To suddenly discover Idries Shah is a bit like discovering the Sequences: there is so much.
I’d suggest The Magic Monastery (subtitled “Analogical and Action Philosophy of the Middle East and Central Asia”), which is a mixture of traditional teaching stories and stories of his own composition.
Then there are the books of Nasruddin stories (see the biblio at the end of the wiki article). Nasruddin is a traditional figure in stories all over the Middle East, and you can find a lot of Nasruddin stories on Google.
Shah’s books are available in the US from ISHK and in the UK from Octagon. From places like Amazon too, of course, but the publishers’ sites collect everything together more conveniently.
An Englishman was travelling on a train in India, which was going dreadfully slowly, for it stopped at every small village and wayside halt. At last he grew so annoyed that he went forward to speak with the engine driver.
“Can’t you go any faster than this?” he demanded.
“Oh yes,” replied the driver, “I can go much faster. But you see, I have to stay with the train.”
Hah! I’ll have to check him out. I took a course on “Islamicate” literature and philosophy semi-recently, and found Sufism very interesting. Almost did my final paper on The Conference of the Birds (though the library’s translation was ancient, called Muslims “Muselmen”).
Thanks! :D
To suddenly discover Idries Shah is a bit like discovering the Sequences: there is so much.
I’d suggest The Magic Monastery (subtitled “Analogical and Action Philosophy of the Middle East and Central Asia”), which is a mixture of traditional teaching stories and stories of his own composition.
Then there are the books of Nasruddin stories (see the biblio at the end of the wiki article). Nasruddin is a traditional figure in stories all over the Middle East, and you can find a lot of Nasruddin stories on Google.
Shah’s books are available in the US from ISHK and in the UK from Octagon. From places like Amazon too, of course, but the publishers’ sites collect everything together more conveniently.
Hah! I’ll have to check him out. I took a course on “Islamicate” literature and philosophy semi-recently, and found Sufism very interesting. Almost did my final paper on The Conference of the Birds (though the library’s translation was ancient, called Muslims “Muselmen”). Thanks! :D