Customer Reviews

Tales of the Dervishes: Teaching Stories of Sufi Masters Over the Past Thousand Years

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Tales of the Dervishes was my first experience of Shah's works. People sometimes describe a book as "having changed their lives." This was my experience with Shah and more. The concept of a book that "does" something is not common to our culture. Shah has the abililty to place the reader in a "paralell" world as it were; a world where our typical expectations and assumptions about cause and effect no longer operate. It is a world organized at a more subtle yet powerful level. Shah's work introduces his reader to that world in ways the reader himself cannot imagine at the time. I highly recommend this, and Shah's others books.

Tales of the Dervishes is just that, Sufi tales dating back almost 2000 years. Lovers of first-rate storytelling will find this collection especially enjoyable. These stories, many of them written by classical masters, have been masterfully retold by Shah in his usual elegant precise prose. However these engaging tales are also Sufi teaching-stories, specially constructed to impart and preserve Sufi concepts. Many of the stories in this collection are followed by brief comments by Shah adding historical perspective and/or insight to the particular purpose of the tale. As with everything Shah writes, these appealing stories keep delivering insights and entertainment even after many readings.