Tales of God’s Friends

Abstract

Tales of God’s Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation, an anthology that honors Sufis from every corner of the Muslim world, provides an easily accessible overview of Sufism’s history and the particularities of individual Sufi experiences that helped spread Islam throughout the world. A valuable contribution to the contemporary literature of Sufi studies, this volume also offers an excellent overview of the Sufi path and philosophy as well as classic texts of Islamic mysticism. The wide-ranging and eclectic collection of sources is a particular strength, and manuscripts have been edited with references to several authors who knew the life history of these Sufis. The book contains twenty illustrations; a preface; six parts (divided into twenty-seven chapters); an appendix and a glossary; notes about the contributors; an index of names; an index of concepts, themes, places, and book titles; and a Qur’an index. The editor claims that it is the first truly global English-language anthology of Islamic hagiography, both historically and geographically – it is translated from seventeen languages of origin, with the help of two dozen Islamic scholars specializing in broad spectrum of languages (pp. xi-xiv) ...