First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Sehrengiz is an Ottoman genre of poetry written in honor of various cities and provincial towns of the Ottoman Empire from the early sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. This book examines the urban culture of Ottoman Istanbul through Sehrengiz, as the Ottoman space culture and traditions have been shaped by a constant struggle between conflicting groups practicing political and religious attitudes at odds. By examining real and imaginary gardens, landscapes and urban spaces and associated ritualized traditions, the book questions the formation of Ottoman space culture in relation to practices of orthodox and heterodox Islamic practices and imperial politics. The study proposes that Azehrengiz was a subtext for secret rituals, performed in city spaces, carrying dissident ideals of Melami mysticism; following after the ideals of the thirteenth century Sufi philosopher Ibn al-'Arabi who proposed a theory of 'creative imagination' and a three-tiered definition of space, the ideal, the real and the intermediary (barzakh). In these rituals, marginal groups of guilds emphasized the autonomy of individual self, and suggested a novel proposition that the city shall become an intermediary space for reconciling the orthodox and heterodox worlds. In the early eighteenth century, liminal expressions of these marginal groups gave rise to new urban rituals, this time adopted by the Ottoman court society and by affluent city dwellers and expressed in the poetry of NedA (R)m. The author traces how a tradition that had its roots in the early sixteenth century as a marginal protest movement evolved until the early eighteenth century as a movement of urban space reform.

Discover the essential power of the seven chakras, including their colors, sounds, and key rituals, in this beautifully illustrated mini guidebook. Get to know your seven energy centers -- muladhara, svadisthana, mapura, anahata, vishuddha, ajna, and sahasrara --in this enchanted introduction to the world of chakras. From the earthiness of the root chakra to the warmth of the solar plexus, explore the body's energetic focal points and bring balance to your wellness practice. Gain inspiration as you learn the crystals, essential oils, and meditations that activate and calm each chakra in the full-color, illustrated mini book.

In an effort to attain a 'global' character, the contemporary academic discipline of International Relations (IR) increasingly seeks to surpass its Eurocentric limits, thereby opening up pathways to incorporate non-Eurocentric worldviews. Lately, many of the non-Eurocentric worldviews have emerged which either engender a 'derivative' discourse of the same Eurocentric IR theories, or construct an 'exceptionalist' discourse which is particularly applicable to the narrow experiential realities of a native time-space zone: as such, they fall short of the ambition to produce a genuinely 'non-derivative' and 'non-exceptionalist' Global IR theory. Against this backdrop, Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations performs a multidisciplinary research to explore how 'Sufism' - as an established non-Western philosophy with a remarkable temporal-spatial spread across the globe - facilitates a creative intervention in the theoretical understanding of Global IR.

Benjamin Pollock argues that Franz Rosenzweig s The Star of Redemption is devoted to a singularly ambitious philosophical task: grasping the All the whole of what is in the form of a system. In asserting Rosenzweig s abiding commitment to a systematic conception of philosophy often identified with German Idealism, this book breaks rank with the assumptions about Rosenzweig s thought that have dominated the scholarship of the last decades. Indeed, the Star s importance is often claimed to lie precisely in the way it opposes philosophy s traditional drive for systematic knowledge and upholds instead a new thinking attentive to the existential concerns, the alterity, and even the revelatory dimension of concrete human life. Pollock shows that these very innovations in Rosenzweig s thought are in fact to be understood as part and parcel of The Star s systematic program. But this is only the case, Pollock claims, because Rosenzweig approaches philosophy s traditional task of system in a radically original manner. For the Star not only seeks to guide its readers on the path toward knowing the All of which all beings are a part; it at once directs them toward realizing the redemptive unity of that very All through the actions, decisions, and relations of concrete human life.

An enduring educational concern that has plagued researchers and policy makers in a number of affluent countries is the endemic nature of educational inequalities. These inequalities highlight distinct differences in the educational skills, knowledge, capabilities and credentials between learners' demographic characteristics. They also point to issues of educational disadvantage that emanate from a combination of factors including family life, communities, the geographies of space and place, gender and ethnicity. This book examines some of the causes and responses to educational inequalities, and focuses upon poor urban contexts where educational disadvantage is at its most concentrated, and where educational policy and practice has, over time, proliferated. It questions how wider inequities experienced by young people in urban contexts generate educational inequalities and disadvantage, detailing explicitly what an equitable approach to education might look like. Included in the book is an innovative educational equity framework and toolkit with illustrative policy and practice case studies, bringing together unique scholarship and analysis to examine future educational policy in a holistic, comprehensive and equitable way. It will be valuable reading for postgraduate students, researchers and policy makers with an interest in education and educational equity.

