This collection of tales, discussions, teachings, letters and lectures is a handbook, inviting the reader to re-examine the assumptions of his particular culture; assumptions which are responsible for his conditioning and his outlook on life. It is precisely because of the unreliability of vision, of memory, of wanting to believe, of induced belief ... that the Sufis say that an objective perception must be acquired before even familiar things can be seen as they are. "Seeker After Truth" goes beyond the familiar "first do this, then do that" style of handbook, transporting the reader to new ranges of perception, according to his or her capacity. Among the many assumptions questioned are: the objective worth of deep emotional feelings; the superiority of man's social habits over those of rats, and the origin of those habits; the evils of deceit ... The magazine Literary Review said about it: "This book ... is food for many different kinds of study - a book unlike anything our society has produced until recently, in its richness, its unexpectedness, its capacity to shock us into seeing ourselves as others see us, both personally and as a society."

Seeker After Truth: A Handbook

Religion & Spirituality

SHAH, IDRIES

Islam

Octagon Pr

Does there lie in mankind's remote past a single origin for the beliefs and practices of magic found in nearly every culture in the world? Behind the distortions and grotesqueries of magical practices, could there be clues to processes worthy of our objective consideration? 
First published nearly forty years ago, "Oriental Magic" is still the definitive work on the subject. Its publication was the culmination of five years of research into rare artifacts, obscure manuscripts and travels into remote areas where strange magical practices endure. 
The "Singing Sands" of Egypt, the invisible rulership of Sufism, subcutaneous electricity, and the prehistoric sources of Babylonian occult practices are just a few of the intriguing subjects described. The author includes personal accounts of "training" under a Ju-Ju witch doctor, a demonstration of Hindu levitation, and translations of secret alchemical and magical formulae. 
Revealed is an astonishing similarity in magical beliefs, practices and terminology of places as diverse as China, the Near East, Scandinavia and Africa. 
"Oriental Magic" includes a myriad of illustrations, including unique photos of places and people associated with the mysterious world of magic. Only an author of Shah's experience, dedication, and knowledge of human nature could assemble such an array of arcane information into a dazzling picture of human beliefs and practices. This new release is sure to attract the attention of a new generation of interested readers.

Oriental Magic

Politics & Social Sciences

Marin, Louis

IDRIES SHAH

Anthropology

O. M. Burke's first-hand account of his modern-day pilgrimage begins in a school built like a medieval rock fortress hidden in northern India. From there he takes the reader to monasteries where ancient lore is still taught, along the pilgrim road to forbidden Mecca and into the heart and mind of Asia. 
Burke's experiences with living Sufis and their teachings, practices and actions clearly dispel the notion of Sufism as a phenomenon of the past. 
Speaking several Oriental languages, traveling as a dervish pilgrim, O. M. Burke lived and studied with ancient communities in the Near and Middle East. This first-hand report is no ordinary book of travel.

Among the Dervishes

O.M. Burke

Idries Shah's definitive work, "The Sufis", completely overturned Western misconceptions of Sufism, revealing a great spiritual and psychological tradition encompassing many of the world's greatest thinkers: Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Ibn El-Arabi, Al-Ghazzali, Saadi, Attar, Francis of Assisi and many others. 
The astonishing impact of Sufism on the development of Western civilization from the seventh century is traced through the work of Roger Bacon, John of the Cross, Raymond Lully, Chaucer and others. Many of the greatest traditions, ideas and discoveries of the West are traced to the teachings and writings of Sufi masters working centuries ago. 
But "The Sufis" is far more than an historical account. 
In the tradition of the great Sufi classics, the deeper appeal of this remarkable book is in its ability to function as an active instrument of instruction, in a way that is so clearly relevant to our time and culture. 
The spiritual and psychological tradition of Sufism was regarded, before this pioneering book was published, as the preserve of ecstatic religionists and a small number of Oriental scholars, who treated it in the main as a minority cult. The false image of Sufism as a mere Islamic sect was changed so much by this book that it is now given serious attention as a psychological and mystical system of extraordinary richness and importance. 
Today, studies in Sufism, notably through Shah's research and publication, are pursued in centers of higher learning throughout the world, in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and many other areas of current human concern. 
"The Sufis" is the pivotal work which heralded the revelation of the astonishing richness and variety of Sufi thought and its contribution to human culture contained in Idries Shah's many books on the subject.

