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Caravan Of Dreams (book)
''Caravan of Dreams'' is a book by Idries Shah first published in 1968 by Octagon Press as part of his presentation of traditional Eastern teachings and Sufi ideas for contemporary society. New editions of the book were published in 2015 by The Idries Shah Foundation. Shah relates the title to three traditional sources: the story of ''Maruf the Cobbler'', which can be found in the ''One Thousand and One Nights''; a proverb which says, “The Dog may bark, but the Caravan moves on”; and some verses from the Sufi Master Bahaudin Naqshband which read: “Here we are, all of us: in a dream-caravan. A caravan, but a dream – a dream, but a caravan. And we know which are the dreams. Therein lies the hope.” Summary / content The book contains sections on the Traditions (Hadiths) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (primarily from the Mishkat of Al-Baghawi of Herat), the folktales of Mulla Nasrudin, thoughts from Omar Khayyam, meditations of Rumi, and the definitions of Mulla Do- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idries Shah
Idries Shah (; hi, इदरीस शाह, ps, ادريس شاه, ur, ; 16 June 1924 – 23 November 1996), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el- Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي) and by the pen name Arkon Daraul, was an Afghan author, thinker and teacher in the Sufi tradition. Shah wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies. Born in British India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles on his father's side and a Scottish mother, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His seminal work was ''The Sufis'', which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Baghawi
Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʻūd ibn Muḥammad al-Farrā' al-Baghawī (Persian/Arabic:ابو محمد حسین بن مسعود بغوی), born 1041 or 1044 (433 AH or 436 AH) died 1122 (516 AH) was a renowned Persian Muslim mufassir, hadith scholar, and Shafi‘i faqih, best known for his major work '' Maʻālim at-Tanzīl''. ''Al-Farra'' is a reference to trading with fur, and ''al-Baghawī'' is a reference to his hometown Bagh or Baghshûr (then in Khorasan) between Herat (Afghanistan) and Marw al-Rudh. He died in Marw al-Rudh. He is also famous for his other works on hadith such as Sharh as-Sunnah and Masabih as-Sunnah ''Masabih al-Sunnah'' is a collection of hadith by the Persian Shafi'i scholar Abu Muhammad al-Husayn ibn Mas'ud ibn Mubammad al-Farra' al-Baghawi, from sometime before 516 H. An improved version of this work, Mishkat al-Masabih, has additiona ..., the latter became famous as Mishkah al-Masabih with the additions of at-Tabrizi (d. 741H). He wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teaching Stories
A teaching story is a narrative that has been deliberately created as a vehicle for the transmission of wisdom. The practice has been used in a number of religious and other traditions, though writer Idries Shah's use of it was in the context of Sufi teaching and learning, within which this body of material has been described as the "most valuable of the treasures in the human heritage". The range of teaching stories is enormous, including anecdotes, accounts of meetings between teachers and pupils, biographies, myths, fairy tales, fables and jokes. Such stories frequently have a long life beyond the initial teaching situation and (sometimes in deteriorated form) have contributed vastly to the world's store of folklore and literature. Function It is the teaching function of teaching stories that characterises them rather than any other categorisation, however much they may have other uses. Shah likened the Sufi story to a peach: :"A person may be emotionally stirred by the exterior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan-Fishan Khan
Saiyed Muhammed Shah, better known by his title as Jan-Fishan Khan, was a 19th-century Afghan warlord.Obituary of Idries Shah, The Independent (London) of 26 November 1996., pp. 19–26 He participated in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42) and the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and on both occasions, he supported the British. For his services to the British, Khan was granted the estate of Sardhana and is the forefather of the Nawabs of Sardhana. Background Jan-Fishan Khan was the son of an Afghan noble, Saiyed Qutubuddin Hashmi, of Paghman, the family's ancestral home in Afghanistan. His family has historically claimed descent from Ali ar-Ridha, the eighth Imam, through Najmuddin Kubra and the Arab Sufi Saiyed Bahaudin Shah. Life In the First Anglo-Afghan War, Saiyed Muhammed Shah, also known to the British as the "Laird of Pughman",Sale, Florentia Wynch (1844). ''A Journal of the Disasters in Affghanistan, 1841-2''. London: John Murray, pp. 45, 142, 373 supported Shah Shuj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anecdote
An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous, anecdotes differ from jokes because their primary purpose is not simply to provoke laughter but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself. Anecdotes may be real or fictional; the anecdotal digression is a common feature of literary works and even oral anecdotes typically involve subtle exaggeration and dramatic shape designed to entertain the listener. An anecdote is always presented as the recounting of a real incident involving actual people and usually in an identifiable place. In the words of Jürgen Hein, they exhibit "a special realism" and "a claimed historical dimension" . Etymology and usage The word ''anecdote'' (in Greek: ἀνέκδοτον "unpublished", literally "not given out") comes from Procopius of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destination Mecca
