Routledge Handbook on Sufism PDF Download

Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351706470
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 739

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Book Description
This is a chronological history of the Sufi tradition, divided in to three sections, early, middle and modern periods. The book comprises 35 independent chapters with easily identifiable themes and/or geographical threads, all written by recognised experts in the field. The volume outlines the origins and early developments of Sufism by assessing the formative thinkers and practitioners and investigating specific pietistic themes. The middle period contains an examination of the emergence of the Sufi Orders and illustrates the diversity of the tradition. This middle period also analyses the fate of Sufism during the time of the Gunpowder Empires. Finally, the end period includes representative surveys of Sufism in several countries, both in the West and in traditional "Islamic" regions. This comprehensive and up-to-date collection of studies provides a guide to the Sufi tradition. The Handbook is a valuable resource for students and researchers with an interest in religion, Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.

Author: Hans A. Harmakaputra
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004526838
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
As a work in comparative theology, this book presents how an Islamic concept of sainthood (walāya) informs Christian theology in answering one question that emerges from today’s multi-faith context: “Is it possible for Christians to recognize non-Christians as saints?”

Author: Bo Utas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755617800
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
Volume V of A History of Persian Literature presents a broad survey of Persian prose: from biographical, historiographical, and didactic prose, to scientific manuals and works of popular prose fiction. It analyzes the rhetorical devices employed by writers in different periods in their philosophical and political discourse; or when their aim is primarily to entertain rather than to instruct , the chapters describe different techniques used to transform old stories and familiar tales into novel versions to entice their audience. Many of the texts in prose cited in the volume share a wealth of common lore and literary allusions with Persian poetry. Prose and poetry frequently appear on the same page in tandem. In different ways, therefore, this creative interplay demonstrates the perennial significance of intertextuality, from the earliest times to the present; and help us in the process to further our understanding and enhance our enjoyment of Persian literature in its different manifestations throughout history

Author: ʿAyn al-Quḍāt
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479826243
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A groundbreaking exposition of Islamic mysticism The Essence of Reality was written over the course of just three days in 514/1120, by a scholar who was just twenty-four. The text, like its author ʿAyn al-Quḍāt, is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which that it is in all likelihood the earliest philosophical exposition of mysticism in the Islamic intellectual tradition. This important work would go on to exert significant influence on both classical Islamic philosophy and philosophical mysticism. Written in a terse yet beautiful style, The Essence of Reality consists of one hundred brief chapters interspersed with Qurʾanic verses, prophetic sayings, Sufi maxims, and poetry. In conversation with the work of the philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghazālī, the book takes readers on a philosophical journey, with lucid expositions of questions including the problem of the eternity of the world; the nature of God’s essence and attributes; the concepts of “before” and “after”; and the soul’s relationship to the body. All these discussions are seamlessly tied into ʿAyn al-Quḍāt’s foundational argument—that mystical knowledge lies beyond the realm of the intellect.

Author: Annabel Keeler
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004680497
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Abū Yazīd al-Basṭāmī (d. ca 234/848), popularly known as “Bāyazīd”, remains one of the most celebrated yet controversial figures in the history of Islamic mysticism. This in-depth study of his life and teachings is based on the earliest available sources. The book sets out in detail what is known of Bāyazīd’s family, his education, his disciples and associates. It explores the distinctive rhetoric that has made some of his sayings so memorable, and shows how his mode of expression adds a sense of urgency, often drama, to quite conventional doctrines of Sufism. Through the varied corpus of his sayings, this study traces Bāyazīd’s teachings concerning many aspects of the mystical path, as well as his reflections on God, the Prophet, heaven and hell. Having considered his role as spiritual master, his favourable view of women and his place in the wider community, the study then turns to the controversial side of Bāyazīd: his apparently blasphemous utterances, and his so-called miʿrāj. The book goes on to explore how the two seemingly contradictory sides to Bāyazīd might be reconciled, and finally, provides a brief survey of the extent of his influence on later Sufism and its literature.

Author: Leonard Lewisohn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861548655
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
The notion of esoteric knowledge is one of the pillars of Islamic intellectual tradition. Though most visible in Sufism, it also dominated the first three and a half centuries of Shi‘ite thought. In this rich anthology, Leonard Lewisohn explores Islamic esotericism through the works of eleven authors who flourished in Persia, Central Asia and Asia Minor from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. He presents excerpts from each text in translation, accompanying these with introductions to the author’s life, works and thought. In the course of his erudite and enlightening commentary, he explores the common ground of esoteric thought and terminology, revealing a unity of perspective among Muslim thinkers.

