconsciousness so that it may reach theRadiances of Truth, from which one is cutoff by ordinary activities of the world’.

PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 51 9 £10.50

EASTERN THOUGHT

A Veiled GazelleIDRIES SHAH

A ‘Veiled Gazelle’, as the great mystic IbnArabi explains in his Interpreter of Desires,is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception.Sufi experientialists refer to the activationof these centres of awareness as theawakening of real knowledge of Truthbeyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers thesymbolic and instrumental employment ofits literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic,and never meant only as entertainment,such works are regarded as some of theworld’s greatest and most important writing.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 58 8 £10.50

The World of the SufiASSEMBLED & INTRODUCED

BY IDRIES SHAH

Assembled by Idries Shah, The World of theSufi is a comprehensive collection of learnedessays and papers on the subject of Sufithought. One of the book’s attractions isthe way that it considers central questionsand areas of study from different angles.Sufi literature, the use of humour, and Suficommunities in various cultural settings, aresome of the many subjects discussed. Inaddition, experts in their fields commenton areas such as Sufism and Psychiatry,Indian Thought and the Sufis, andTherapy and the Sufi. Among the book’scontributors are Idries Shah, Doris Lessing,Peter Brent and Dr. Arthur J. Deikman.


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CLASSICS

The Alchemy of HappinessAL-GHAZZALI

TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD

The influence of Al-Ghazzali upon Christianand Islamic thinkers of the Middle Ages isbecoming more and more widelydocumented. Known as ‘The Proof ofIslam’, Al-Ghazzali finally won acceptancefor Sufism in Islam; his methods of argumentand analysis are much discussed in bothEast and West. Indeed, some Arab scholarsmaintain that Al-Ghazzali was one of thevery purest Muslims who ever lived. TheAlchemy of Happiness is Al-Ghazzali’s ownabridgement of his masterwork, The Revivalof Religious Sciences.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 81 0 £11.95

EASTERN THOUGHT

Al-Muqaddasi: Revelation of theSecrets of the Birds and FlowersTRANSLATED BY IRENE HOARE &

DARYA GALY

EDITED BY DENISE WINN

Consisting of four different manuscripts,published in 19th century Paris, in Arabicand French, this book is reputedly thefinalisation of a corpus of material whichhad been begun in far earlier times. It contains a number of Sufi technicalphrases, and shows how certain varieties ofSufi literature were projected in such a way

as both to accord with orthodox religion ofthe Islamic persuasion, and also to maintainconcepts which are rarely emphasised informal religion.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 75 8 £17.50

The Book of EcstasyThe Halnama of ArifiTRANSLATED BY R. S. GREENSHIELDS

The long-standing Sufi tradition of usingsuitable imagery to project experiences andteaching, has naturally caused greatconfusion among literal thinkers, particularlyin the West. The great Arifi of Heratproduced a cosmological tour-de-force andliterary sensation by writing his greatmystical poem entirely in terms of the gameof polo. This important work, written in justtwo weeks and cherished for centuries as aclassic, is presented here with the Persiantext and an explanatory introduction. Muchof its interest is referred to in the conclusionof a Dervish master, that it ‘is really thebook of the fallacies of raw expectation of the limitations of meditation alone, and of the incompleteness of excitement’.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 74 X £9.95

The Bostan of SaadiSaadi of ShirazTRANSLATED BY MIRZA AQIL

HUSSAIN, BARLAS

A pupil of the eminent Sufi SheikhShahabuddin Suhrawardi, Saadi of Shirazhas influenced European literature, and hisworks are studied in both East and West.

