The Idries Shah Anthology, Idries Shah
The Idries Shah Anthology, Idries Shah
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The Idries Shah Anthology

Author: Idries Shah

Narrator: David Ault

Unabridged: 10 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: ISF Publishing

Published: 07/25/2019

Categories: Nonfiction, Religion, Islam


Synopsis

The Idries Shah Anthology is a special collection of previously published work by Idries Shah, and was edited by Saira Shah. This title includes an Introduction by Saira Shah, as well as comments and annotations throughout the text. Each chapter includes a selection from the works of Idries Shah on topics such as Sufism, Nasrudin, fables, poetry, proverbs, and teaching stories. It includes methods of the masters and themes for study and contemplation. This new compilation of excerpts from the classic texts of Idries Shah will leave you with a new perspective on his work.From the introduction:In his writing about Sufism, Idries Shah did some revolutionary things. Critically, and almost alone, he said that it was possible to divorce the essence of Sufi philosophy from what he insisted were secondary accretions of islamic culture and religion. Moreover, he said, in making this material available to the West, you could not only do this, you must do it. This is because, he believed, you can only absorb materials that are designed for your own time and place. Sufism as an essence may be ‘truth without form’ but, in order to penetrate into the human mind, it must be delivered in a package shaped to fit the receiving culture.‘When something new enters a culture, there is a period where, like a new object being thrown into the chimpanzee pen at a zoo, all the chimps rush over to touch it, throw it on the floor, fight over it and so on,’ he once told me. ‘We must wait until the dust settles; only then will people be in a position to assess this material.’My father died in 1996 and the dust is settling fast. He leaves a body of work behind and, on this work alone, he believed, he should and would be judged. This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.— From the Editor’s Note, by Saira Shah

Reviews

Goodreads review by Aubrey on April 04, 2020

This beautiful anthology by Idries Shah’s daughter Saira is a masterful introduction to his vast body of work and a fresh perspective on Sufism. It contains chapters on the jokester sage Mulla Nasrudin, poetry, proverbs, teaching stories and more. Shah “argued that human beings, while capable of the......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 15, 2019

The Idries Shah Anthology is a lovely object, with attractively coloured boards and a bookmark ribbon. The 356 pages are designed to be an 'essential reader', introducing the inquirer to a rich sample of Shah's vast output, providing those new to Sufism with a solid grounding in the study of the thi......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 21, 2019

One of the challenges in learning about the work of Idries Shah is where to choose among the large number of his books that are available. That decision is made a lot easier with the publication of the Idries Shah Anthology. The anthology comes in at a substantial 350 pages or so and it’s a generous......more

Goodreads review by Jorge on February 04, 2025

Idries Shah Anthology The Sayed Idries Shah was a Master at all levels: as a writer, as a Teacher, as a communicator, as a Story teller, as a man with vast knowledge and an inspiring sense of humour, live in front of his followers and in all the Mulla Nasrudin books he wrote, still classics all over......more

Goodreads review by David on September 28, 2021

This anthology is a great introduction to Idries Shah's books, which literally changed my life when I first read them more than 30 years ago. He is the clearest and most sensible writer on spiritual and psychological matters that I have encountered. Examples: think for yourself instead of joining a......more