Islamic Mysticism and Abu Talib Al-Makki

Saeko Yazaki (PhD, Edin.) is Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow, and Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on mysticism and epistemology of religion, the Judaeo-Islamic tradition, and their continuing relevance to the present. She is also pursuing comparative study of monotheistic and non-monotheistic faiths.

• Introduction 1. Abū Tālib al-Makkī: his life, intellectual formation and scholarship 2.Qūt al-qulūb: its religious context, contents and sources 3. Summary of Section 30 of the Qut with Selected Passages in Translation, Part 1 4. Summary of Section 30 of the Qut with Selected Passages in Translation, Part 2 5. Contemporaries of al-Makkī 6. The influences of Al-Makkī, Part 1 7. The influence of Al-Makkī, Part 2 8. Ibn Bāqūdā and al-Hidāya ilā farā'id al-qulūb 9.The Qūt and al-Hidāya: a Muslim-Jewish dialogue? Conclusion

Finally, Yazaki has produced a creditable contribution to the history of Islamic thought on a difficult and often enigmatic figure. Her addition (in chaps. three and four) to the still-scarce supply of translations of Abū ālib al-Makkī’s work is laudable and much appreciated, and raises hope that she might make further contributions of this sort. - John Renard, Saint Louis University