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Idries Shah

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Idries Shah
Notable workThe Sufis

The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin

The Book of the Book

Learning how to Learn

Kara Kush

MovementSufism

Idries Shah (16 June, 1924–23 November, 1996) (Persian: ادریس شاه), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayyid Idris al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس الهاشمي), was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote several dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogs and culture studies. He founded a publishing company, Octagon Press, which has published classics from the Sufi tradition as well as many of his own works. He is perhaps best known for his collections of Mulla Nasrudin stories.

Life

Idries Shah was born in Simla, India, to an Afghan-Indian father and Scottish mother into a revered family of Saadat (= Arabic plural of Sayyid) who had their ancestral home near the Paghman Gardens of Kabul. His paternal grandfather, Sayyid Amjad Ali Shah, was Nawab of the Jagir of Sardhana, near Meerut, north of Delhi (Uttar Pradesh). Shah's early years were mainly spent in Afghanistan, India and England, and his upbringing bridged East and West. He was educated, as his father before him, by private tutors in Europe and the Middle East, and through wide-ranging travel—the series of journeys, in fact, that characterise Sufi education and development.

Shah married Cynthia (Kashfi) Kabraji in 1958, and fathered one son, Tahir Shah, and two daughters, Saira and Safia. One of the daughters, Saira Shah, reported on women's rights in Afghanistan in her documentary Beneath the Veil. Shah's brother, Omar Ali-Shah, was also a writer and teacher of Sufism.

Works

Idries Shah's writings greatly extended the western knowledge of Sufi teachings. He profoundly influenced several intellectuals, notably the novelist Doris Lessing and the Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein.

Shah's definition of Sufism was liberal in that he was of the opinion that it predated Islam and didn't depend on the Qur'an, but was universal in source, scope and relevance (see Sufi studies).

Shah maintained that spiritual teachings should be presented in forms and terms familiar in the community where they are to take root. He believed that students should be given work based on their individual capacities, and rejected systems that apply the same exercises to all. In his own work he used teaching stories and humor to great effect.

Shah's earliest published works reflected his interest in magic, witchcraft and occultism: Oriental Magic (London 1956), and The Secret Lore of Magic: Book of the Sorcerers (London 1957). In 1960, Octagon Press published its first title Gerald Gardner: Witch, the biography of a leading figure in the British witchcraft revival of the 1950s. Attributed to "Jack L. Bracelin", it is believed to have been ghost-written by Shah, who was Gardner's secretary at the time of writing (see F. Lamond, Fifty Years of Wicca, 2004). Shah developed Octagon Press as a means of publishing and distributing Sufi books that might otherwise have gone out of print. His desire was to have these always available to each generation. The books range from traditional Sufi manuals to contemporary works. Several books feature the Mulla Nasrudin character, sometimes with illustrations provided by Richard Williams. These humorous teaching stories are said to have the ability to act as a mirror to human foibles, aiding philosophical self-examination.

Shah started the "Society for Understanding the Foundations of Ideas" (or "SUFI") in London in the mid-1960s. This was renamed the "Institute for Cultural Research", alongside a more esoteric "Society for Sufi Studies", also founded by Shah. The ICR, now based in London, hosts lectures and seminars on topics related to aspects of human nature, while the SSS has ceased its activities.

Shah's books have sold over 15 million copies in 12 languages worldwide and have been reviewed in numerous international journals and newspapers. His best-selling novel Kara Kush was based on fact, incorporating Shah's first-hand knowledge of the courage of the Afghan people, and the atrocities inflicted upon them.

About a year after his last visit to Afghanistan in late spring of 1987, Shah suffered two successive and massive heart attacks. He died in London on November 23 1996, at the age of 72. According to the obituary in The Daily Telegraph, Idries Shah was a collaborator with Mujahideen in the Afghan-Soviet war, a Director of Studies for the Institute for Cultural Research and a Governor of the Royal Humane Society and the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables.

Idries Shah considered his books his legacy. In themselves, they would fulfil the function he had fulfilled when he could no longer be there.

Psychology

In reply to Elisabeth Hall who interviewed him for "Psychology Today", July 1975:– "For the sake of humanity, what would you like to see happen?" Idries Shah said: "What I would really want, in case anybody is listening, is for the products of the last 50 years of psychological research to be studied by the public, by everybody, so that the findings become part of their way of thinking (...) they have this great body of psychological information and refuse to use it."

Reception and controversies

Appraisal by book critics and academics

Idries Shah's books achieved considerable critical acclaim, several of his works being chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" program. But academics were often hostile. Most notable among his academic critics was L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, who in a very caustic review described Shah's books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words – "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance".

Shah published, through Octagon Press, works by Hafiz, Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Mahmud Shabistari, Attar, Jami, Khayyam, Al-Ghazali and others. He presented these works as tools for self-development that were of practical relevance to people of today, rather than as works fit merely for study by orientalists. This contributed to the fierce criticism from some academics, an issue addressed by Shah in "The Study of Sufism in the West".

