Volume I provides the first and final texts of Pauline carefully annotated with emphasis on the literary background of the poem rather than its supposedly authobiographical reference. It also includes the manuscript of Paracelsus in the Forster Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum printed here for the first time.

Offering authoritative coverage of an increasingly popular area, this is a stimulating introduction to both the life and times of the great Sufi thinker, Rab'ia of Basra, and to the contribution made by other women mystics to the rich heritage of Islam. Drawing on a wide array of sources, from the words of tenth-century thinkers to the works of modern scholars, Margaret Smith provides a clear and accessible guide, not only to Rab'ia's remarkable life, but also to her asceticism, her miracles, and her teachings and writings."

This is an exploration of the relationship between the rise and development of a mysical element in Islam, known as Sufism, and the mysticism that was already to be found within the Christian Church of the Near and Middle East, at the time when Arab power was establishing itself and the faith of Islam was in the process of formulation and development. In this earliest period of Islamic mysticism, the contacts between Christianity and Islam were at their closest.