A Fool of God:The MysticalVerse of Baba TahirTRANSLATED BY E. HERON-ALLEN

One of the earliest Sufi poets in Persian,Baba Tahir is famous for his use of rusticdialects rather than polished style in hisexpression of mystical love-poetry. He is oneof the four great pioneers of the quatrain(the others were Abu Said, Ansari andOmar Khayyam), and his songs are stillwidely sung and revered in Central Asia.Known as ‘The Naked’, because of hisdisdain for outward show, Baba Tahir wasvisited by Sultan Tughrul Beg. Subsequently,it is believed that he granted the Sultanvictory over his enemies, so long as the rulerupheld justice. Perhaps for this reason, therecitation of his work is imagined by someto grant the heart’s desire to an honest man.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 70 7 £10.95

His Bostan, ‘The Orchard’, is one of thegreatest of all Sufi Classics. Together withhis Gulistan, it is regarded as a supremeaccomplishment of Sufi thought. Itcontains a richness of material and beautyof poetry which are almost unparalleled.The Bostan is a mine of proverbs,quotations and practical wisdom. It containsmoralistic aphorisms and teaching stories,and is recognized by eminent Sufis asconcealing the whole range of the deepestSufi knowledge which can be committed to writing.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 34 9 £15.95

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FOUR SUFI CLASSICS• Salaman and Absal, by JamiTRANSLATED BY EDWARD FITZGERALD

• The Niche for Lights, by Al-GhazzaliTRANSLATED BY W. H. T. GAIRDNER

• The Way of the Seeker,by Hakim Sanai TRANSLATED & ABRIDGED

BY DAVID PENDLEBURY

• The Abode of Spring, by Jami TRANSLATED & ABRIDGED

BY DAVID PENDLEBURY

These four classical expositions give across-section of traditional Sufi instructionmaterials studied in Dervish schools.Together they cover the major approachesto the Sufis: the allegorical, the interpretive,the psychological and the literary.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 69 3 £16.50

The Gulistan of Saadi Saadi of ShirazINTRODUCTION BY IDRIES SHAH

The Gulistan, or ‘Rose Garden’, of Saadi ofShiraz is one of the best known andcelebrated books written in the Persianlanguage. In his introduction, Idries Shahsays, ‘Like all Sufi materials, Saadi’s RoseGarden contains information, and isformulated, to gain acceptance in theculture in which it is projected – and is aninstrument of enlightenment and experience.Among Sufis, reading Saadi undoubtedlyproduces insights. In Sufi school usage, firstthe exterior meaning is absorbed, then the

The Mystical and VisionaryTreatises of SuhrawardiTRANSLATED BY W. M.THACKSTON, JR.

Sheikh Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi, thegreat illuminist philosopher and mystic ofthe 12th century, evoked such oppositionand hatred in the orthodox of his time thathe was put to death, at their insistence, by order of Saladin’s nephew, in 1191. Hebecame known thereafter as the ‘MurderedSheikh’. In addition to his monumentalexposition, The Wisdom of Illumination, andother major works, he left a number ofsmaller treatises which form an importantpart of the Sufi heritage. Nine of thesetreatises, dealing with the initiation of theaspirant into the spiritual realm, are herepresented in English, with an introductionby the translator, W. M. Thackston.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 92 8 Out of Print

The Sacred KnowledgeThe Altaf al-Quds of Shah WaliullahTRANSLATED BY G. N. JALBANI

REVISED & EDITED BY DAVID PENDLEBURY

The Sacred Knowledge is regarded as afundamental text in both East and West bystudents of Sufi thought. Through ProfessorJalbani’s rendering, the book shows how the18th century mystic of Delhi discharged histask. In Waliullah’s own words, ‘The purposebehind writing this discourse is that onlythose problems pertaining to perceptionand the mystical unveiling are mentioned.’

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 93 6 £13.95

secondary meaning. This tension betweenthe two levels, can lead to the ability to seefurther ranges of significance, until the stagemay be reached when we find understandingbeyond verbalisation.’

PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 69 1 £9.95

The Secret Garden of Mahmud ShabistariTRANSLATED BY JOHNSON PASHA

Written by a little-known Persian sage ofthe 13th century, The Secret Garden rapidlybecame, and has remained ever since, oneof the very greatest classics of spirituality inthe East. Five centuries after it was written,two travellers introduced it to the West.This version was translated by JohnsonPasha during the 19th century, from a textprepared for the Aga Khan. Shabistari’sideas, which can be usefully applied to ourown contemporary problems, are employeddaily by psychologists, sociologists andanthropologists alike.

PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 19 5 £10.95

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EASTERN THOUGHT12

EASTERN THOUGHT

Teachings of HafizTRANSLATED BY GERTRUDE BELL

Hafiz of Shiraz was widely regarded as aninfidel in his day. Today he is recognized inthe East, not only for the excellence of hispoetry, but also as a Sufi illuminate. Hismajor work, The Diwan (from which theseteachings are taken), is found in pride ofplace in the homes of the devout. In theWest, Hafiz – a contemporary of Dante – isadmired for his love-poetry; Goethe, amongothers, acknowledges his influence. Hafiz’swork stands not only as an unparalleledteaching instrument, but as a monument inEastern literature. His poetry appeals at itsovert level, while containing thoseingredients that enable the soul of theSeeker to perceive itself.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 63 Out of Print

The Teachings of Rumi:The MasnaviJALALUDDIN RUMI

TRANSLATED & ABRIDGED BY

E. H. WHINFIELD

Forty-three years in the writing, The Masnaviwas Rumi’s greatest work, and one of themost important books in the study of Sufiideas. Of Rumi, Professor A. J. Arberryremarked, ‘It can well be argued that he isthe supreme mystical poet of all mankind’;and of The Masnavi, Idries Shah says, ‘To theSufi, if not to anyone else, this book speaksfrom a different dimension, yet a dimensionwhich is in a way within the deepest self ’.

PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 67 5 £9.95

The Treatise of the PoolOBADYAH MAIMONIDES

TRANSLATED BY DR. PAUL FENTON

The Treatise of the Pool is a remarkable,previously unpublished, Sufi text by thegrandson of the celebrated philosopherMoses Maimonides. A translation of Al-Maqala al-Hawdiyya which is housed inOxford’s Bodleian Library, the manuscriptis a rare and valuable work from athirteenth century Jewish Sufi. In hisforeword, Dr Fenton notes that: ‘Dueperhaps to the persistence of family tradition,Obadyah’s doctrine exhibits manyanalogies with, and may perhaps elucidateobscurities in, the system of his illustriousforebear. At the same time it is certainlynot without intrinsic value in itself, sinceObadyah’s philosophical preoccupationsdiffer markedly from those of his grandfather.To be sure, his system, couched in a peculiarJudeo-Arabic idiom, is permeated with aphilosophical mysticism that owes much tothe influence of Sufism’.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 87 1 £16.95

The Walled Garden of TruthThe HadiqaHAKIM SANAI

TRANSLATED & ABRIDGED

BY DAVID PENDLEBURY

Continuously studied as a classic of Sufiliterature for eight hundred years, TheHadiqa, or ‘The Walled Garden of Truth’,is one of Sanai’s most important works.The book is composed in such a manner asto give several readings for many passages.This affects a shift in the perceptionsanalogous to a change in focus on one andthe same object.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 35 9 £11.50

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HUMANITIES

HUMANITIES

FOLKLORE

Arabian Fairy TalesAMINA SHAH

Beautiful princesses and terrifying Jinn,Caliphs rich beyond dreams, monsters andragged beggars, wise Dervishes and talismans:all are found in abundance in this treasuryof tales of adventure, enchantment andstrange patterns of fate. Amina Shahgathered the thirty-three stories while ontravels through Arab lands, from Morocco’sAtlas mountains to the ancient cities of Iraq.Descended from an Afghan family of writersand savants, Amina Shah is internationallyrecognized as a leading expert on folklore andthe indigenous cultures of the Arab World.

