Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ARAM217: Sufism, Islamic Mysticism and Devotional Life

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love (Albany, 1986).

William Chittick, Sufism: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Oneworld 2000)

William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (Albany: SUNY 1983),

Carl Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shambhala 1997).

Carl Ernst, The Teachings of Sufism (Boston: Shambhala 1997).

Stephen Hirtenstein, The Unlimited Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn ‘Arabi (Oxford: Anqa Publications 1999)

Frederick de Jong & Bernd Radtke (eds.) Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics (Leiden: Brill 1999).

L. Lewisohn, (ed.) The Heritage of Sufism, Vol. 1: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300); vol. 2: The Legacy of Mediæval Persian Sufism (1150-1500); vol. 3 (ed. L. Lewisohn and David Morgan): Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501-1750). (Oxford: Oneworld 1999).

Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, (Chapel Hill: University of N. Carolina Press 1975). 

Annemarie Schimmel, I am Wind, You are Fire: the Life and Work of Rumi (Boston: Shambhala 1992).

Michael Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur’an, Mi‘raj, Poetic and Theological Writings (New Jersey: Paulist Press 1996).

J.S. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford: OUP 1973).

Mongomery Watt (trans.), The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali (Oxford: Oneworld 1994 rprt.).

Handout translations of key primary sources at all stages (Qur’an, hadith, shatahât, hagiography, Sufi poetry, music, and videos of dhikr and devotional practices).

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/