Idries Shah

Idries Shah was born on the 16^th June, 1924 and he died on the 23 November 1996. He was an author and a teacher in the Sufi tradition. He wrote three dozens of books on topic that ranges from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and the study of culture.

source of picture: www.lornemitchell.com 

He was born in India, the descendant of a family of the Afghan nobles. Shah was mainly raised in England. His early works was about magic and witchcraft. In the year 1960, he started a publishing house called Octagon Press, and he was manufacturing the translations of Sufi classics and also some of his own. His seminal work was called The Sufis that showed up in the year 1964 and was well taken by the people in both Afghanistan and outside the country. In the year 1965, Shah established the Institute for Cultural Research, which is a London-based educational charity that is devoted to the study of human culture and behavior. An analogous organization called the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge is exists in the United States, under the leadership of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein who was appointed by Shah to be his deputy in the United States.

Shah was sometimes criticized by orientalist that questioned his background and credentials. His function in the controversy that was surrounding the new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friends Robert Graves and his elder brother Omar Ali Shah, came in for a specific inspection. Meanwhile he had several notable defenders, including Doris Lessing. Shah was klater seen to be the spokesman for Sufisn in the West and taught as a visiting professor at a number of Western Universities. His work has performed a good role in presenting Surfism as a secular and individualistic pattern of wisdom.

Personal Life

Shah married Cynthia Kabraji in the year 1958, they had a daughter whom they called Saira in the year 1964 and then they had twin, aboy and a girl whom they called Tahir and Safia in the year 1966.

Illness

In the later part of the 1987, about a year after his final visit to his country, Afghanistan, Shah suffered two successive and bad heart attacks. He was told that he had only 8% of his heart function remaining and could not expect himself to survive. Irrespective of the bout, he was working and manufactured some books over the next 9 years.

Death

Shah died in London in the year 1987 on the 23^rd November, 1996 at the age of 72, as reported by hisn obituary in the Daily Telegraph, Shah collaborated with Majuhideen in the soviet war in their country, a Director of \studies for the Institute for Cultural Research and a Governor of the Royal Humane Society and the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurable.  Also he was a member of the Anthanaeum Club. At the moment of his death, 15 million copies of his book had been sold in a several languages all over the world, and had been reviewed in many international journals and newspapers.

Works

Magic

• Oriental Magic ISBN 0-86304-017-9 (1956)
• The Secret Lore of Magic ISBN 0-8065-0004-2 (1957)

Sufism

• The Sufis ISBN 0-385-07966-4 (1964)
• Tales of the Dervishes ISBN 0-900860-47-2 (1967)
• Caravan of Dreams ISBN 0-86304-043-8 (1968)
• Reflections ISBN 0-900860-07-3 (1968)
• The Way of the Sufi ISBN 0-900860-80-4 (1968)
• The Book of the Book ISBN 0-900860-12-X (1969)
• Wisdom of the Idiots ISBN 0-86304-046-2 (1969)
• The Dermis Probe ISBN 0-86304-045-4 (1970)
• Thinkers of the East – Studies in Experientialism ISBN 0-900860-46-4 (1971)
• The Magic Monastery ISBN 0-86304-058-6 (1972)
• The Elephant in the Dark – Christianity, Islam and The Sufis ISBN 0-900860-36-7 (1974)
• A Veiled Gazelle – Seeing How to See ISBN 0-900860-58-8 (1977)
• Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study ISBN 0-900860-56-1 (1977)
• Special Illumination: The Sufi Use of Humour ISBN 0-900860-57-X (1977)
• A Perfumed Scorpion ISBN 0-900860-62-6 (1978)
• Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way ISBN 0-900860-59-6 (1978)
• The Hundred Tales of Wisdom ISBN 0-86304-049-7 (1978)
• Seeker After Truth ISBN 0-900860-91-X (1982)
• Sufi Thought and Action ISBN 0-86304-051-9 (1990)
• The Commanding Self ISBN 0-86304-066-7 (1994)
• Knowing How to Know ISBN 0-86304-072-1 (1998)
• Observations ISBN 0-86304-013-6 (1998)

Collections of Mulla Nasrudin Stories

• The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin ISBN 0-86304-022-5 (1966)
• The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mullah Nasrudin ISBN 0-86304-023-3 (1968)
• The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin ISBN 0-86304-021-7 (1973)
• The World of Nasrudin ISBN 0-86304-086-1 (2003)

Studies of the English

• Darkest England ISBN 0-86304-039-X (1987)
• The Natives are Restless ISBN 0-86304-044-6 (1988)
• The Englishman's Handbook ISBN 0-86304-077-2 (2000)

Travel

• Destination Mecca ISBN 0-900860-03-0 (1957)

Fiction

• Kara Kush, London: William Collins Sons and Co., Ltd.. ISBN 0-685-55787-1 (1986)

Folklore

• World Tales ISBN 0-86304-036-5 (1979)

For children

• Neem the Half-Boy ISBN 1-883536-10-3 (1998)
• The Farmer’s Wife ISBN 1-883536-07-3 (1998)
• The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water ISBN 1-883536-25-1 (1998)
• The Boy Without A Name ISBN 1-883536-20-0 (2000)
• The Clever Boy and the Terrible Dangerous Animal ISBN 1-883536-51-0 (2000)
• The Magic Horse ISBN 1-883536-26-X (2001)
• The Man With Bad Manners ISBN 1-883536-30-8 (2003)
• The Old Woman and The Eagle ISBN 1-883536-27-8 (2005)
• The Silly Chicken ISBN 1-883536-50-2 (2005)
• Fatima the Spinner and the Tent ISBN 1-883536-42-1 (2006)
• The Man and the Fox ISBN 1-883536-43-X (2006)

As Arkon Daraul

• A History of Secret Societies ISBN 0806508574 (1962)
• Witches and Sorcerers ISBN 0806502673 (1969)