Author: Minlib Dallh
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000958027
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
This book focuses on women’s important contribution to Sufism by analysing the lives and seminal contributions of six mystic Sufi women to Islamic spirituality. To help reverse the sidelining of Sufi women in the recorded academic literature, the author has selected a representative sample of figures from diverse Islamic dynasties with varying backgrounds, social status, and devotional contributions. Taking a historical approach attentive to specific political contexts, readers will be introduced to the contributions of Umm Ali al-Balkhi and Fātima of Nishāpūr in the ninth-century Khurāsān, Aisha al-Mannūbiyya of the Hafsid dynasty in Afriqya, Aisha al-Bā‘únīyya of the Mamlūk dynasties of Egypt and Syria, the Mughal princess Jahan Ara Begum, and the daughter of the Caliph of Sokoto, Nana Asma’u. It is argued that these ascetic and Sufi women were recognized by their male and female peers, became political leaders in their communities, and were honored as examples of sanctity and erudition. Their works influenced mystical discourse, hagiographical writings, religious language and models of religious authority to secure legacies of Islamic orthopraxis. The book will appeal to anyone interested in Sufism and Sufi history, as well as to those wishing to delve into the understudied topic of Muslim women’s spirituality.

Author: Will Kynes
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190661267
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 713

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Book Description
"This volume both reflects on the contested nature of the Wisdom Literature category and takes advantage of the opportunities it presents for reconsidering the concept of wisdom more independently from it. The first half explores wisdom as a concept, with essays on its relationship to skill, epistemology, virtue, theology, and order in the Hebrew Bible, its meaning in related cultures, from Egypt and Mesopotamia to Patristic and Rabbinic interpretation, and, finally, its continuing relevance the modern world, including in Islamic, Jewish, and Christian thought, and from feminist, environmental, and other contextual perspectives. The latter half considers "Wisdom Literature" as a category. Scholars address its relation to the Solomonic Collection, its social setting, literary genres, chronological development, and theology. Wisdom Literature's relation to other biblical literature (law, history, prophecy, apocalyptic, and the broad question of "Wisdom influence") is then discussed before separate chapters on the texts commonly associated with the category. Contributors take a variety of approaches to the current debates surrounding the viability and value of the Wisdom Literature category and its proper relationship to the concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. Though the organization of the volume highlights the independence of wisdom as concept from "Wisdom Literature" as category, seeking to counter the lack of attention given to this question in the traditional approach, the inclusion of both topics together in the same volume reflects their continued interconnection. As such, this handbook both represents the current state of Wisdom scholarship and sets the stage for future developments"--

Author: Fitzroy Morrissey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755618335
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Sufi thinker 'Abd al-Karim al-Jili (d. 1408) is best-known for his treatment of the idea of the Perfect Human, yet his masterpiece, al-Insan al-kamil (The Perfect Human), is in fact a wide-ranging compendium of Sufi metaphysical thought in the Ibn 'Arabian tradition. One of the major topics treated in that work is sacred history, the story of God's revelation of the truth to humanity through His prophets and scriptures. Fitzroy Morrissey provides here the first in-depth study of this important section of al-Jili's major work and the key ideas contained within it. Through a translation and analysis of the key passages on the Qur'an, Torah, Psalms and Gospel, it shows how al-Jili's view of sacred history is conditioned by his Ibn 'Arabian Sufi metaphysics, whereby the phenomenal world is viewed as a manifestation of God, and the prophets and scriptures as special places where the divine attributes appear more completely. It also looks at how this idea influences al-Jili's understanding of the hierarchy of prophets, scriptures and religions. The book argues that, contrary to common assumptions, al-Jili's Sufi metaphysical view of sacred history is in keeping with the common medieval Muslim view of sacred history, whereby the Qur'an is viewed as the best of scriptures, Muhammad as the best of prophets, and Islam as the best religion. The book therefore not only gives an insight into a key text within medieval Sufi thought, but also has ramifications for our understanding of medieval Sufi views on the relationship between Islam and other religions.

Author: Christian Lange
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004392610
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This volume discusses origin, structure and levels of existence of the created world and the place of human beings in it, according to the major Sufi thinkers of all times.