Assorted References

• mystical literature
  • In Islamic arts: Philosophy: Averroës and Avicenna
• significance of qawwali
  • In qawwali

doctrines, beliefs, and practices

• comparison to Malāmatīyah
  • In Malāmatīyah
• dhikr
  • In dhikr
• fana
  • In fana
• ghaybah
  • In ghaybah
• khirqah
  • In khirqah
• maqām
  • In maqām
• maʿrifa
  • In maʿrifa
• mawlid festivals
  • In mawlid
• Middle Eastern music
  • In Middle Eastern music
• miracles
  • In miracle: Islam
  • In Sufism: Important aspects
• monasticism
  • In monasticism: Quasi-monastic
• samāʿ
  • In samāʿ
• shaṭḥ
  • In shaṭḥ
• tashbīh
  • In tashbīh
• tawhid
  • In tawhid
• taʾwīl
  • In tafsīr

history

• Bāṭinīyah sect
  • In Bāṭinīyah
• Indonesia
  • In Indonesia: Muslims in Java
• Iqbāl’s criticism
  • In Islam: Impact of modernism
• Mawlawīyah
  • In Mawlawīyah
• opposition of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb
  • In Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb
• Persian literature
  • In Persian literature: Classical prose
• propagation and historical role
  • In Islam: The legacy of Muhammad
  • In Islamic world: Cultural flowering in Iraq
  • In Islamic world: Precolonial reform and experimentation from 1683 to 1818
• Shiʿah
  • In Shiʿi: Shiʿi dynasties
• Steppe peoples’ historical impact
  • In the Steppe: The expansion of Islam
• Timur’s Iranian rule
  • In Iran: The Timurids and Turkmen

Introductory works

Arthur H. Palmer (comp.), Oriental Mysticism: A Treatise on Sufiistic and Unitarian Theosophy of the Persians, 2nd ed. by Arthur J. Arberry (1938, reprinted 1974), an exposition of later mystical ideas; Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975), a multifaceted, introductory study of Ṣūfism; Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914, reprinted 1975), a very readable introduction to classical Ṣūfism and Ṣūfī poetry; Arthur J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (1950), a historical survey of classical Ṣūfism; G.-C. Anawati and Louis Gardet, Mystique musulmane, 3rd ed. (1976), an excellent study of the major trends and leading personalities in classical Ṣūfism; Robert C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (1960, reissued 1969), a thought-provoking study of the possible relations between Indian and early Muslim mysticism.

History

Margaret Smith, Rābiʿa the Mystic & Her Fellow-Saints in Islam: Being the Life and Teachings of Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra, Together with Some Account of the Place of the Women Saints in Islam (1928, reprinted 1977), the first study of the herald of mystical love in Islām; Joseph Van Ess, Die Gedankenwelt des Ḥārit al-Muḥāsibī anhand von übersetzungen aus seinen Schriften dargestellt und erläutert (1961), an excellent introduction to the theology and psychology of early mystical thought in Islām; Louis Massignon, La Passion de Husayn ibn Mansûr Hallâj: martyr mystique de l’Islam, new ed. 4 vol. (1975), an indispensable sourcebook for the history of Ṣūfism in the classical period; Annemarie Schimmel, Al-Halladsch, Märtyrer der Gottesliebe (1968), a German translation of parts of Ḥallāj’s poetry and prose, and a study of his influence on the literatures of the different Islāmic peoples; Serge de Beaurecueil, Khwādja ʿAbdullāh Anṣārī (396–481 H./1006–1089): Mystique Hanbalite (1965), a biography of the author of the beautiful Persian munājāt (prayers) and other mystical books; A.J. Wensinck, La Pensée de Ghazzālī (1940), a short and reliable introduction to Ghazālī’s thought; John A. Subhan, Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines (1938, reissued 1978), a useful survey of the later development of Islāmic mysticism.

Ṣūfī literature

Helmut Ritter, Das Meer der Seele (1955, reissued 1978), an exhaustive work on Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s thought as reflected in his mystical poetry; Jaláluʾddin Rúmí, The Mathnawí, ed. with critical notes, translation, and commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson, 8 vol. (1925–40), the encyclopaedia of mystical thought in the 13th century in masterly translation; H.T. Sorley, Shah Abdul Latīf of Bhit (1940; reprinted 1966), a study of the greatest mystical poet of Sind.

Ṣūfī thought and practice

Benedikt Reinert, Die Lehre vom Tawakkul in der klassischen Sufik (1968), the first fundamental study of a single concept central to early Islāmic mysticism, built upon a critical analysis of all available sources; Arthur J. Arberry, The Doctrine of the Ṣūfīs (1935, reprinted 1977), a useful translation of Kalābādhi’s Kitāb at-taʿarruf, one of the early treatises on Ṣūfī thought; Ali bin Uthman al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al-Maḥjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, trans. by Reynold A. Nicholson (1911, reprinted 1976), a masterly translation of the voluminous 11th-century account of Ṣūfī thought; G.-H. Bousquet (ed.), Ihʾyâ ʿouloûm ed-dîn; ou Vivification des sciences de la foi (1955), an analytical index of the most widely read work on moderate mystical thought, prepared with the assistance of numerous scholars; Constance E. Padwick, Muslim Devotions (1961), the only account of the popular mystically tinged piety of the Muslims as reflected in their prayer books; Laleh Bakhtiar, Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest (1976), discusses and shows through illustrations the Ṣūfī experience and its expression in the arts.

Theosophical Ṣūfism

A.E. Affifi, The Mystical Philosophy of Muhyid Dín-Ibnul ʿArabí (1939, reissued 1974), the first attempt, in a Western language, to systematize the pantheistic system of the 13th-century theosophist; Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sūfism of Ibn ʿArabī, trans. by Ralph Manheim (1970); Reynold A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism (1921, reissued 1978), a study of Abū Saʿīd and a discussion of Jīlī’s Perfect Man and of Ibn al-Fāriḍ, with a superb translation of most of his odes.

Ṣūfī orders

Octave Depont and Xavier Cappolani, Les Confréries religieuses musulmanes (1897), a comprehensive account of Ṣūfī brotherhoods; Hans J. Kissling, “Die Wunder der Derwische,” ZDMG (Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft), vol. 107, no. 2, pp. 348–361 (August 1957), a fully documented account of the kinds of miracles performed by dervishes; Khaliq A. Nizami, The Life and Times of Shaikh Faridud-din Ganj-i-Shakar (1955, reprinted 1973), a good survey of the life of one of the leading Chishtī saints in India; René Brunel, Le Monachisme errant dans l’Islam: Sīdi Heddi et les Heddāwa (1955), a penetrating study of a little known fraternity of dervishes in North Africa; Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya: A Sufi Order in the Modern World (1965), a study of the development of political activities of this 19th-century order in the northern and western parts of Africa; J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (1971), the first attempt to give a survey of all orders in Islām, and, as such, quite useful.