Avery explores the psychology of altered states among the early Sufis. It examines sama - listening to ritual recitation, music and certain other aural phenomena - and its effect in inducing unusual states of consciousness and behaviours. The focus is on the earliest personalities of the Islamic mystical tradition, as mediated by texts from the tenth to the twelfth centuries C.E. These unusual states are interpreted in the light of current research in Western psychology, and also in terms of their integration into historical Islamic culture.

A Psychology of Early Sufi...

In this examination of the Suhraward sufi order from the 13th to 15th centuries, the book discusses ways of thinking about the sufi hermeneutics of the Qur'an and its contribution to Islamic intellectual and spiritual life.

This book examines the theological, philosophical and Islamic mystical dimensions of the Suhraward sufi order from the 13th to 15th centuries. The Suhraward?'s were a legally grounded and intellectually vibrant sufi order whose mystical path was based on exchanges and debates on the Qur'an and on the Prophet's customs. The book analyses their interpretation of sacred texts: the Qur'an, hadiths, sunna, and malfuzat. This created a unique self-understanding, which developed specific sufi spiritual exercises. The book discusses new important ways of thinking about the sufi hermeneutics of the...