Bennett controversy

At the start of this publishing work (1962), he received invaluable aid from John G. Bennett, who put some important real estate assets at his disposal. After Idries Shah sold the assets, destroying the Djamichunatra (a nine-sided study hall designed and built by J. G. Bennett and his pupils, including the architect Robert Whiffen, in 1956) at Coombe Springs in the process, this matter developed into something of a controversy. Apparently, though, it was not a problem to John Bennett, who dealt with the issue in some detail in his autobiography

Graves controversy

Idries Shah was also criticised over his dealing with the matter of the elusive Jan Fishan Khan manuscript of Khayyam, upon which the new translation of the Rubaiyat by Robert Graves and Omar Ali Shah was allegedly based. When the actual presentation of the manuscript was compromised by the death of Ikbal Ali Shah (the father of Idries and Omar Ali, who was supposed to have known the exact whereabouts of the manuscript) in a car accident in Tangier, Robert Graves asked Idries Shah, with whom he had developed a close friendship, for help. Much to Graves' surprise, Shah concluded his reply: "The manuscript, as you know, is not in my possession. If it were, I would have no hesitation at all in refusing to show it to anyone under any circumstances at any time whatever." This caused Robert Graves' biographer, Richard Perceval Graves, to muse, "In practice, the manuscript was never produced; and after all these years it is difficult to believe, in view of the Shahs' numerous obligations to Graves, that they would have continued to withhold it had it ever existed in the first place." Elwell-Sutton likewise expressed his conviction that the manuscript had never existed. But according to his widow Graves himself never doubted the authenticity of the manuscript.

As a response to the attacks on Shah, twenty-four scholars and writers, drawn from both East and West, compiled a Festschrift in honor of his services to sufi studies ("Sufi Studies, East and West", 1973).

Further reading

  • Marcia Hermansen "Literary productions of Western Sufi movements" in: Sufism in the West, Jamal Malik and John Hinnells eds. -Routledge: London and New York, 2006 (pp 28-48)
  • Richard Perceval Graves: "Robert Graves and The White Goddess 1940-1985" (biography) -Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London, 1995
  • Reza Arasteh: "Rumi the Persian, the Sufi" -Routledge and Kegan Paul 1974
  • Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah: "Islamic Sufism" (1933) Published by S.Sajid Ali for Adam Publishers & Distributors, Shandar Market, Chitli Qabar, Delhi-6 at Chaman Offset Press, N.Delhi-2 1998 -see also Tractus Books July 2000 ISBN 2909347079
  • Tahir Shah ed.: "Cultural Research: Papers on Regional Cultures and Culture-Mixing" The Octagon Press London, 1993

Sources

  • N.P.Archer compilation: "Idries Shah, Printed World, International Collection 8" London, 1977
  • Halima Shali compilation: "Shah, International Press Review Collection 9" London, 1979 ISBN 0863040004