PAPERBACK ISBN 0 863040 48 9 £8.95

The Assemblies of Al-HaririRETOLD BY AMINA SHAH

Since the time of the First Crusade, tales ofAbu Zaid of Saruj have been read, admired,imitated and praised, from Spain to theHindu Kush. Al-Hariri of Basra (1054-1122)is variously described as a silk-merchant,and a high official of the Seljuk monarchMalik Shah. He was the author of TheAssemblies, regarded for eight centuries asthe greatest treasure in Arabic after theQur’an. The adventures of the astonishingrogue Abu Zaid are, on one level,entertaining in their own right. But this

book’s depth is based upon the inner threadwoven through the tales, which mirror theantics of the human mind on its waythrough life.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 86 3 £16.50

The Book of the BookIDRIES SHAH

Used for more than seven hundred years asa teaching story, The Book of the Book is oneof the most compelling and astonishing textsever to emerge from the Orient. Its centralpremise is the simple phrase: ‘When yourealize the difference between the containerand the content, you will have knowledge.’When the book first appeared in Englishthirty-five years ago, its printers questionedhow it could be a book, as did reviewers,scholars, and people who paid money to buyit. The Book of the Book is now in its seventhimpression, and is studied at university level,appreciated by all for its simple brilliance.

‘An extraordinary psychological test, in thatit predicts the complete range of possibleresponses to itself ’.

– The Sunday Telegraph

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 12 X £15.50

Tales From the BazaarsAMINA SHAH

Tales From the Bazaars is a treasury oftraditional folklore by Amina Shah, herselfwidely regarded as one of the greateststorytellers of the twentieth century. Thecollection is compiled from many of Amina’sfavourite folktales, gathered from Turkeyand Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan and India,from Europe and the Americas. The scopeof the stories presented is quite extraordinaryin itself, and is all the more unusual in thateach tale in the book was collected byAmina from a verbal source. Among thestories are The Tale of Hatim Tai; The King,the Dog and the Golden Bowl; The Shah’sRing and The Magic Talisman.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 84 5 £14.95

Tales of AfghanistanAMINA SHAH

Rivalling the magical narratives of her otherbooks, Amina Shah’s Tales of Afghanistan issimple, elegant, and impossible to forget. Itstales, collected on Amina’s own travels inAfghanistan, are still told in teahouses andcaravanserais, as they have been for athousand years. Such stories form a powerfulfolklore, unique to Afghanistan, the resultof centuries of being the crossroads ofCentral Asia. The volume contains suchgems as The Leopard and the Jinn; The AmirWho was a Beggar; The Tailor and the Devand The Well of Everlasting Life.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 94 4 £11.95

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Tales of the DervishesIDRIES SHAH

Although enormously attractive as sheerentertainment, Dervish tales were neverpresented merely on the level of a fable,legend or folklore. They stand comparisonin wit, construction and piquancy with thefinest stories of any culture, yet their truefunction as Sufi teaching stories is so little-known in the modern world, that notechnical or popular terms exist to describethem. The material in Tales of the Dervishesis the result of a thousand years ofdevelopment, during which Dervish mastersused these and other teaching stories toinstruct their disciples. The tales are heldto convey powers of increasing perceptionunknown to the ordinary man.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 47 2 £15.50

The Tale of the Four DervishesRETOLD BY AMINA SHAH

When the great thirteenth century Sufiteacher Nizamuddin Awliyya was ill, thisallegory was recited to him by his discipleAmir Khusru, the eminent Persian poet.On his recovery, Nizamuddin placed abenediction on the book, and it is widelybelieved that the recitation of this storywill restore the health of the ailing. Theallegorical dimensions it contains are partof a teaching-system intended to preparethe mind for spiritual development.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 44 8 £12.95

World TalesIDRIES SHAH

How can it be that the same story is foundin Scotland and also in Pre-ColumbianAmerica? What can account for thedurability and persistence of tales? Was thetale of Aladdin and his wondrous lamp reallytaken from Wales (where it has been found)to the ancient East and, if so, when and bywhom? These questions and more areanswered in Idries Shah’s remarkablevolume World Tales, which is subtitled,‘The extraordinary coincidence of storiestold in all times, in all places’. In hisintroduction, Shah remarks, ‘Working forthirty-five years among the written andoral sources of our world heritage in tales,one feels a truly living element in themwhich is startlingly evident when oneisolates the ‘basic’ stories; the ones whichtend to have travelled farthest, to havefeatured in the largest number of classicalcollections, to have inspired great writersof the past and present’.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 36 5 £14.50

HUMANITIES

RELIGION

The Elephant in the DarkIDRIES SHAH

A group of men sought to examine anelephant in a dark room. Each took hold ofa different part – an ear, the tail, a leg. Eachmistook his particular part for the whole –and became convinced that an elephantwas a fan, a rope, a pillar – and so on.

