Idries Shah

Dervish tales are more than fable, legend, or folklore. For centuries dervish masters have instructed their disciples by means of these teaching stories, which are said to increase perception and knowledge and provide a better understanding of man and the world. In wit, construction, and piquancy, they compare with the finest tales of any culture. Idries Shah spent many years traveling through three continents to collect and compare oral versions of these remarkable stories. This anthology, presented in the dervish manner, contains stories drawn from the repertories of dervish masters over a period of more than a thousand years.

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.

In this wide-ranging anthology of Sufi writings, Idries Shah, who was one of Sufism's leading exponents, offers a broad selection of poetry, contemplations, letters, lectures, and teaching stories that together form an illuminating introduction to this unique body of thought. Sufism, the mystical aspect of Islam, has had a dynamic and lasting effect on the literature of that religion. Its teachings, often elusive and subtle, aim at the perfecting and completing of the human mind. In contrast to certain other beliefs and philosophies, Sufism is continually evolving and progressing and is consequently always relevant to the contemporary world. "His work is as exciting as a good novel"--The Times Literary Supplement

El Mulá Nasrudín, el sabio tonto del folklore oriental, ocupa un lugar especial en los estudios Sufis. Los Sufis, quienes creen que la intuición profunda es la única guía real hacia el conocimiento, utilizan los cuentos humorísticos de Nasrudín prácticamente como ejercicios.Ellos te invitan a que elijas algunos que te resulten especialmente atractivos y que reflexiones sobre ellos, haciéndolos tuyos. Los maestros Sufis dicen que de esta manera se puede lograr un avance hacia una sabiduría superior.Una sola historia puede funcionar en muchos desde el humorístico hasta aquel donde se inicia el pensamiento profundo.

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.

Caravan of Dreams distills the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of stories, sayings, poems and allegories, collected by one of the world's leading experts in Oriental philosophy. Idries Shah builds up a complete picture of a single consciousness, relating mythology to reality, illuminating historical patterns, and presenting philosophical legends in this unique anthology. Its title is inspired from the couplet written by the Sufi mystic Bahaudin: 'Here we are, all of us: in a dream-caravan, A caravan, but a dream - a dream, but a caravan. And we know which are the dreams. Therein lies the hope.'

Because what narrow thinkers imagine to be wisdom is often seen by the Sufis to be folly, the Sufis sometimes call themselves 'the Idiots.' The stories of these self-styled "idiots" are in fact skillfully designed exercises in which the movements of the characters portray psychological processes. The result is a working blueprint of the mind.

In response to the many inquiries he has received about the Sufi tradition from people from all walks of life, leading Sufi expert Idries Shah presents a clarifying series of questions and answers that illustrates how traditional Sufi concepts can resolve our social, psychological, and spiritual problems.

Described by the author as a key to the entire corpus of his work, The Commanding Self describes the mixture of primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, that inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. This book is designed to offer a way to transcend the limits imposed by this "commanding self." While complete in itself as an anthology of hitherto unpublished work, the book serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah's preceding books on the Sufi Way. Based on tales, lectures, letters, and interviews, it offers both an introduction to Sufi thought and further study for those already acquainted with Shah's writings.

A collection of short stories to illustrate Sufism - the belief that deep intuition is the only real guide to knowledge.

The classical Sufi masters often behaved in dramatic and unexpected ways in marketplaces, palaces, village streets, wherever people assembled. The purpose of these demonstrations was to create an event that people could think about and learn a lesson from. In 1969, Idries Shah, author of over thirty books on Sufi teaching and learning, used modern methods of mass communication to create a teaching-event for the modern world. "The Book of the Book", first published in that year and now in its seventh printing, transmits a 700-year-old narrative on the theme of "do not mistake the container for the content". But it projects this lesson in a highly unconventional way. Reactions to "The Book of the Book" ran the gamut. Some people were infuriated. One "expert" at the British Museum said it was "not a book at all". Others either thought the cover price was too high for a "book that was not a book", or simply bought it for novelty value and kept it on hand to mystify their friends. In time, the pendulum began to swing in the other direction. Readers and reviewers now understand that unlike any other literary product ever published, "The Book of the Book" offers the opportunity to participate in a major Sufi teaching-event ... for the price of a book. Expect the impact of "The Book of the Book" to continue to ripple through the literary marketplace for decades to come.

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 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.

No ordinary collection of tales, this anthology was the result of extensive research that lead Shah to conclude that there is a certain basic fund of human fictions, which recur again and again throughout the world and never seem to lose their compelling attraction. In this fascinating collection, Idries Shah shares this insight with us as we read the astonishingly similar versions of tales as they developed throughout the world.

This beautiful collection of stories is one of Shah's best-selling books, and a stirring example of the Sufi system of development at work in the world today. The Magic Monastery was the first book to include stories written by Shah, along with traditional tales illustrating the instructional methods employed by Middle Eastern sages during the last thousand years--mostly unpublished.

Adam, convinced that a resistance movement is imperative, rallies his followers, the ill-equipped patriots, to fight back. Idries Shah, the author of this gripping story, is the best-known Afghan writer of our time. His books on Sufism, philosophy, history, and travel, are known the world over. Shah was the descendant of a thousand-year-old Afghan family, and an author and teacher who found success explaining the East to the West. Kara Kush, first published in 1986, is his only a fascinating adventure in which a gifted writer set out to inform the world about Afghan society, history, and culture. According to interviews with Shah, the novel is based on fact and eyewitness accounts.

