Bücher veröffentlicht von ISF Publishing

Although enormously attractive as sheer entertainment, Dervish tales were never presented merely on the level of a fable, legend or folklore. They stand comparison in wit, construction and piquancy with the finest stories of any culture, yet their true function as Sufi teaching stories is so little-known in the modern world, that no technical or popular terms exist to describe them. The material in Tales of the Dervishes is the result of a thousand years of development, during which Dervish masters used these and other teaching stories to instruct their disciples. The tales are held to convey powers of increasing perception unknown to the ordinary man.

Thinkers of the East is a collection of anecdotes and 'parables in action' illustrating the eminently practical and lucid approach of Eastern Dervish teachers.Distilled from the teachings of more than one hundred sages in three continents, this material stresses the experimental rather than the theoretical - and it is that characteristic of Sufi study which provides its impact and vitality.The emphasis of Thinkers of the East contrasts sharply with the Western concept of the East as a place of theory without practice, or thought without action.The book's author, Idries Shah, says 'Without direct experience of such teaching, or at least a direct recording of it, I cannot see how Eastern thought can ever be understood'.

First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research.Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the gold mines of King Solomon on Sudan's Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud.As readable now as it was when first published, Destination Mecca acts as a beacon for hands on adventurers and those of a more sedate kind.

A serious, yet entertaining, look at the impediments in current thought which prevent certain forms of understanding between people. The title story was made into an award-winning film with script by Idries Shah, and chosen as an Outstanding Film of the Year.The Dermis Probe comprises a collection of extracts from the written and oral tradition of Eastern thinkers.In his preface, Shah notes, 'In this book you can find illustrated some of the peculiarities of thought in the country which is today's world, seen by its inhabitants and by those who call themselves visitors.'

In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the 'idiots' are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically-knowledgeable. The exercise-stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose.On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes.Wisdom of the Idiots has been awarded many prizes, including two gold medals, one for being 'Best Book', in conjunction with UNESCO's World Book Year.

Un grupo de hombres intenta examinar un elefante en una habitación oscura.Agarrando diferentes partes - una oreja, una pierna, la cola - cada uno de ellos confunde la parte que está tocando con la totalidad… y se convence de que el elefante es un abanico o una cuerda o un pilar, etcétera.Con esta fábula del gigante Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi, la cual tiene más de setecientos años de antigüedad, Idries Shah presenta el punto de vista Sufi de que la cristianismo y el islam surgen a partir de un mismo origen esencial.Basado en sus famosas charlas en la Universidad de Ginebra, este libro deslumbra por la amplitud de su erudición y la profundidad de sus ideas.En un mundo dividido por las diferencias culturales y religiosas, El elefante en la oscuridad nos ofrece nuevas ideas, esperanza y la habilidad para mirar de un modo novedoso aquello que ya creemos saber.