First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Abu cAbd al-Rahman Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Sulami (d.412/1021) lived in the 3rd and 4th century AH / 9th and 10th century CE. He was born in the city of Nishapur, one of the most renowned cities in the Islamic world. He was part of a line of earlier Sufi figures who attempted to defend the cardinal tenets of Sufism from accusations of heresy. However al-Sulami's surpassed his predecessors by amassing a corpus of antecedent mystical dicta from the architects of Islamic mysticism and substantiating them with transmission channels (isnad) or grounding them in a core teaching of the Prophet Muhammad. This study demonstrates that al-Sulami was an accomplished mystic. It outlines his life and times and surveys in full all his works as far as they can be identified. Moreover, the important sources that shaped the development and impression of his thinking and modality of transforming the ego-self (nafs) are presented in detail bringing together earlier and current academic scholarship on him.

This book offers a paradigm shift and fresh interpretation of Rumi's message. After being disentangled from the anachronistic connection with the Mevlevi order of Islamic Sufism, Rumi is instead placed in the world of philosophy.

What is happening when someone has a mystical experience, such as "feeling at one with the universe" or "hearing God's voice?" Does philosophy provide tools for assessing such claims? Which claims can be dismissed as delusions and which ones convey genuine truths that might be universally meaningful? Valuable insights into such pressing questions can be found in the writings of Immanuel Kant, though few philosophical commentators have appreciated the implications beyond his famous "Copernican hypothesis." In Kant and Mysticism, Stephen R. Palmquist corrects this skewed view of Kant once and for all. Beginning with a detailed analysis of Kant's 1766 work Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, Palmquist demonstrates that in Dreams Kant first discovers and explains his plan to write a new, "critical" philosophy that will revolutionize metaphysics by laying bare the limits of human reason. Palmquist shows how the same metaphorical relationship-between reason's dreams (metaphysics) and sensibility's dreams (mysticism)-permeates Kant's mature writings. Clarifying how Kant's final (unfinished) book, Opus Postumum, completes this dual project, Palmquist explains how the "critical mysticism" entailed by Kant's position has profound implications for contemporary understandings of religious and mystical experience, both by religious individuals and by philosophers seeking to understand such experiences.

Human enlightenment and liberation, mystics have long advised, require spiritual awakening from the hypnotic sleep of everyday life. This book explores the life and ideas of the enigmatic twentieth century philosopher, mystic, and teacher of esoteric dances George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1872?-1949), performing a hermeneutic textual analysis of all his published writings to illuminate the place of hypnosis in his teaching. The hermeneutic approach captures both the aim for an in-depth textual analysis, and the notion that the intent is to interpret the text using its own symbolic and meaning structures.

Systematically explored for the first time is Gurdjieff's "objective art" of literary hypnotism intended as a major conduit for the transmission of his teachings on the philosophy, theory, and practice of personal self-knowledge and harmonious human development. In the process, the nature and function of the 'mystical' shell hiding the rational kernel of Gurdjieff's teaching are explained--shedding new light on why his mysticism is "mystical," and Gurdjieff so "enigmatic," in the first place.

The book includes a Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll, a major bibliographer and scholar of Gurdjieff studies.

An interpretative translation by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak of "Sirr al-Asrar" by Hadrat Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (1077-1166AD), considered by many to be one of the greatest saints of Islam and the eponymous founder of the Qadiriyya order. This book, appearing in English for the first time, contains the very essence of Sufism, giving a Sufi explanation of how the outward practises of Islam--prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage--contain a wealth of inner dimension which must be discovered and enjoyed if external actions are to be performed in a manner pleasing to God. When this is achieved the soul finds true peace and the spiritual life becomes complete.

The body-mind connection is a well-documented fact in today's medical paradigm. Yet, long before recent scientific research uncovered this natural linkage, it was described in Kabbalistic healing manuals, with one important difference--there it was understood to be a link between the body, mind, and soul of kabbalah and healing.