''Destination Mecca'' is an early book by the writer Idries Shah, who went on to produce an extensive corpus of material on Sufism that is both accessible and relevant to contemporary western readers. It was first published by Rider in 1957 (with photographs by the author), and subsequently by Octagon Press in 1969 (minus the photos). Shah had already made a name for himself as the author of two well-researched and in many ways ground-breaking books about magic. However, these scholarly works, and the vastly more influential work, ''The Sufis'', which was to follow in 1964, by their nature entailed keeping his own personality in the background. His intention in this present book appears to be to counterbalance this tendency through his skilful use of the familiar travel book format, and he steps out of the shadows as an approachable young man with a lively mind and a fine sense of humour and adventure – someone who is comfortable in his mid-twentieth century skin and equally at ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium in the fifteenth century. Volume I was published in 1776 and went through six printings. Volumes II and III were published in 1781; volumes IV, V, and VI in 1788–1789.The original volumes were published in quarto sections, a common publishing practice of the time. The six volumes cover the history, from 98 to 1590, of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and then of the Roman State Church, and the history of Europe, and discusses the decline of the Roman Empire among other things. Thesis Gibbon offers an explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to attempt it. According to Gib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its polemical criticism of organised religion. Early life: 1737–1752 Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. He had six siblings, five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost his assets as a result of the South Sea bubble stock-market collapse in 1720 but eventually regained much of his wealth. Gibbon's father was thus able to inherit a substantial estate. One of his grandmothers, Catherine Acton, descended from Sir Walter Acton, 2nd Baronet. As a youth, Gibbon's health was under constant threat. He described himself as "a puny ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the Muhammad in Islam, main and final Islamic prophet.Peters, F. E. 2009. "Allāh." In , edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . (See alsoquick reference) "[T]he Muslims' understanding of Allāh is based...on the Qurʿān's public witness. Allāh is Unique, the Creator, Sovereign, and Judge of mankind. It is Allāh who directs the universe through his direct action on nature and who has guided human history through his prophets, Abraham, with whom he made his covenant, Moses/Moosa, Jesus/Eesa, and Muḥammad, through all of whom he founded his chosen communities, the 'Peoples of the Book.'" It is the Major religious groups, world's second-largest religion behind Christianity, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saadi Shirazi
Saadi Shīrāzī ( fa, ابومحمّد مصلحالدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (; fa, سعدی, , ), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (, ''Saʿdī Shīrāzī''; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts. Saadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" ( ''ostâd-e soxan'') or simply "Master" ( ''ostâd'') among Persian scholars. He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well. '' Bustan'' has been ranked as one of the 100 greatest books of all time by ''The Guardian''. Biography Saadi was born in Shiraz, Iran, according to some, shortly after 1200, according to others sometime between 1213 and 1219. In the Golestan, composed in 1258, he says in lines evidently addr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mulla Do-Piyaza
Mulla Do-Piyaza (1527-1620) was the Advisor and Vizier of the Mughal emperor Akbar.Mulla Do-Piyaza, also portrayed as witty, was Birbal's rival. Even though these folk tales originated at the end of Akbar's reign (1556–1605), Mulla Do-Piyaza began to appear much later. Most scholars consider him to be completely fictional. Scholars believe him to be the son of loyal commander of Mughals Bairam khan, who was assassinated by Adham khan son of Maham Anga while on his way to Hajj. Later Mulla was adopted by Akbar as his courtier and even given dignity in Mughal court. Background In the folk tales, Mulla Do-Piyaza is depicted as Birbal's Muslim counterpart and as a proponent of orthodox Islam. Most of the time he is shown getting the better of both Birbal and Akbar, but there are other stories which portray him in a negative light. No Mughal-era records mention any courtier called Mulla Do-Piyaza, and pamphlets on his life and jokes were published only in the late 19th century. One ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rumi
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلالالدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my master), but more popularly known simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century PersianRitter, H.; Bausani, A. "ḎJ̲alāl al-Dīn Rūmī b. Bahāʾ al-Dīn Sulṭān al-ʿulamāʾ Walad b. Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad Ḵh̲aṭībī." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. Excerpt: "known by the sobriquet Mewlānā, persian poet and founder of the Mewlewiyya order of dervishes" poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. Rumi's influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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