Notes

  1. Part of the story of these Saadat of Paghman has been told by Sairah Shah in "The Storytellers Daughter" Michael Joseph ed. 2003
  2. Bashir M. Dervish: "Idris Shah: a contemporary promoter of Islamic Ideas in the West" in: Islamic Culture – an English Quarterly Vol. L, no. 4 October 1976. Published by the Islamic Culture Board, Hyderabad India (Osmania University, Hyderabad)
  3. The nawab is said to have encouraged establishment and development of research centers linking Eastern and Western thinkers since 1895 (B. M. Dervish 1976). His son Sayyid Ikbal Shah was the first of the lineage to begin writing extensively for the West: e.g. "The General Principles of Sufism" in Hibbert Journal (vol. 20, 1921, 2, pp. 523–535); "Islamic Sufism", London 1933. His work ran parallel to that of Hazrat Inayat Khan, who travelled and taught in the West from 1910 till 1926. Inayat Khan also had his roots in the Delhi area – heartland of the Mughal empire – through his grandfather Ustad C. G. Khan Maula Bekhs. Though not always appreciated by their respective audiences, they shared a spiritual bond in Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer. In his "Islamic Sufism" (1933), where he outlined the various branches of the Naqshbandi Order, Sayyid Ikbal Ali Shah included a chapter: "The Sufi conception of the Chishti Order". See also: "1910-1950: Forty years of Sufism", Special Issue of the Sufi Quarterly, Autumn 1950, Geneva
  4. Article in The Telegraph dated 16 June 2001, p. 2
  5. Article in The Telegraph dated 16 June 2001, pp. 1–3
  6. See for example his closely annotated essay "The Study of Sufism in the West" introductory to The Way of the Sufi (Shah, 1968)for scholarly reference
  7. Shadia S. Fahim: "Doris Lessing: Sufi Equilibrium and the Form of the Novel", St Martins Press, New York 1995; Muge Galin: "Between East and West: Sufism in the Novels of Doris Lessing" SUNY, Albany 1997 – as reported by Marcia Hermansen in "Literary Productions of Western Sufi movements" in "Sufism in the West" Malik and Hinnells ed Routledge 2006
  8. David Westerlund (ed.): Sufism in Europe and North America. Routledge Curzon, New York, 2004, p. 53.
  9. See for example in Asian Affairs:Journal of the Royal Society For Asian Affairs (formerly The Royal Central Asian Society) Vol.X (Old Series Vol. 66) Part I February 1979 p. 85 for the book review of "Special Illumination" ISBN 090086057X on humor
  10. With an introduction by Louis Marin (1871-1960)
  11. ASIN BOOO7J1UEE
  12. see: Jack Bracelin
  13. Reviews collected by Halima Shali and Archer, see Sources above
  14. Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights, New York: Bantam Dell, pp. 215–216
  15. see also Reza Arasteh :"Psychology of the Sufi Way to Individuation" in "Sufi Studies East and West" Rushbrook Williams ed New York 1973, Jonathan Cape/Octagon 1974. In "Sufi Studies East and West" 24 scholars paid tribute to Idries Shah's service to Sufi studies. See: Pr. Leonard Lewin Ph.D. Feature Book/Sufi Studies in "International Philosophical Quarterly" Fordham University New York, September 1975, pp353-364. For academical work integrating Sufi psychology in Western psychiatry see Reza Arasteh "Final Integration in Adult Personality" Leiden Brill 1965. See also Arthur J. Deikman "Sufism in Psychiatry" and "Report on Mysticism" in "The World of the Sufi" an anthology edited by Idries Shah ISBN 0863040853
  16. Letter by Doris Lessing to the editors of The New York Review of Books, dated 22 October 1970
  17. ^ L. P. Elwell-Sutton: "Mystic-Making", The New York Review of Books, Volume 15, Number 1, July 2, 1970
  18. Cf. the collections of his lectures at various universities: Sussex, Geneva, UCLA, New School for Social Research
  19. ^ Obituary: Idries Shah, The Independent, 26 Nov. 1996
  20. "Witness; the autobiography of John G. Bennett" Turnstone Books 1975 ISBN 0855000430 chapter 27: Service and Sacrifice, pp 349-363 (i.e. the enlarged version of the autobiography published shortly after his death in 1974)
  21. The Enneagram: A Developmental Study by James Moore
  22. James Moore: Neo-Sufism and the Case of Idries Shah
  23. answer to Moore
  24. " The period from 1960 (...) to 1967 when I was once again entirely on my own was of the greatest value to me. I had learned to serve and to sacrifice and I knew that I was free from attachments. It happened about the end of the time that I went on business to America and met with Madame de Salzmann in New York. She was very curious about Idries Shah and asked what I had gained from my contact with him. I replied: "Freedom!". (...) Not only had I gained freedom, but I had come to love people whom I could not understand." Bennett in op. cit. pp 362-363
  25. Cf. Richard Perceval Graves 1995; see also "Between Moon and Moon: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1946-1972" Paul O'Prey ed. Hutchinson 1984
  26. Idries Shah to Robert Graves 30 Oct. 1970 in: Richard Perceval Graves "Robert Graves and the White Goddess 1940-1985" Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1995 ISBN 0297815342
  27. Richard Perceval Graves (1995) "Robert Graves and the White Goddess" p 472
  28. Letter to The Independent by Beryl Graves dd. 7 Dec. 1996

See also

Partial bibliography

  • Sufism:
    • The Sufis ISBN 0-385-07966-4
    • The Way of the Sufi ISBN 0-900860-80-4
    • Tales of the Dervishes ISBN 0-900860-47-2
    • The Book of the Book ISBN 0-900860-12-X
    • Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study ISBN 0-900860-56-1
    • Sufi Thought and Action ISBN 0-86304-051-9
    • Wisdom of the Idiots ISBN 0-863040-46-2
  • Philosophy:
    • Knowing How to Know ISBN 0-86304-072-1
    • The Commanding Self ISBN 0-86304-066-7
    • Learning How to Learn - Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way ISBN 0-900860-59-6
    • The Elephant in the Dark - Christianity, Islam and The Sufis ISBN 0-900860-36-7
    • Thinkers of the East - Studies in Experientialism ISBN 0-900860-46-4
    • Reflections ISBN 0-900860-07-3
    • A Veiled Gazelle - Seeing How to See ISBN 0-900860-58-8
    • Seeker After Truth - A Handbook ISBN 0-900860-91-X
  • Collections of Mulla Nasrudin Stories:
    • The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
    • The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
    • The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mullah Nasrudin
    • The World of Nasrudin
  • Fiction:
    • Kara Kush
  • Children's Literature:
    • World Tales
    • The Man With Bad Manners
    • The Old Woman and The Eagle
    • The Boy Without A Name
    • The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water
    • Neem the Half-Boy
    • The Farmer’s Wife
    • The Silly Chicken
    • The Magic Horse

External links

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