Perhaps the best introduction to the body of Shah’s work, the most comprehensively informative. And one is immediately forced to use one’s mind in a new way.’– The New York TimesWhen it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject: rich in scope, clearly explaining the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time. In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into dozens of languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West. It is used as a text in scores of leading universities around the world, and the material contained within it has been applied by psychologists and physicists, by school teachers, lawyers, social workers, and by ordinary members of the public.Ted Hughes wrote of it: ‘An astonishing book. The Sufis must be the biggest society of sensible men on earth’; and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said of it: ‘I had waited my entire life to read this book.’

What is Sufism?The book follows the Sufi principle of 'scatter' in answering this unanswerable question.It deliberately shies away from offering an ordered definition.Instead, it throws out ideas.Like fragments of light on dust particles, they reveal the shape of something intangible.Neither emotionalist nor academic, this book offers the closest thing a written work can to an experience of Sufism.When it came out in 1964 it was incredibly influential, attracting admirers such as Robert Graves (who wrote the introduction), Ted Hughes and Doris Lessing.It's the most important modern book written on Sufism.A must-read for any serious student of Sufi thought.

What is Sufism?The book follows the Sufi principle of 'scatter' in answering this unanswerable question.It deliberately shies away from offering an ordered definition.Instead, it throws out ideas.Like fragments of light on dust particles, they reveal the shape of something intangible.Neither emotionalist nor academic, this book offers the closest thing a written work can to an experience of Sufism.When it came out in 1964 it was incredibly influential, attracting admirers such as Robert Graves (who wrote the introduction), Ted Hughes and Doris Lessing.It's the most important modern book written on Sufism.A must-read for any serious student of Sufi thought.