Mystical Dimensions of Islam

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 527 pages
• Published by: The University of North Carolina Press April 1, 1978
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0807812714
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0807812716
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Review
Beautifully written. The best and most comprehensive study on Islamic mysticism in the English language.

Religious Studies Review

Will surely be the standard treatment of Sufism for a long time to come.

America

Product Description
Mystical Dimensions of Islam presents, for the first time, a balanced historical treatment of the transnational phenomenon of Sufism-Islamic mysticism-from its beginnings through the nineteenth century. Through her sensitivity and deep understanding of the subject, Annemarie Schimmel, an eminent scholar of Eastern religions, draws the reader into the mood, the vision, the way of the Sufi in a manner that adds an essential ingredient to her analysis of the history of Sufism.

After exploring the origins of the mystical movement in the meditations of orthodox Muslims on the Koran and the prophetic tradition, the author then discusses the development of its different stages, including classical voluntarism and postclassical theosophical mystical trends. Particular emphasis is placed on spiritual education, the different ways of leading the mystic toward the existential realization of the profound mystery of the profession of faith that "there is no deity but God." Sufi psychology and Sufi orders and fraternities are comprehensively explored.

Through an examination of mystical anthropology, which culminates in the veneration of the prophet and the saints, the questions of free will and predestination, of good and evil, are implied. The main burden of the text, however, is Sufism as reflected in Islamic poetry, and Professor Schimmel looks at the various aspects of mystical poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sindhi, Panjabi, and Pashto. The author skillfully demonstrates how Sufi ideals permeated the whole fabric of Muslim life, providing the average Muslim-villager or intellectual-with the virtues of perfect trust in God and the loving surrender to God's will.

Professor Schimmel's long acquaintance with Turkey, Iran, and the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent provides a unique emphasis to the study, and the author's personal knowledge of Sufi practice in these regions lends a contemporary relevance to her work.

Reader Reviews
The German author, (a former professor at Harvard), is somewhat of a linguistic prodigy, gifted with a talent that makes her highly valued in her country's philologically centered orientalist tradition. Not only is she fluent in the major European languages, but she knows most -- if not all -- of the languages of the Muslim World, which include Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi and Punjabi. Schimmel's broad linguistic scope provides her access to the multifarious expressions of Sufism in cultures as diverse as India, North Africa, Turkey, Arabia, and Iran, which she then brings to light in her book. As a result, the work is set apart from most other studies that usually focus on no more than two or three regions. Apart from the geographical extent that Schimmel covers, she also manages to examine the *entire* fourteen hundred year history of Sufism, beginning with the death of the Prophet up to Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938), India's Sufi orientated poet-philosopher (who Schimmel clearly has an admiration for, besides her other favourite, Rumi). Schimmel succeeds in revealing that despite barriers of language, time, and space, the sufis were united by an unwaivering desire for Divine Proximity, whether this desire took on the form of a metaphysical sobriety as in the case of Sadruddin Qonawi, or an ecstatic and rapturous love as with Rabia. "Walayah", after all, the Arabic term for "sainthood", means "to be brought close" or "to be a friend". _Mystical Dimensions_ begins with a highly illuminating exposition of the various approaches Western Orientalists have employed in their study of Sufism. "In the nineteenth century," Schimmel writes, "interpreters usually agreed that Sufism must be a foreign plant on the sandy desert of Islam, the religion that was so little known and even less appreciated and that could not possibly be related to any finer and hight spiritual movement" (p.8-9). One E.H.Palmer, Schimmel mentions, even suggested that Sufism was the "Primaeval Religion of the Aryan Race"! She contrasts these studies with the later more sympathetic ones by the likes of the famous Louis Massignon (who had much more than a simple academic interest in his field) and Helmut Ritter. The book ends with two very interesting appendixes, one on the symbolism of letters and the other on Sufism's feminine element. This book is clearly the most authoritative academic work on the subject. Despite the breadth of information the work contains, it is certainly not a difficult read. Any intelligent person with an interest in the area will find it worth his or her while. Even if you decide not to read the whole work, its extensive thirty-page index makes it an excellent resource-book.