Witness to Marvels: Sufism and Literary Imagination, by Tony K. StewartOakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019. xxxi + 300 pp. £31 (pb) open access online. ISBN 9780520306332.

rabiʿa al-aʿdawiyya (717-801 a.d.) the first female sufi in the muslim world, who introduced the concept of ‘love’ into mysticism, was popular for her witticism, sharp reprimands of her contemporary male sufis and her gender-bending practices. in ʿattar’s tadhkirat al-awliya, rabiʿa is portrayed as a challenger of the established gender norms of her day. rabiʿa’s crossing of gender boundaries a...

moghul's invasion of iran led to the spread of insecurity, destruction of civil infrastructure and religious-ideological vacuum caused by the toppling of the kingdom. this not only improved the status of sufism as the center of attention for the common people to avoid the governors' tyranny but also made the faraway areas an ideal place for the cultural elites. given the above, yazd w...

Islamic mysticism or Sufism is one of the most outstanding appearances of Islamic culture that has had a fundamental and undeniable role in the history of Islam. A careful study of the history and development of the movements of Islamic culture shows that this movement, like most other ones, has been originated from, developed, and cultivated in an Islamic environment, though it has undoubtedly...

[This paper, delivered at the Colloquium on Symbolism in Paris in June 1964, appeared in the Cahiers internationaux de symbolisme 6, Brussels 1964, pp. 3-26. The version printed here has been condensed (with the permission of the author) by omitting paragraphs of a technical nature on pages 5 and 8 of the original, as well as an account (pp. 17-23) of the topography of the Eighth Clime. The com...