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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.
About the author
Idries Shah spent much of his life collecting and publishing Sufi classical narratives and teaching stories from oral and written sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. The tales he retold especially for children are published by Hoopoe Books in beautifully illustrated editions and have been widely commended - by Western educators and psychologists, the U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio and other media - for their unique ability to foster social-emotional development, thinking skills and perception in children and adults alike. Told for centuries, these stories express universal themes from the cultures that produced them, showing how much we have in common and can learn from each other. As noted by reviewers, such stories are more than just entertaining; familiarity with them provokes flexibility of thought, since each one contains levels of meaning that unfold in accordance with an individual's experience and understanding.