Providing a unique anthropological perspective on Jewish mysticism and magic, this book is a study of Jewish rites and rituals and how the analysis of early literature provides the roots for understanding religious practices. It includes analysis on the importance of sacrifice, amulets, and names, and their underlying cultural constructs and the persistence of their symbolic significance.

Is Judaism essentially a religion of laws and commandments? Or do its sources reflect significant attempts at addressing the individual's inner life, existential crises and spiritual experiences? Inner Religion in Jewish Sources offers a comprehensive exploration of inner life in the Jewish sources from the Bible to rabbinic literature, from Medieval Jewish philosophy to Kabbalistic writings and the Hasidic world, where it gained particularly potent expressions. Addressing the issue from the perspective of comparative religion, it seeks to emphasize the commonality of processes of interiorization in various religious traditions, suggesting an innovative angle both in the study of religion and of religious thought. In doing so, it sheds new light on the inner aspect of Jewish religious life, which is all too often hidden behind the external and institutional aspects of the Jewish religion.

Friedrich von Hugel's Mystical Element of Religion remains the authoritative study of the spirituality of Catherine of Genoa. First published in 1908, this seminal work develops the authoris major theory of the three basic elements of religion, institutional, intellectual and mystical. Von Hugel shows how Catherineis mysticism relates to her life and thought, making his comprehensive and masterly two-volume analysis a classic in the study of Western mysticism.

The Armenian-born mystic, philosopher, and spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff (c.1866-1949) is an enigmatic figure, the subject of a great deal of interest and speculation, but not easily fitting into any of the common categories of "esoteric," "occult," or "New Age." Scholars have for the most part passed over in silence the contemplative exercises presented in Gurdjieff's writings. Although Gurdjieff had intended them to be confidential, some of the most important exercises were published posthumously in 1950 and in 1975. Arguing that an understanding of these exercises is necessary to fully appreciate Gurdjieff's contribution to modern esotericism, Joseph Azize offers the first complete study of the exercises and their theoretical foundation. It shows the continuity in Gurdjieff's teaching, but also the development and change. His original contribution to Western Esotericism lay in his use of tasks, disciplines, and contemplation-like exercises to bring his pupils to a sense of their own presence which could to some extent be maintained in daily life in the social domain, and not only in the secluded conditions typical of meditation. Azize contends that Gurdjieff had initially intended not to use contemplation-like exercises, as he perceived dangers to be associated with these monastic methods, and the religious tradition to be in tension with the secular and supra-denominational guise in which he first couched his teaching. As Gurdjieff adapted the teaching he had found in Eastern monasteries to Western urban and post-religious culture, however, he found it necessary to introduce contemplation.

The 38th chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, this treatise follows on from "Al-Ghazali on Intention, Sincerity & Truthfulness." Here, Ghazali focuses on the different stations of steadfastness in religion (murabaha), vigilance and self-examination being its cornerstones. As in all his writings, Ghazali bases his arguments on the Qur an, the example of the Prophet, and the sayings of numerous scholars and Sufis. As relevant today as it was in the 11th century, this discourse will be of interest to anyone concerned with ethics and moral philosophy."

"Elizabeth Clare Prophet's book is a masterpiece. The rich tradition of the Kabbalah comes to life in a language that is accessible even to those unfamiliar with this ancient and classic tradition." Caroline Myss, Ph.D., NY Times bestselling author of "Anatomy of the Spirit."

Examining perspectives on the connection between man's inner being and the outer world, this title covers topics such as the Anthropic Principle, Gaia Hypothesis, mysticism, religion, nature, and more.

The thirteenth century mystic Ibn `Arabi was the foremost Sufi theorist of the premodern era. For more than a century, Western scholars and esotericists have heralded his universalism, arguing that he saw all contemporaneous religions as equally valid. In Rethinking Ibn `Arabi, Gregory Lipton calls this image into question and throws into relief how Ibn `Arabi's discourse is inseparably intertwined with the absolutist vision of his own religious milieuthat is, the triumphant claim that Islam fulfilled, superseded, and therefore abrogated all previous revealed religions. Lipton juxtaposes Ibn `Arabi's absolutist conception with the later reception of his ideas, exploring how they have been read, appropriated, and universalized within the reigning interpretive field of Perennial Philosophy in the study of Sufism. The contours that surface through this comparative analysis trace the discursive practices that inform Ibn `Arabi's Western reception back to the eighteenth and nineteenth century study of "authentic" religion, where European ethno-racial superiority was wielded against the Semitic Otherboth Jewish and Muslim. Lipton argues that supersessionist models of exclusivism are buried under contemporary Western constructions of religious authenticity in ways that ironically mirror Ibn `Arabi's medieval absolutism.