sources for study of Sufism
Omid Safi
with wishes of salaam...
There are of course, so many places that one could start. I have often
found that it is a fruitful exercise to combine the most important
primary sources of Sufism with insightful secondary studies. This is a
list of good material that I would suggest;
For primary sources:
*Michael Sells, Ealry Islamic Mysticism (an invaluable resource,
containing many of the most important early Sufi sources)
*I also recommend his "approaching the Qur'an" book very highly.
*Other excellent sources are Farid al-Din Attar's Mantiq al-tayr, which
exists in a translation by Dick Davis (Conference of the Birds) and Peter
Avery (speech of the Birds).
*Javad Nurbakhsh has some useful books on "sufi hadiths", titled
Traditions of the Prophet.
*A wonderful resource is the Farid al-Din Attar's biography of early
Sufis, titled Tadhkirat al-auliya', translated by A.J. Arberry as "Sufi
saints and mystics", a great anthology!
*some people have also enjoyed the anthology of Sufi material titled
Essential Sufism.
*A new work which details the lives of early Sufi women is Rkia Cornell's
new book, appropriately titled Early Sufi Women.
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For secondary studies:
*The most helpful study of Sufism, particularly as it regards to issues
for interaction of Sufism and modernity, is Carl Ernst's Shambhala Guide
to Sufism.
*Other wonderful studies are William Chittick's Vision of Islam and
Annemarie Schimmel's Mystical Dimensions of Islam.
*For devotion to the Prophet Muhammad, may I suggest Schimmel's And
Muhammad Is His Messenger.
*For Rumi's life and context, the standard reference will be Frank
Lewis's
new book: Rumi, past and future, east and west (published through
Oneworld). For literary studies, Schimmel's Triumphal Sun is
unsurpassed. Also insightful is Keshavarz's Reading Mystical Lyric.
*For studies of Sufism in an institutional Tariqa context, Carl Ernst's
Eternal Garden is great, and focuses on the chishti order.
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There are a number of web sites on Sufism that I would strongly recommend:
*The beginning site for any research on Sufism is Alan Godlas (University
of Georgia)'s masterful work: For your interests, you might wish to
check out a section called "sufism, sufis, and sufi orders":
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas
*Another useful site is the one I have put together for classes on Sufism
at Colgate University. Do be sure to go to the bottom of the page and
check out the following page, under "click here for course syllabus":
http://classes.colgate.edu/osafi/mysticism/mysticism.htm
*For Islamic Sufi orders on the web, see:
http://homepages.haqq.com.au/salam/sufilinks/index.html
http://world.std.com/~habib/sufi.html
Hope this is helpful, and not overwhelming. Please contact me if I may
be of any service.
in peace,
Omid