The Doctrine of Sufis: Translated from the Arabic of Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi

This 1935 English translation of a classic Arabic text in Sūfīsm, the mystical aspect of Islam, by A. J. Arberry preserves the beauty and simplicity of the original without departing from a literal translation. Little is known of the author of this treatise Abū Bakr al-Kalābādhī, except that he was a lawyer and died in Bukhārā in about AD 990. This book is the work on which his fame rests, and is important because it is the earliest extant text to reconcile the position of Sūfīsm and orthodox Islam. The book consists of five parts: a general introduction to the term Sūfī and an enumeration of the names of the great Sūfīs; a statements of the tenets of Islam, as accepted by the Sūfīs; a discussion of the various 'stations' of the Sūfīs; and a discussion of the various phenomena of Sūfīsm. This is a superb English introduction to Sūfīsm.