Projects

World Tales Map

World Tales StoryBank

ISF has embarked on a project that has never been attempted or achieved before: the creation of a digital repository of the world’s stories and folklore. The World Tales Story Bank will be to the computer age what Aesop was to writing, and the Brothers Grimm to the age of printing.
2020 ISF-UNESCO World Tales Short Story Competition

ISF-UNESCO World Tales Short Story Competition

ISF-UNESCO World Tales Short Story Competition In 2020, the Idries Shah Foundation launched an exciting new initiative in collaboration with UNESCO: the first-ever World Tales Short Story Competition. Teens from around the world were invited to write about the challenges of our age in short-story format with the theme, ‘Once Upon a Time in My […]
Books for Afghan Children

Children’s Books project

Children's Books project Idries Shah wrote a series of charming and captivating stories for his own children. These are being produced by the Idries Shah Foundation as richly-illustrated children’s books. So far, the series comprises six titles – including Speak First and Lose, The Tale of the Sands, and The Onion – and six more […]
The Idries Shah collection

Publishing

Publishing When the Idries Shah Foundation was founded in 2014, it took on a monumental task: re-publishing the entire Idries Shah canon, including the seminal works on Sufism written in the modern era. This publishing initiative is now complete: all of Shah’s books are once again available in English. They can be read and purchased […]
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Middle East and Asian Translations

Middle East and Asian Translations Much of the source material that Idries Shah used in his writing on Sufism has been lost, neglected or driven underground in the Islamic countries where it originated. The aim of this project is to return this material back to the East. In the process, the Idries Shah Foundation hopes […]
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Spanish Translations

Spanish Translations ISF has translated and published 14 of Idries Shah’s most important works for the Spanish-speaking world, with two more due for release in 2022. These translations can be read for free on our website — and are also available to buy in hardback, paperback and as ebooks. Durante los últimos cuatro años, ISF […]