'This is one of Schimmel's most important books. It sums up a lifetime of scholarship on Islam and, more importantly, it puts her understanding of Islam into a phenomenological framework that will readily be appreciated by scholars and students of other religious traditions. It will be looked back upon as a landmark in bringing Islamic Studies into the mainstream of religious studies.' -William C. Chittick

First published in 1993. This is a collection of Selected Verses from Nasir-i Khusraw's Dzvan. The work of the Persian author in both its philosophical and poetical aspects has been known in the West for more than a century. The outward political and religious events of the first half of the eleventh century were the canvas on which Nasir-i Khusraw's poetry and prose developed.

First published in 1993. This is a collection of Selected Verses from Nasir-i Khusraw's Dzvan. The work of the Persian author in both its philosophical and poetical aspects has been known in the West for more than a century. The outward political and religious events of the first half of the eleventh century were the canvas on which Nasir-i Khusraw's poetry and prose developed.

This account of the Sufi order of Mevlevi dervishes and its founder, the poet and mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, presents the esoteric wisdom of the Sufis as it has been handed down from the great teachers of the past without alienating the modern reader. In addition to Rumi's life story, accounts of dervishes past and present are included. Featured are excerpts from Rumi's poetry, teachings of other Sufi masters, descriptions of the dervish lodges and the symbolism of the dervish ceremony, and an overview of the music that accompanies the Mevlevis' dances. Haunting, evocative pictures of the order's dancers clad in traditional dress provide a glimpse of ceremonies usually closed to the public.

Now that Rumi has become one of the best-selling poets in North America, interest in his life and times has increased dramatically. Practically every collection of his poetry provides a thumbnail biography, highlighting his encounter with Shams-i Tabrizi, the wandering mystic who became Rumi's beloved companion. Rumi had been a sober scholar, teaching law and theology to a small circle of students, but the coming of Shams turned him into a devotee of music, dance, and poetry. Three years after Shams's appearance out of nowhere, he abruptly vanished, never to be seen again. It was Rumi's longing for the lost Shams that transformed him into one of the world's greatest poets. Rumi immortalized Shams's name by constantly celebrating him in his poetry as the embodiment of the divine beloved.

Very little is know about the historical Shams--indeed, some have even doubted that he was a real person. Everyone interested in Rumi's poetry has been curious about him, and beginning with Rumi's own son and other hagiographers, a great deal of legend was built up. Over the centuries, Shams became a trope of Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literatures. Modern scholarship has made little headway in explaining who Shams was or how he was able to play such a decisive role in Rumi's life, though a good number of theories have been advanced.

Me and Rumi represents a true milestone in the study of this enigmatic figure. It makes available for the first time in any European language first-hand accounts of Shams that have never been studied by Western scholars. When Rumi and Shams sat and talked, one or more members of the circle took notes. These were never put into final form, but they were preserved andsometimes copied by later generations, ending up in various libraries scattered around Turkey. Fifteen years ago an Iranian scholar completed the long process of collating and editing the manuscripts. The book that he published, called Maqalat-i Shams-i Tabrizi (The Discourses of Shams-i Tabrizi), provides us with an extraordinary picture of an awe-inspiring personality.

In Me and Rumi, Chittick has translated about two-thirds of the Discourses into English and arranged them in a manner that clarifies their meaning and context. He provides notes and a glossary, which will go a long way toward helping readers decipher the more obscure passages. The net result is an exciting and readable book that brings Shams to life. For the first time in Western sources, we are given access to him without the intermediary of Rumi and the myth-makers. Shams appears as raucous and sober, outspoken and subtle, harsh and gentle, learned and irreverent and, above all, as an embodiment of the living presence of God. The book destroys the stereotypes that have been set up by the secondary literature, and it gives access to a far more fascinating and vivid personality than we have any right to expect from what hagiographers and scholars have written.

A fascinating tour of the history of numbers showing that numbers have been filled with mystery and meaning since the earliest times and across every society. This book covers the origins of numbers, the symbolism of numbers, the source of this symbolism, and examines individual numbers from one to ten thousand. Schimmel proves to us that from literature to folklore to superstitions, numbers play a conspicuous and significant role in our lives.

This text presents the complicated story of how a poetic tradition evolved in a number of different languages over a period of twelvehundred years. It involves the history of Sufism, the tensions between mysticism and orthodoxy in Islamic thought and the problem of interpreting a poetic language which is both sensual and sacred. The first three chapters consider initially the development of mystical poetry in Arabic from the 9th century, including the work of Hallaj, and then move on to discuss Persian poetry in a similar manner, with particular focus on the work of Rumi. The diffusion of Arabic and Persian literary influence in the many other languages spoken in the vast area affected by Islam is the subject of the final two chapters, which cover firstly folk poetry and, subsequently, poetry in praise of the Prophet.

