Sufi Essays: Second Edition

By Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Book Overview

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of Islamic Art and Spirituality, Islamic Life and Thought, and Knowledge and the Sacred; and the co-editor of Expectation of the Millenium: Shi'ism in History, and Shi'ism: Doctrines, Thought, and Spirituality, all published by SUNY Press. He is also the General Editor of the SUNY series in Islam. Nasr was educated at M.I.T. and Harvard and has taught throughout America, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Japan, and Australia.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791410528
• ISBN13: 9780791410523
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A flawed masterpiece

I read this book a few years ago and was throughly amazed. Nasr exposition of Sufism is excellent. He plunges into history and literature to and brings out profound insight into some fo the aspects of Sufism. He essay on the Sufi Shaykh is wonderful. Nevertheless the book has its flaw. The insertation of perrenial thought and propagation of the Universalvalidity of Religions is dogmatic in certain essay. The author simply goes and concludes that Sufi thought stresses the Universal Validity of Religions. Such a statement if false and goes against the Islamic texts and there explanation. In essence the book is wonderful and contains beneficial knowledge, but at the end the perrenial taint leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Overall good read but one should take caution about the above mentioned mistake.

A non-political book on sufism

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Having read another excellent book by Corbin " Alone with the Alone", I was curious to see what relation is there, if any, between Shiism and Sufis, this book answered my questions in an honest non-political way.