The subject of "Mystical Languages of Unsaying" is an important but neglected mode of mystical discourse, "apophasis." which literally means "speaking away." Sometimes translated as "negative theology," apophatic discourse embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. In this close study of "apophasis" in Greek, Christian, and Islamic texts, Michael Sells offers a sustained, critical account of how apophatic language works, the conventions, logic, and paradoxes it employs, and the dilemmas encountered in any attempt to analyze it.
This book includes readings of the most rigorously apophatic texts of Plotinus, John the Scot Eriugena, Ibn Arabi, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, with comparative reference to important apophatic writers in the Jewish tradition, such as Abraham Abulafia and Moses de Leon. Sells reveals essential common features in the writings of these authors, despite their
wide-ranging differences in era, tradition, and theology.
By showing how "apophasis" works as a mode of discourse rather than as a negative theology, this work opens a rich heritage to reevaluation. Sells demonstrates that the more radical claims of apophatic writers--claims that critics have often dismissed as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic or nihilistic--are vital to an adequate account of the mystical languages of unsaying. This work also has important implications for the relationship of classical "apophasis" to contemporary languages of the unsayable. Sells challenges many widely circulated characterizations of "apophasis" among deconstructionists as well as a number of common notions about medieval thought and gender relations in medieval mysticism.

"In these critical times nothing could be more valuable for the West than a rediscovery of its true spiritual heritage: books which were once the treasures of people, now rare and little known." Seyyed Hossein Nasr Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and Theological Writings translated, edited and with an introduction by Michael A. Sells preface by Carl W. Ernst God is the light of the heavens and earth. The light like the light of a lamp in a niche The lamp enclosed in a cover of glass The glass like a glistening star Kindled from the oil of a blessed tree An olive not of the East not of the West Its oil glows forth nearly without the touch of fire... Qur'an 24:35 The first centuries of Islam saw the development of Sufism as one of the world's major mystical traditions. Although the later Sufi writings by mystics such as Rumi are known and available in translation, access to the crucial early period of Islamic mysticism has been far more limited. This volume opens with an essay on the place of spirituality within the Islamic tradition. Immediately following are the foundation texts of the pre-Sufi spirituality: the Qur'an passages most important to the mystical tradition; the accounts of Muhammad's heavenly ascent (Mi'raj); and the crucial work of early poets in setting a poetic sensibility for speaking of union with the divine beloved. The volume then presents the sayings attributed to the key early figures of Islamic spirituality: Ja'far as-Saddiq, the Sixth Imam of the Shi'ite Tradition; Rabi'a, the most famous woman saint of classical Islam; Muhasibi, the founder of Islamic moral psychology; Bistami, whose sayings on mystical union have generated fascination and controversy throughout the Islamic tradition; Tustari, a pioneer in the mystical interpretation of the Qur'an; Junayd, who helped place Sufi mysticism at the center of the Islamic tradition; Hallaj, famous for his ecstatic utterances and martyrdom; and Niffari, whose sayings are considered among the deepest mystical expressions within Islam. The sayings of these pioneers are embedded in the later stratum of analytical and synoptic writings of later Sufi thinkers: Sarraj; Sulami; Qushayri; and 'Attar. Extensive portions of these writers are translated into English for the first time.

The atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina have stunned people throughout the world, prompting them to ask how this savagery is possible. This book answers by saying that the Bosnian conflict was not simply a civil war or a feud of age-old adversaries, but a systematic campaign of genocide and a holy war spurred by Christian mythologies. The book examines how religious stereotyping, in popular and offical discourse, has fuelled Serbian and Croatian ethnic hatred. It traces the cultural logic of genocide to the manipulation by Serb nationalists of the symbolism of Christ's death, in which Muslims are "Christ-killers" and Judases who must be mercilessly destroyed. It also shows how "Christoslavic" religious nationalism became a central part of the Croat and Serb politics, pointing out that intellectuals and clergy were key instruments in assimilating extreme religious and political ideas. In addition, the book elucidates the ways in which Western policy-makers have rewarded the perpetrators of genocide and punished the victims. The book concludes with a discussion of how the multi-religious nature of Bosnian society has been a bridge between Christendom and Islam, symbolized by the now-des