This title is translated by Corinne Attwood. The Mughal empire (1526 1857) has long been viewed as a wonderland of unimaginable treasure; it was in fact the mightiest Islamic empire in the history of India. In this comprehensive cultural history, now available in paperback, Annemarie Schimmel describes the political, military and economic rise of the Mughals, their system of rule, the incredible unfolding of their power and splendour, and their gradual collapse, finally supplanted by the British colonial empire in 1857. Beginning with a concise historical overview, she paints a detailed picture of life at court: of rank and status in this strictly hierarchical society; of the life of women; of the various religions, languages and literatures of the Mughal era; of the patronage of the arts by the rulers; and the remarkable accomplishments and techniques of artists at the Mughal court. Who, for example, has not heard of the Taj Mahal, the renowned mausoleum that the emperor Shah Jahan constructed for his wife in the Indian city of Agra? This amazing edifice of white marble, inlaid with a filigree of precious stones, is an impressive demonstration of the refined sense of beauty of the Mughal rulers. Building and landscape architecture, painting and literature, indeed, the entire court culture of the Mughals, all testify to an aesthetic sensibility within which they strove to harmonise all aspects of life. "The Empire of the Great Mughals" is a richly illustrated and fascinating portrait of an advanced civilization, the historical and cultural legacy of which still inspires universal admiration today.

Clear and concise, this introduction to Sufism familiarizes readers with the diverse and multifaceted nature of Sufism, a dimension of Islam. The author provides an examination of the fundamental concepts, origins, important figures, orders, sectors, and symbolic texts of Sufism that is both thorough and highly accessible. "Clara, amena y concisa, esta introduccion al sufismo familiarizara a los lectores al caracter multifacetico de esta dimension del Islam. La autora aclara los conceptos fundamentales del sufismo, examina sus origenes, destaca las figuras mas representativas y presenta sus ordenes, fraternidades y textos emblematicos en una manera rigurosa y asequible."

Thirty-five years after its original publication, "Mystical Dimensions of Islam" still stands as the most valuable introduction to Sufism, the main form of Islamic mysticism. This edition brings to a new generation of readers Annemarie Schimmel's historical treatment of the transnational phenomenon of Sufism, from its beginnings through the nineteenth century.
Schimmel's sensitivity and deep understanding of Sufism--its origins, development, and historical context--as well as her erudite examination of Sufism as reflected in Islamic poetry, draw readers into the mood, the vision, and the way of the Sufi. In the foreword, distinguished Islam scholar Carl W. Ernst comments on the continuing vitality of Schimmel's book and the advances in the study of Sufism that have occurred since the work first appeared.

This book offers an examination of the sources and evolution of personal authority in one Islamic society.""Sufi Heirs of the Prophet"" explores the multifaceted development of personal authority in Islamic societies by tracing the transformation of one mystical sufi lineage in colonial India, the Naqshbandiyya. Arthur F. Buehler isolates four sources of personal authority evident in the practices of the Naqshbandiyya - lineage, spiritual traveling, status as a Prophetic exemplar, and the transmission of religious knowledge - to demonstrate how Muslim religious leaders have exercised charismatic leadership through their association with the most compelling of personal Islamic symbols, the Prophet Muhammad. Buehler clarifies the institutional structure of sufism, analyzes overlapping configurations of personal sufi authority, and details how and why revivalist Indian Naqshbandis abandoned spiritual practices that had sustained their predecessors for more than five centuries. He looks specifically at the role of Jamacat cAli Shah (d. 1951) to explain current Naqshbandi practices.

Annemarie Schimmel, one of the world's foremost authorities on Persian literature, provides a comprehensive introduction to the complicated and highly sophisticated system of rhetoric and imagery used by the poets of Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Muslim India. She shows that these images have been used and refined over the centuries and reflect the changing conditions in the Muslim world. According to Schimmel, Persian poetry does not aim to be spontaneous in spirit or highly personal in form. Instead it is rooted in conventions and rules of prosody, rhymes, and verbal instrumentation. Ideally, every verse should be like a precious stone--perfectly formed and multifaceted--and convey the dynamic relationship between everyday reality and the transcendental. Persian poetry, Schimmel explains, is more similar to medieval European verse than Western poetry as it has been written since the Romantic period. The characteristic verse form is the ghazal --a set of rhyming couplets--which serves as a vehicle for shrouding in conventional tropes the poet's real intentions. Because Persian poetry is neither narrative nor dramatic in its overall form, its strength lies in an ""architectonic"" design; each precisely expressed image is carefully fitted into a pattern of linked figures of speech. Schimmel shows that at its heart Persian poetry transforms the world into a web of symbols embedded in Islamic culture. |Schimmel provides a comprehensive study of the complicated and highly sophisticated system of rhetoric and imagery used by the poets of Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Muslim India. She shows that images in Persian poetry have been used and refined over the centuries and reflect changing conditions in the Muslim world.

