NIZAMI: SELECTED POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Nizami (d. 1208) is a true Sufi Master Poet who is most famous for his six books in masnavi form: The Treasury of the Mysteries, Layla and Majnun, Khrosrau and Shirin, The Seven Portraits and his two books on Alexander. He also composed a Divan of approximately 20, ooo couplets mostly in ghazals and ruba'is... tragically only 200 couplets survive. His influence on Attar, Rumi, Sadi, Hafiz and Jami and all others that followed was profound. Here is the largest number of his ghazals and ruba'is and qasidas translated into English and...

MODERN SUFI POETRY: A SELECTION Translations & Introduction by Paul Smith Here is one of the few anthologies of modern Sufi poetry of poets that have made a lasting impression on the present times. All the poets and the Poet/Masters in this collection either died or were born in the 20th century. Most in this collection composed in the forms of earlier Sufi poets: the ghazal, ruba'i, qasida, kafi, masnavi. Introduction: Sufis & Dervishes: Their Art and Use of Poetry, The Main Forms in Sufi and Dervish Poetry. THE POETS: Hali 47, Farid 51, Shad 57, Khusrawi 66, Iqbal 70, Munis 'Ali Shah 90,...

RAHMAN BABA: SELECTED POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Rahman Baba (1652 to 1711) is considered the greatest Sufi Pashtun poet to compose poems, mainly ghazals, in the Pashtu language. Born in Mohmand region of Afghanistan near Peshawar he was called 'The Nightingale of Peshawar'. This was a time of struggle and hardship and in the midst of the turmoil he was an excellent student with a natural gift for poetry. He eventually questioned the value of such pursuits and withdrew from the world, dedicating himself to prayer and devotion. In solitary worship he began to write again...

ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY OF THE CHISHTI SUFI ORDER Translations, Introduction Notes by Paul Smith The Chishti Order is a Sufi order within the mystic branches of Islam which was founded in Chisht, a small town near Herat, Afghanistan about 930 A.D. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. The Master & Perfect Master Poets: Mu'in ud-din Chishti, Baba Farid, Nizam-ud-din Auliya, Amir Khusrau, Dara Shikoh, Hasan Dihlavi, Niyaz, Inayat Khan and Khadim. Introduction on the Chishti Order of Sufism and the Spiritual forms of the Master Poets of this famous Order of...

RIBALD POEMS OF THE SUFI POETS Abu Nuwas, Sana'i, Anvari, Mahsati, Rumi, Sadi and Obeyd Zakani Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Some of the greatest of the Arabic & Persian Sufi poets composed ribald and at times 'obscene' poems for satirical and often (as in the case of Rumi) for teaching some spiritual truth or moral. Here is a wide-ranging selection of the greatest of them from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. Here are at times hilarious, witty, weird, and erotic and obscene poems in most of the various forms of classical Persian poetry... the ghazal, the ruba'i, the masnavi,...

Championed by the likes of Madonna, Donna Karan, and Deepak Chopra, Rumi has won such a following in this country that a few years ago he was proclaimed our bestselling poet. But translations that have popularized the work of this thirteenth-century Sufi mystic have also strayed from its essence. In this new translation, Farrukh Dhondy seeks to recover both the lyrical beauty and the spiritual essence of the original verse. In poems of love and devotion, rapture and suffering, loss and yearning for oneness, Dhondy has rediscovered the Islamic mystic of spiritual awakening whose quest is the...