Shaikh Sharfuddin Maneri (14th century) is also known as Makhdum-ul-Mulk, or Master of the Kingdom. Born near Patna in Behar, India, he was initiated by Najibuddin Firdausi and was equally proficient in secular learning and esoteric knowledge. The present book consists of the translation of extracts from the Maktubat-i-Sadi ("The Hundred Letters," or rather essays on definite subjects), the most elaborate and comprehensive of his works.

This book contains spiritual techniques taken from letters of Shaykh ad-Darqawi. Almost all these letters are concerned with the method and the operative aspects of the Way and are considered among the most direct instructions given on Sufic method to be found in all Sufi literature.

Maneri (c. 1263-1381), born in India, was one of the most famous Islamic saints and one of the greatest Sufi masters. The Hundred Letters is a basic presentation of his teachings for spiritual advancement.

The Sufis is the best introduction ever written to the philosophical and mystical school traditionally associated with the Islamic world.Powerful, concise, and intensely thought-provoking, it sums up over a thousand years of Eastern thought - the product of some of the greatest minds humanity has ever produced - into a single work, presenting timeless ideas in a fresh and contemporary style.When the book was originally published in 1964, it launched its author, Idries Shah, on to the international stage, attracting the attention of thinkers and writers such as J. D. Salinger, Doris Lessing, Ted Hughes and Robert Graves.It introduced to the Western world concepts which have subsequently become commonly accepted, varying from the psychological importance of attention and humour, to the use of traditional tales as teaching instruments (what Shah termed 'teaching-stories'), and the historical debt owed by the West to the Middle East in matters scientific, literary and philosophical.As a primer for the many dozens of Sufi books that Shah later produced, it is unsurpassed, offering a clear window onto a community whose system of thought and action has long concerned itself with the advancement of the whole of humankind, and whose ideas about individuals and society, their purpose and direction, need to be understood now more than ever before.