The Sufis

Philosophy

Today we find him in a high-level physics report, illustrating phenomena that can't be described in ordinary technical terms. He appears in psychology textbooks, illuminating the workings of the mind in a way no straightforward explanation can. 
In three definitive volumes (The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin, The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin, and The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin) Idries Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. Skillful contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories and sayings bring the unmistakable - often backhanded - wisdom, wit and charm of the timeless jokester to life. 
The Mulla and his stories appear in literature and oral traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia, France - even China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a native son, but nobody really knows who he was or where he came from. 
According to a legend dating from at least the 13th century, Nasrudin was snatched as a schoolboy from the clutches of the "Old Villain" - the crude system of thought that ensnares man - to carry through the ages the message of how to escape. He was chosen because he could make people laugh, and humor has a way of slipping through the cracks of the most rigid thinking habits. 
Acclaimed as humorous masterpieces, as collections of the finest jokes, as priceless gift books, and for hundreds "enchanted tales", this folklore figure's antics have also been divined as "mirroring the antics of the mind". The jokes are, as Idries Shah notes, "perfectly designed models for isolating and holding distortions of the mind which so often pass for reasonable behavior". Therefore they have a double use: when the jokes have been enjoyed, their psychological significance starts to sink in. 
In fact, for many centuries they have been studied in Sufi circles for their hidden wisdom. They are used as teaching exercises, in part to momentarily "freeze" situations in which states of mind can be recognized. The key to the philosophic significance of the Nasrudin jokes is given in Idries Shah's book "The Sufis" and a complete system of mystical training based upon them was described in the Hibbert Journal. 
In these delightful volumes, Shah not only gives the Mulla a proper vehicle for our times, he proves that the centuries-old stories and quips of Nasrudin are still some of the funniest jokes in the world.

The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin

The Golden Caravan

Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah

This is the first accessible English translation from the Arabic of a book that has been required reading in Sufi circles for more than six centuries. Nabil Safwat and David Pendlebury worked on the project for more than three years at the behest of the Sufi Trust. With a new index to the English text, copious notes and a facsimile version of the original Arabic text, this work is intended for the serious student.

A Glossary of Sufi Technical Terms

al-Qashani, 'Abd al-Razzaq

Safwat, Nabil

Pendlebury, David

In the current wave of renewed interest in Rumi, this book offers the first comprehensive biography of this great historical figure written for the general pubic. 
Beginning with an analysis of conditions in the 13th century of Christianity and the 7th of Islam, the author pieces together a sensitive and scholarly chronicle of Rumi's life, taking great care to "sift the grain from the chaff." The book covers Rumi's formative years; the appearance and disappearance of the mysterious Shams-i-Tabriz, who transformed Rumi's life; and the sudden "bursting forth" from a middle-aged prose writer of some of the most exquisite and powerful poetry the world has ever known.

The Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi

Biographies & Memoirs

Arberry, A.J.

Iqbal, Afzal

Arts & Literature

The Middle East Bedside Book brings the full color and spirit of this region to life through the eyes of past and present writers, observers, poets, and travelers. Dress, medicine, backgammon, psychology, politics, chess, attitudes about women, honor, music - even toothpicks and tourists - are covered. Like every good bedside book, each entry entertains, absorbs, moves to laughter, amazement, and even tears. A timely look at common threads linking Western culture with the Middle East.

The Middle East Bedside Book

History

World

A colorful caravan of Eastern oral and written literature, this collection includes many best-known teaching stories of the dervish philosophers and mystics, writings by Idries Shah on Mecca and on Islam, poetry, proverbs, allegories, and symbolic tales of amazing richness and variety as "The Story of Mushkil Gusha", "The Magic Horse", and "The Two Brothers". 
The collection as a whole makes delightful reading, and at the same time brings the reader closer to the spiritual essence of the Middle East which is of overwhelming contemporary interest and value. A favorite gift book.

Caravan of Dreams

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