With this seven hundred year old fable bythe Sufi giant Jalaluddin Rumi, Idries Shahpresents the Sufi perspective thatChristianity and Islam stem from one, inner,origin. Based on his celebrated GenevaUniversity lectures, this book dazzles withthe breadth of its scholarship and the depthof its ideas.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 36 7 £10.95

The Nature of Religious ManEDITED BY PROF. D. B. FRY

In the modern world, the subject of religionassumes an ever-growing importance,despite a widely-held view to the contrary.On the one hand, there is the evidence of astrong impulse towards ecumenism on thepart of the established religions, and on theother, the very widespread trend amongindividuals towards seeking out andfollowing religious beliefs and practices of amuch less formal and less organized kind.The Nature of Religious Man is the report ofa major symposium organized by the Institutefor Cultural Research, designed to bringtogether the realms of tradition andexperience in many aspects of world religion.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 67 7 £14.50

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The Religion of the SufisTRANSLATED FROM THE DABISTAN BY

DAVID SHEA & ANTHONY TROYER

INTRODUCTION BY IDRIES SHAH

The Religion of the Sufis presents thatphilosophical classic, The Dabistan, writtenby a Sufi scholar based in India threehundred years ago. Constantly quotedthroughout the Middle East, and widely readever since, The Dabistan gives an excellentinsight into what Sufis of the time gave outas their teaching, and what scholars andothers thought of them. It well vindicatesits prefatory phrase: ‘containing what hasbeen reported by those who know what ismanifest, and see what is concealed; as wellas those who are attached to exterior forms,and by those who discern the inwardmeaning… without hatred, enmity andscorn, and without taking a part for the one,or against the other side of the question’.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 68 5 £11.95

Selections From the KoranEDITED BY SIRDAR IKBAL ALI SHAH

In the light of today’s gathering interest inIslam, this selection of Koranic excerpts,compiled by Afghan scholar and mysticSirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, has never seemed sotimely or so relevant.

Ali Shah does not claim that the chosenverses represent the spirit of the Koran as awhole; rather, ‘they are confined to excerptswhich seemed to me to supply guidance onthe problems of modern life.’ In this thecollection succeeds admirably well withsections on such subjects as the treatmentof women, inheritance, and the ministry of Jesus.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 85 5 £10.95

Sufism and the Islamic TraditionSHAH WALIULLAH OF DELHI

TRANSLATED BY PROF. J. N. JALBANI

A great religious teacher of the 17th century,Shah Waliullah of Delhi distinguishedhimself as a major thinker from the age offifteen. He returned to the essentials of Sufiexperience in order to show that Sufism isa single discipline. Shah Waliullah isconsidered to be the bridge between themedieval and the modern in Islamicthought. Many of the subjects dealt with byhim in these two treatises are closely studiedtoday. These include: Stages of Being, ThePerceptive Faculty, The Relation of theAbstract with the Universe, The UniversalSoul, and The Scope of Man.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 81 2 £12.00

HUMANITIES

Jorge-Luis Borges:Sources and IlluminationPROF. GIOVANNA DE GARAYALDE

Critics and general readers have fordecades been excited, intrigued, baffled and entertained by the work of the greatArgentinian writer Jorge-Luis Borges. In his books and stories, ranging across thetraditions of the East and West, somethingelusive was constantly noted as appearingand vanishing: providing a sense of direction,only to disappear, as if some guiding principlewas nudging the reader towards a perennialarea of self-discovery. Professor de Garayalde,intrigued by correspondences betweenreferences in Borges’ work and currentprojections of ancient thought, produced thefirst report linking the ‘Sage of the West’with the thinkers of the Eastern tradition:about which Borges himself has said we mustacquire what we can.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 61 8 £11.95