The devotional and mystical literature of the Ismailis in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent is a little known but rich seam of creativity in the cultural heritage of Islam. This book focuses on the ginans - a large corpus of hymns and poems composed in a variety of Indic languages and attributed to a series of preacher-saints who propogated the Ismaili form of Islam in the subcontinent over several centuries. Situating the gians in the larger context of Sufi, Bhakti and Sant poetry in medieval India, the author explores their history, characteristics, themes and prosody, as well as the unique Khojki script in which they were recorded. He also highlights the continuing vitality of this tradition in the religious life of Nizari Ismaili communities of South Asian origin.

Born in 1004, Nasir-i Khusraw was the major poet and philosopher of the early Ismailiyya. The outward political and religious events of the first half of the 11th century were the canvas on which Nasir-i Khusraw's poetry and prose developed. It is a poetry that teaches the importance of wisdom, of reason, of the right word and the right faith. Nasir-i edifice of religio-philosophical thought with its constant emphasis on the true faith and, as importantly, on reason and its role. Unique and important for our understanding of the times in which it was written Nasir-i Khusraw's ideas and expressions appeal strongly to readers of today. . The interest in Nasir-i Khusraw's poetry lies first in its contents and, from the purely formal viewpoint, in its consummate artistry. Through the poet's descriptions of gardens and stars, and his technical skill in the use of language and metre, the book offers an insight in to the poet's learning in all areas of Islamic and scientific topics. Above all, the poet successfully combines poetical skill with a deep religious conviction. The work of the Persian author in both its philosophical and poetical aspects has been known in the West for more than a century, but until now a full evaluation of Nasir-i Khusraw's poetry - his Divan - has not been attempted. This volume is intended as a step toward a better understanding of the poet's thought. In it, the noted Islamic scholar Annemarie Schimmel presents her translations of Nasir-i Khusraw's qasidas along with a detailed study of the poet and his work.

This book (previously published as "I Am Wind, You Are Fire ") celebrates the extraordinary career of Persia's great mystical poet, Rumi (1207-1273), through the story of his life, along with an enlightening examination of his ecstatic verse. Rumi lived the quiet life of a religious teacher in Anatolia until the age of thirty-seven, when he came under the influence of a whirling dervish, Shams Tabriz, and was moved to a state of mystical ecstasy. One of the results of this ecstasy was a prodigious output of poems about the search for the lost Divine Beloved, whom Rumi identified with Shams. To symbolize this search, Rumi also invented the famous whirling dance of the Melevi dervishes, which are performed accompanied by the chanting of Rumi's poems. Professor Schimmel illuminates the symbolism and significance of Rumi's vast output and offers her own translations of some of his most famous poems.

Although a large body of the great poetry of the Islamic world has been translated into English, except for a few fragments, the poetry of the Isma'ilis is still only accessible in the original.
This anthology should enable lovers of devotional and mystical poetry to sample the great range and depth of Isma'ili poetry. The selection spans 1000 years of Isma'ili history, from the time of the Fatimid caliphate to the present day. It includes both sophisticated and popular verses from the Isma'ili poets of Arabia, Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, China, India and Pakistan composed in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Burushaski and Urdu. In addition to the theme of divine love and the virtues of the prophet and the Immans, the poems present some of the central ideas of the Isma'ilis and their esoteric interpretation of Islam.

The important role of the Prophet Muhammad in the everyday lives of Muslims is usually overlooked by Western scholars and has consequently never been understood by the Western world. Using original sources in the various Islamic languages, Annemarie Schimmel explains the central place of Muhammad in Muslim life, mystical thought, and poetry. She sees the veneration of Muhammad as having many parallels in other major religions.

In order to understand Muslim piety it is necessary to take into account the long history of the veneration of Muhammad. Schimmel discusses aspects of his life, birth, marriage, miracles, and heavenly journey, all of which became subjects for religious devotions. By using poetic texts and artistic expressions and by examining daily Muslim religious practices, Schimmel shows us the gentler side of Islamic religious culture, providing a much-needed understanding of religion as it is experienced and practiced in the Islamic world.

This is the first book in English to deal with all aspects of the veneration of the Prophet Muhammad. It is an expanded version of Schimmel's "Und Muhammad Ist Sein Prophet," originally published in German in 1981.

An internationally acclaimed scholar, who has dedicated more than fifty years of her life to understanding the Islamic world.Annemarie Schimmel examines a much-misunderstood feature of Islam: the role of women. Schimmel is critical of those--especially Western feminists--who take Islam to task without taking the time to comprehend the cultures, language, and traditions of the many societies in which Islam is the majority religion.Shattering stereotypes, Schimmel reconstructs an important but little-known chapter of Islamic spirituality. With copius examples, she shows the clear equality of women and meni nthe conception of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, the feminine language of the mystical tradition, and the role of holy mothers and unmarried women as manifestations of God.This work is studded with luminous texts from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and particularly Indo-Muslim cultures, which reveal how physical love can give expression to the highest forms of mysticism.

Incorporating her personal experience with yoga into her provocative philosophical thinking on sexual difference, Irigaray proposes a new way of understanding individuation and community in the contemporary world, and an ethic of sexual difference predicated on a respect for life, nature, and the feminine.