A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi (Golden Palm)

'Almost a prerequisite for any serious study of Sufism in European languages': this was the verdict of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his review of the first edition of the book. According to the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, it is 'one of the most thorough and intimately engaging books on Sufism to be produced by a Western scholar'. Certainly there is nothing second-hand about it. The author lets Sufis speak for themselves and, in a series of unusual and absorbing texts mainly translated from Arabic, he gives a vivid picture of life in a North African Sufi order. Against this background stands the unforgettable figure of the Algerian Shaikh who was head of the order from 1909 until his death in 1934. The last few chapters are mainly devoted to his writings, which include some penetrating aphorisms, and which end with a small anthology of his remarkable mystic poems.

• What is Sufism? (Islamic Texts Society)
• Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
• The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary
• Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Golden Palm)
• The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis (Islamic Texts Society)
• A Return to the Spirit: Questions and Answers (Quinta Essentia series)
• The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination
• The Transcendent Unity of Religions (Quest Book)
• Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now
• The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (SUNY series in Islam)