Idries Shah

Although enormously attractive as sheer entertainment, Dervish tales were never presented merely on the level of a fable, legend, or folklore....

Caravan of Dreams distills the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of Sufi stories, sayings, poems, and allegories collected by one of the world's leading experts in Oriental philosophy....

Contemporary esoteric systems almost always play on the desire of mankind to seek or acquire knowledge. All but universally neglected in such systems are the often unrecognized barriers which prevent knowledge and understanding....

How can it be that the same story is found in Scotland and also in pre-Columbian America? What can account for the durability and persistence of tales? These questions and more are answered in Idries Shah’s remarkable volume World Tales. Listen to learn more....

The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, Sufi teachings, and classical writings as a basic course of Sufi study....

Condensed from more than three million words, these conversations involve housewives and cabinet ministers, professors and assembly-line workers, on the subject of how traditional psychology can illuminate current human, social, and spiritual problems....

The Commanding Self, in Sufic terminology, is that mixture of the primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding....

When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject of Sufi thought....

In three definitive volumes, Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin....

A treasure house of teaching materials, assembled in the Sufi manner. Seeker After Truth contains both traditional tales and stories gleaned from contemporary sources, and snippets of table talk, discussions and teachings, letters, and lectures by Idries Shah....

The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes....

The "perfuming of a scorpion", referred to by the great Sufi teacher Bahaudin, symbolizes hypocrisy and self-deception: both in the individual and in institutions. In A Perfumed Scorpion, Idries Shah directs attention to both the perfume and the scorpion - the overlay and the reality - in psychology, human behavior and the learning process....

As with all of his works, The Magic Monastery is rich in thought-provoking material, and can be listened to and enjoyed at many levels....

Oriental Magic is recognized as a brilliant study of how, what and why people think, in territories extending from North Africa to Japan....

Traditionally known as The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, this collection comprises excerpts from the life, teachings, and miracles of the Sufi teacher Jalaluddin Rumi, together with certain important stories from his works....

A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing....

The Idries Shah Anthology is a special collection of previously published work by Idries Shah, and was edited by Saira Shah....

Assembled by Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi is a comprehensive collection of learned essays and papers on the subject of Sufi thought....

Nasrudin is the greatest of all Arab folk heroes, and is found across the Islamic World, from Morocco to Pakistan, and beyond. He is said to have been the wisest fool who ever lived - that is if he ever did live at all....

Previously published only as separate essays, Sufi Thought and Action - assembled and introduced by Idries Shah - covers an extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures....