When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject: rich in scope, clearly explaining the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time.

In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into dozens of languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West. It is used as a text in scores of leading universities around the world, and the material contained within it has been applied by psychologists and physicists, by school teachers, lawyers, social workers, and by ordinary members of the public.

‘An astonishing book. The Sufis must be the biggest society of sensible men on earth’; and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said of it: ‘I had waited my entire life to read this book.’

TED HUGHES