Table of Contents

Acknowledgements---Introduction---The Texts and their Translations---I. The Supplication for Forgiveness (“al-Istighfar”)---II. The Blessed Creed (“al-Aqida al-Mubaraka”)---III. “Bidayat al-Murid” (Basic Principles of the Sufi Path)---IV. “Uns al-Wahid wa Nuzhat al-Murid” (The Intimacy of the Recluse and Pastime of the Seeker)---V. The Qasida in “Ra”---VI. The Qasida in “Nun”---VII. Qasida in “Mim”---VIII. Qasida in “Ra”---IX. Qasida in “Ba”---X. Qasida in “Lam”---XI. Qasida in “Lam”---XII. Qasida in “Ra”---XIII. Verses---Appendix I: The Ode in “Nun” by Ali ibn Isma`il ibn Hirzihim---Appendix II: A Treatise on Sufism by Abu Ya`za Yalannur ibn Maymun ad-Dukkali---Index

About the Author

Author Information: Abu Madyan Shu`ayb al-Ansari (d. 1198) was a poet, teacher and Sufi mystic, called `Shaykh of Shaykhs’ and `the Nurturer’, “al-Ghawth”, by his contemporaries. Abu Madyan was the most influential Sufi of the formative period of mysticism in North Africa and had a profound influence on the eventual Qadiri and Shadhili Sufi traditions.---Translator Information: Vincent J. Cornell is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies and MESAS Chair at Emory University, Atlanta, USA. He specialises in Islamic Studies and Sufism and has published numerous articles on Islamic thought and the history of North Africa.