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HUMANITIES

Cultural ResearchEDITED BY TAHIR SHAH

In a world shrunk by speedier travel, culturesimpinge more readily upon alien cultures.Such impacts bring about change. Theexamples in this book show some societiesdeclining as a result, some thriving, andsomething of the efforts to encompass theresulting complex situations within aninternational legal framework. Among thepieces included in Cultural Research arepapers on Secret Societies in West Africaand on the native Ainu people of Japan, on the little-known pagan community ofNuristan, and the development of London’sEast End. The book also includes a learnedessay by Major John Glubb Pasha on hisyears in Arab lands.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 64 0 £24.50

The Dermis ProbeIDRIES SHAH

A serious, yet entertaining, look at theimpediments in current thought whichprevent certain forms of understandingbetween people. The title story was madeinto an award-winning film with script byIdries Shah, and chosen as an OutstandingFilm of the Year. The Dermis Probe comprisesa collection of extracts from the written andoral tradition of Eastern thinkers. In hispreface, Shah notes, ‘In this book you canfind illustrated some of the peculiarities ofthought in the country which is today’sworld, seen by its inhabitants and by thosewho call themselves visitors.’


Magic and Mystics of JavaNINA EPTON

This extraordinary investigation into themagical beliefs and practices of a closedworld is as entertaining as it is fascinating.Whether witnessing trance dances in aJavanese slum, searching for the ‘invisiblepeople’, mingling with sultans andprincesses or cross-questioning a medicinewoman, the redoubtable author is neverfazed. She also recounts Javanese beliefsthat respect black magic and clairvoyance,and describes an intriguing encounter witha mystical sect, the Sumarah fraternity.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 39 1 £11.95

Cultural EncountersEDITED BY ROBERT CECIL

& DAVID WADE

Cultural Encounters is a collection of essayson subjects as diverse as the classicalliterature of Georgia, the relationshipbetween the Indian Guru and his disciples,and the influences that have made modernChina what it is. It includes contributionsfrom eminent authors such as Dr. AlexanderKing, Dr. Martin Holdgate, and Peter Brenton questions of ecology, population andenergy, arguing that these are likely toexercise an increasing effect on humansocieties. Almost all the essays were deliveredas public lectures, under the aegis of TheInstitute for Cultural Research in London.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 50 0 £17.00

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HUMANITIES

Oriental MagicIDRIES SHAH

Oriental Magic is recognized as a brilliantstudy of how, what and why people think,in territories extending from North Africato Japan. Profusely illustrated, the book isthe product of years of research and field-work in a dozen different cultural regions.Its scholarly accuracy and genuinecontribution to cultural understanding havemade it a key text for anyone interested ininformal beliefs, and esoteric practices. Thework includes material on Indian alchemy,the Arabian Abjad system, on divinationand talismanic charms, and it even containsan ancient Brahmin spell for immortality.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 863040 17 9 £25.50

ReflectionsIDRIES SHAH

The Magic MonasteryIDRIES SHAH

Small in size, but with a powerful punch,Idries Shah’s Reflections is a collection offables, aphorisms, and statements thatchallenge the conditioned mind. The bookconfronts the reader with unaccustomedperspectives and ideas, in an attempt to setthe mind free, to see how things really are.As the book’s foreword states, ‘Do youimagine that fables exist only to amuse orto instruct, and are based upon fiction?The best ones are delineations of whathappens in real life, in the community andin the individual’s mental processes’.

HARDBACK ISBN 0 900860 07 3 £10.50

Many of Idries Shah’s books are comprisedof tales and teaching stories taken from bothwritten and oral sources, which illustrate theinstructional methods employed by Easternwise men for thousands of years. The MagicMonastery differs from its predecessors inthat it contains not only traditional tales,mostly unpublished – but also stories speciallywritten by Shah to complete the book as a‘course in non-linear thinking’. As with allof his works, The Magic Monastery is rich inthought-provoking material, and can beread and enjoyed at many levels.

‘This instalment of Shah’s contribution toour adult education is, like his others,remarkable for its precise response to thereal and inner needs of our time.’

– Book of the Year, The Observer


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Documents

Eastern Thought Catalogue Central