Tales of the dervishes : teaching stories of the Sufi masters over the past thousand years : selected from the Sufi classics, from oral tradition, from unpublished manuscripts and schools of Sufi teaching in many countries

Shah, Idries 1924-1996 (Author).

Item details

ISBN: 0900860472
ISBN: 9780900860478
Physical Description: print
221 p. ; 23 cm.
Publisher: London : Octagon, 1977, c1982

Contents / Notes

General Note:

Originally published: London : Cape, 1967.

Formatted Contents Note:

Tales of the dervishes: Three fishes -- Food of paradise -- When the waters were changed -- Tale of the sands -- Blind ones and the matter of the elephant -- Dog, the stick and the sufi -- How to catch monkeys -- Ancient coffer of Nuri Bey -- Three truths -- Sultan who became an exile -- Story of fire -- Ogre and the sufi -- Merchant and the Christian dervish -- Golden fortune -- Candlestick of iron -- Strike on this spot -- Why the clay birds flew away -- Gnat namouss-and the elephant -- Idiot, the wise man and the jug -- Wayward princess -- Bequest -- Oath -- Idiot in the great city -- Founding of a tradition -- Fatima the spinner and the tent -- Gates of paradise -- Man who was easily angered -- Dog and the donkey -- Carrying shoes -- Man who walked on water -- Ant and the dragonfly -- Story of tea -- King who decided to be generous -- Cure of human blood -- Dam -- Three dervishes -- Four magic treasures -- Dreams and the loaf of bread -- Bread and jewels -- Limitations of dogma -- Fisherman and the genie -- Time, the place and the people -- Parable of the three domains -- Valuable-and worthless -- Bird and the egg -- Three pieces of advice -- Mountain path -- Snake and the peacock -- Water of paradise -- Horseman and the snake -- Isa and the doubters -- In the street of the perfume-sellers -- Parable of the greedy sons -- Nature of discipleship -- Initiation of Malik Dinar -- Idiot and the browsing camel -- Three jewelled rings -- Man with the inexplicable life -- Man whose time was wrong -- Maruf the cobbler -- Wisdom for sale --King and the poor boy -- Three teachers and the muleteers -- Bayazid and the selfish man -- People who attain -- Wayfarer, strangeness and savetime -- Tijur Agha and the speech of animals -- Indian bird -- When death came to Baghdad -- Grammarian and the dervish -- Dervish and the princess -- Increasing of necessity -- Man who looked only at the obvious -- How knowledge was earned -- Lamp shop -- Chariot -- Lame man and the blind man -- Servants and the house -- Generous man -- Host and the guests -- King's son.