Contemporary esoteric systems almost invariably play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. Almost universally neglected in such systems are the--often-unrecognized--barriers that prevent knowledge and understanding. Before learning can take place, certain conditions and basic factors must be in place, in the individual or the group. Building on the foundations laid in Learning How to Learn and The Commanding Self, Idries Shah illuminates those factors in Knowing How To Know. Like an ultra-violet light shone onto the petals of flowers, it reveals concealed patterns, normally invisible to our customary modes of thought. "This would not be a book by Shah if it were not often very funny. In short, those who know Shah's work will not need to be told it is a cornucopia of very various delights; those who do not may find it a fascinating introduction to the Sufi view of life." --Doris Lessing, The Sunday Telegraph

"Do you imagine that fables exist only to amuse or instruct, and are based upon fiction? The best ones are delineations of what happens in real life, in the community, and in the individual's mental processes." --from the Introduction This pocket-size collection of sayings and stories from real life, and from the author's observations of our mental processes, is a perfect gift book. It's contemporary, fun to read--like a splash of ice water for the mind.

A Sufi teaching tale of a boy without a name who visits a wise man and acquires both a name and a wonderful dream.

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 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 "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."

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.

The Dermis Probe is a study of impediments in current thought that block higher forms of understanding between people. The space-age sounding title was suggested over 800 years ago by "The Blind Ones and the Elephant," a story immortalized in Rumi's Mathnavi.

Whoever might perfume a scorpionWill not thereby escape its sting.--Sufi master Bahaudin Naqshband Using the powerful approach of classical teachers, Shah has crafted a contemporary teaching tool that blends a fast-paced look at today's world with the timeless teachings of the Sufis. The book brings into sharp focus the conditioned behavior and self-deception that are common in Western minds. Far more than a literary tool for breaking loose old mental habits, it is a blueprint for a process of self-development that precludes self-deceit. Truly a book among books, A Perfumed Scorpion is treasured the world over for its clarity of wisdom and its forcefulness of insight.

As our world continues to shrink, we are being brought headlong into often explosive contact with other cultures and religions. Islam continues to be for many a mysterious and misunderstood force, alien to our own cultural values. Yet, in more ways than expected, Christianity and Islam share common ground. For centuries, Sufi thinkers have been linked to both religions in certain important ideas. But, like the elephant in the dark in Jalaludin Rumi's classic fable, these ideas are not grasped in full by seizing parts of the whole and arguing for or against their supposed Christian or Islamic derivation. From a series of lectures given by Idries Shah as a Visiting Professor at Geneva University, Switzerland, The Elephant in the Dark shifts focus to more fruitful ground, tracing documented episodes of co-operation and understanding between Christians and Moslems over the past 1,400 years

Presents the Sufi teaching tale of Fatima, a woman who learns the arts of spinning, weaving, and mast-making after a series of unfortunate events, but whose skills eventually lead her to happiness.

"And among the wondrous things is a veiled a Divine Subtlety, veiled by a state of the Self, Referring to the States of those who know. Unable To explain their perceptions to others, they can only indicate them to whoever has started to feel something similar. . . ." --Muhiyuddin Ibn El-Arabi, The Interpreter of Desires The title, A Veiled Gazelle, is taken from this beautiful poem by 12th-century mystic, Ibn Arabi. The "gazelles" are extraordinary experiences and perceptions latent in ordinary man. "Veiling" refers to the action of the subjective or "commanding" self, which partly through indoctrination and partly through base aspirations, prevents higher vision. Says Shah in the "Sufi poetry, literature, tales and activities are the instruments which, when employed with insight and prescription rather than automatically or obsessively, help in the relationship between Sufi and pupil, toward the removal of the veils." This book is a remarkable working example of these instruments.

When a boy visits another village, he is surprised to find people terrified of something that - just because they have not seen it before - they mistake for a terrible, dangerous animal. With his own knowledge and by demonstration, the boy helps them overcome their fears.This story is part of an oral tradition from the Middle East and Central Asia that is more than a thousand years old. In an entertaining way, it introduces children to an interesting aspect of human behavior and so enables them to recognize it in their daily lives.One of the many tales from the body Sufi literature collected by Idries Shah, the tale is presented here as part of his series of books for young readers. This is the second book in the series illustrated by Rose Mary Santiago, following the award-winning bestseller, The Farmer's Wife .

Presents the cumulative Sufi folktale of a farmer's wife who is trying to retrieve an apple from a hole in the ground.

This book is an anthology of the extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures today. Nothing approaching this kind of survey has ever been assembled. In addition to first-hand accounts of Sufi learning methods, subjects covered include the Sufi meeting place, avoiding imitators, Sufi work enterprises, the idea of organic enterprises, entry into a Sufi group, the Sufi adept and the projection of mind, extra-sensory perception, what the Sufis do not want us to know, and more.

. with dw, 2003, 450pp

AMERICAN ENGLISH EDITION .First published in 1957, The Secret Lore of Magic contains within it a series of major source-books of magical arts. Many of them translated into English for the first time, these works are annotated and fully illustrated. The book’s title in itself signalled the fact that the bulk of material in this bibliographical study had never been published openly before. Together with Oriental Magic which appeared in the preceding year, it provided a complete survey of fundamental magical literature, and thus a comprehensive reference system for psychologists, ethnologists and others interested in the rise and development of human beliefs. Both books also introduced the general reader to dependable information about what was a shadowy and confusing subject.