THE SUFIS

Idries Shah

Original publisher, Octagon Press. This edition published by Random House, 1971.

First published in 1964, 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: Sadi, Attar, Rumi, Ibn El-Arabi, El-Ghazali, Omar Khayyam, 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, and Chaucer. 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.

This is also available in a Spanish edition (LOS SUFIS, Code SUFS1).

If Sufism is an adventure, a goal of human perfection attained by reviewing and awakening within humanity a higher organ of fulfillment, completion, destiny, why is it so difficult to assess, to locate in time, to pin down? It is precisely because Sufism is carried out in every community and at every time that it has such diversity -- and this is one of its secrets.

Sufis believe that, expressed in one way, humanity is evolving to a certain destiny. We are all taking part in that evolution. Organs come into being as a result of the need for specific organs (Rumi). The human being's organism is producing a new complex of organs in response to such a need. In this age of the transcending of time and space, the complex of organs is concerned with the transcending of time and space. What ordinary people regard as sporadic and occasional bursts of telepathic or prophetic power are seen by the Sufi as nothing less than the first stirrings of these same organs. The difference between all evolution up to date and the present need for evolution is that for the past ten thousand years or so we have been given the possibility of a conscious evolution. So essential is this more rarefied evolution that our future depends upon it.
--From The Sufis © 1964, 1977 by The Estate of Idries Shah

A seminal book of the century'
--Washington Post

'The most comprehensive, informative work on Sufism.'
--New York Times Book Review

'Incredibly rich in scope and fine detail.'
--Psychology Today

'An astonishing book. The Sufis must be the biggest society of sensible men there has ever been on earth.'
--Ted Hughes, The Listener