This healing manual explains Kabbalah's centuries-old perception of human physiology, its view on how to maintain overall health, and how this is dependent on our spiritual well-being.

"The phenomenon of disease is one of spiritual] separation or estrangement," the rabbi writes pertaining to kabbalah and healing. When disconnected from our innermost self, and our spiritual Source, illness manifests. Were we to understand the true source of our ailments, and give full expression to our yearning to connect with our life Source, we would have no need for external remedies.

Whether you rely on today's holistic healing or on more traditional medicine, you'll benefit from the Kabbalistic prescriptions for healing and understanding of human physiology laid out in this valuable book.

Body, Mind, Soul: Kabbalah and Healing includes:
- A reference guide to the body-soul interaction
- A detailed description of Kabbalah's understanding of disease and its root causes
- Contemporary healing methods seen from a mystical point of view
- A discussion of the healing power of prayer and teshuvah (return to G-d)

Kabbalistic healing is a complete system of belief and practice. Of interest to anyone seeking true holism.

An accessible introduction to the concepts of Jewish mysticism, their religious
and spiritual significance, and how they relate to our lives.

"The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition" allows us to experience and understand mysticism s inexpressible reverence before the awe and mystery of creation, and celebrate this rich tradition s quest to transform our ordinary reality into holiness.

From Tiberias, With Love is a journey to rediscovering the magic and mystery, the intimacy and depth of a lost moment in the history of a remarkably relevant conscious community in the Galilee that still has much to teach us. In the year 1777, a group of spiritual seekers from Eastern Europe set sail in search of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some who set sail identified with the burgeoning Jewish spiritual renewal movement of hasidism, while others seem to have just come along for the ride. Weathering challenges both socio-economic and geographic, this emigrating group sought to establish a center for a burgeoning hasidic ethos that would radiate to the Diaspora from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine. Tiberian Hasidism provides a model of an intensive contemplative life that is particularly appealing to contemporary spiritual seekers for many reasons, including: its deep focus on mystical theology; devotional practice; and the ecstasy of deep friendship rather than allegiance to an institutionalized religion. This volume focuses on the teachings of R. Abraham haCohen of Kalisk ripe for excavation, offering an authentic roadmap to future contemplative pathways ripe for our age.

The Book of Judith has aroused a great deal of scholarly interest in the last few decades.This volume, the first full length commentary on Judith to appear in over 25 years, includes a new translation and a detailed verse-by-verse commentary, which touches upon philological, literary, and historical questions. The extensive introduction discusses the work's date and historical background, and looks closely at the controversial question of the book's original language. Biblical influences on the book's setting, characters, plot, and language are investigated, and the heroine, Judith is viewed against the background of biblical women (and men). The influence of classical Greek writers such as Herodotus and Ctesias on the work is noted, as are the interesting differences between the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of Judith.

Focusing on Rumi, the best-selling Persian mystical poet of the 13th century, this book investigates the reception of his work and thought in North America and Europe - and the phenomenon of 'Rumimania' - to elucidate the complexities of intercultural communication between the West and the Iranian and Islamic worlds. Presenting tens of examples from the original and translated texts, the book is a critical analysis of various dimensions of this reception, outlining the difficulties of translating the text but also exploring how translators of various times and languages have performed, and explaining why the quality of reception varies. Topics analysed include the linguistic and pragmatic issues of translation, comparative stylistics and poetics, and non-textual factors like the translator's beliefs and the political and ideological aspects of translation. Using a broad theoretical framework, the author highlights the difficulties of intercultural communication from linguistic, semiotic, stylistic, poetic, ethical, and sociocultural perspectives. Ultimately, the author shares his reflections on the semiotic specificities of Rumi's mystical discourse and the ethics of translation generally. The book will be valuable to scholars and students of Islamic philosophy, Iranian studies, and translation studies, but will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural dichotomies of the West and Islam.