As Through a Veil Mystical Poetry in Islam

Mystical Poetry in Islam

From the beautiful odes of Jalaluddin Rumi to the whimsy of nonsense verse, this is a detailed and readable introduction to the development of Islamic mystical poetry.

Annemarie Schimmel has drawn exhaustively on an enormous range of sources both ancient and modern to create this thorough survey of a unique body of literature. Traveling from continent to continent and cross the centuries, this fascinating story of Islamic poetry encompasses a wide spectrum of traditions and cultures, from Arabic religious verse to the ecstasies of the Persian Sufis and the popular folk poetry of India and Pakistan. Showing how the varying strands of the tradition unite to form one single message of all-embracing love.