Shiblī

Kenneth Avery received his PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Melbourne in Australia. His books include Fifty Poems of 'Aṭṭār and A Psychology of Early Sufi samā': Listening and Altered States.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction2. The Historical ContextShiblī in the Sources 3. Sarrāj’s Book of Illuminations4.  Kalābādhī’s Book of Understanding5. Sulamī’s Generations of Sufis6. Abū Nu’aym’s Ornament of God’s Friends7. Qushayrī’s Treatise8. Hujwīrī’s Revealing the Veiled9. Anṣārī’s Generations of the Sufis10. Rūzbihān’s Explanation of Ecstatic Sayings11. ‘Aṭṭār’s  Memoirs of God’s Friends12. Jāmī’s Breaths of Intimacy13. Two Non-Sufi Historians: Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī and al-Dhahabī14. Shiblī and the Sources: ConclusionsThemes and Relationships 15. Narrative Structures and Styles16. The Nature of Shiblī’s Sayings17. Shiblī and Junayd18. Shiblī and Ḥallāj19. The Question of Shiblī’s Insanity20. Shiblī’s Poetry21. Shiblī and the Qur’ān22. ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

"…Avery's monograph presents us with a pioneering attempt to use a better and much fresher method, derived from the existing hagiographies, to reconstruct Shiblī's image and spirituality through the different phases of Sufism." — Journal of Sufi Studies"A very fine contribution to the history of Sufism." — John Renard, editor of Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts