Four Sufi Classics: Salaman and Absal/The Niche for Lights/The Way of the Seeker/The Abode of Spring [Hardcover]

Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (Author), Hakim Nuruddin Abdurrahman Jami (Author), Hakim Sanai (Author), Idries Shah (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1984

Jami's "Salaman and Absal" translated by Edward Fitzgerald, Al-Ghazzali's "The Niche for Lights" translated by W.H.T. Gairdner, Hakim Sanai's "The Way of the Seeker" and Jami's "The Abode of Spring," Translated and abridged by David L. Pendlebury Introduction by Idries Shah

Ghazzali, Sanai and Jami, authors of the four Sufi classics presented here are among the very greatest names in the Sufi tradition.

These four classical expositions of Sufi thought and experience give a cross-section of traditional instruction materials studied in dervish schools-but which are also a part of the literature of the Middle East.

The dates of these translations range from the famous Salaman, published in 1856, to Pendlebury's rendering from The Way of the Seeker, completed in 1979. The introduction to this volume provides informative background as to the intent of the various works and observations on the translations from a Sufi point of view.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Octagon Press, Limited; First Edition edition (December 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0900860693
• ISBN-13: 978-0900860690
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,601,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Introduction to the Sufi Tradition, April 15, 2007

By 

P. J. Robichaud - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Sufi Classics: Salaman and Absal/The Niche for Lights/The Way of the Seeker/The Abode of Spring (Hardcover)

This book opens a window on several varieties of Sufi literature, and by including the introductions of the early translators Edward Fitzgerald ("Salaman and Absal") and Canon Gairdner ("The Niche for Lights"), it also exposes the expectations and assumptions that have shaped western responses to Sufism over the last two centuries. Fitzgerald's overheated Victorian imagination seeks and finds Oriental exoticism in Jami's poetic allegory, whereas Gairdner's historical and philosophical analysis is baffled by Ghazzali's celebration of intuitive knowledge and mystical experience. By viewing Sufism through the lenses of excessive emotionality and excessive rationality, they reveal most clearly the limitations of their responses.

The limitations of Fitzgerald's Victorian poetic diction in "Salaman and Absal" will be obvious to the contemporary reader -- overly florid with a tendency to vagueness -- but the allegorical significance of the poem nonetheless comes through. Gairdner's prose is clear and precise, and Ghazzali's tract has many surprises, such as his fascinating discussion of symbolism. David Pendlebury's versions of Hakim Sanai's "The Way of the Seeker" and Jami's "The Abode of Spring" have a freshness and immediacy that brings these works to life in a contemporary idiom. (Also recommended: Pendlebury's translation of Hakim Sanai's "The Walled Garden of Truth.")