Sufism is Islam's main mystical tradition. There are Sufi orders in almost all Muslim countries around the world, but not all Sufis accept the same beliefs and practices.

Mystical Islam offers an introduction that encompasses the full history and richness of the Sufi spiritual tradition over fourteen centuries of Islam. This accessible work covers the origins of Sufism and early influences, particularly from Christianity; the rise of the great Sufi organizations; the thought of Sufism's main theorist and systemizer, Ibn Arabi; Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes; relations with...

In this comparative approach to the works of two major contemporary Egyptian writers, Mona Mikhail identifies existentialism as a major force in their work. Her close examination of the images and metaphors that recur in the short fiction of those two writers shows strong affinities with the works of Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus, concentrating on a central preoccupation with the theme of death as a constant in he works of all four writers. Mikhail shows how Mafouz and Idris not only successfully incorporate myth and folklore but also draw upon the rich heritage of classical Arabic...

-Dancing in Chains is far more than a sensitive biography (though it is surely that); it is also a model of psychologically informed social and cultural history. Olsen recognizes that psychic conflicts often play themselves out on a higher plane, that psychic and intellectual history are intertwined. He presents a wonderful nuanced picture of Howells.-
--Jackson Lears, Rutgers University

In this insightful study of the childhood and youth of William Dean Howells, Dancing in Chains demonstrates how the turbulent social and cultural changes of the early nineteenth...