"From Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat."

The intoxicating message of Khayyam’s famous Ruba‘iyyat created an image of exotic Orientalism in the West but, as author Mehdi Aminrazavi reveals, Khayyam’s achievements went far beyond the intoxicating message within these verses. Philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and mystic – his many different identities are examined here in detail, creating a coherent picture of this complex and often misunderstood figure.

Wine's Hidden Beauty blends art, science and mystical aspects of wine. With the microscope as the starting point, scientist-photographer Sondra Barrett takes you on an illuminating journey into wine and life. This unique book explores the mysteries of chemical transformation, aging and vitality, what shapes our taste and language, and offers new ways to appreciate wine. A visually compelling book, it provides accessible information on winegrowing and tasting wine plus the role of wine in health and cultivating community. It also explores why has the grape had a cult-like status for centuries, why part of sacred rituals.

Jonathan Nossiter, acclaimed filmmaker and former sommelier, had his first taste of wine at the age of three in Paris, from his father's fingertip. For him, wine is "memory in its most liquid and dynamic form," as essential an expression of culture as cinema, books, baseball, painting, even sex. With great wit and passion, he celebrates wine and its enthusiasts—and defends both from those who tell us what to drink and how to think about it. In Liquid Memory, the American expatriate investigates the infinite mysteries of terroir, the historical sense of place that makes wine a living, thrilling expression of cultural identity that can stretch back centuries. The book is a deliriously joyful master class in locating the soul of a wine, and in learning to trust your own palate and desires. Nossiter, who has already created an uproar in the world of wine with his film Mondovino, arms us against the tyranny of snobs, critics, and charlatans who would prevent us from taking part in what should be a gloriously democratic bacchanalia. From the sacred wine shops and three-star restaurants of Paris to the biodynamic vineyards of Burgundy, from the hipster bistros of New York to film locations in Rio de Janeiro and Athens, this singular journey invites us to consider how power, misused, can sometimes mask an absence of taste—and how our own personal taste can combat power in any sphere. A controversial bestseller in Europe, Liquid Memory is sure to rile the establishment, enlighten the thirsty, and reveal the inner life of the world's most mysterious, contradictory, and jubilatory drink.

Exciting to those unfamiliar with Rumi’s verse as well as to the veteran scholar, this volume, following on Love Is My Savior, offers more of the little-known Arabic poems of Mawlana Rumi. These poems take the reader on a journey of spiritual search, ecstatic union, universal salvation, and mystic reconciliation, in which Rumi reveals his soul and welcomes everyone to his spiritual feast. This dual-language volume, with its informative introduction, is one of the first to bring Rumi’s Arabic poems into English, and it opens a treasury of Rumi’s mystic thought and electrifying poetry. The poems pulsate with desire and longing, with erotic meaning, and with ecstatic celebration. Rumi found in his mystic poetry a vehicle for the expression of the endless spiritual bounties of love. The reader will find, at the center of his faith and doctrine, love and a strong belief in universal salvation and unlimited generosity.

"Omar Khayyam's famous poem, The Rubaiyat, is loved by Westerners as a hymn of praise to sensual delights. In the East, his quatrains enjoy a very different reputation: they are known as a deep allegory of the souls romance with God. Even there, however, the knowing is based on who and what Omar Khayyam was: a sage and mystic. As for what the quatrains actually mean, most of them have remained a mystery in the East as much as in the West. After eight centuries, Paramhansa Yogananda, one of the great mystics of our times, a master of yoga and the author of the now-classic Autobiography of a Yogi, explained the mystery behind Omar's famous poem. This book contains the essence of that great revelation."--From the publisher.

A concise introduction to the man and his times.

In Arabic literature and philosophy, mysticism is one of the most significant traditions. The fountainhead of Sufism in Islam is still a debatable issue. The Persians had many famous mystic poets. Arabic literature has only one great mystical poet of pure Arabic descent worthy to stand next to the Persian masters: Sharaf ad-Din 'Umar Ibn 'Ali as-Sa'di, known as Ibn al-Farid, or the Notary's Son (1181-1253), who was born in Cairo. He was dedicated from early manhood to the mystic's method of withdrawal from the world. He was utterly satisfied in later life to remember with ecstatic pleasure the pilgrimage he had made to Mecca, and to meditate upon the union with the spirit of the Prophet which he had then experienced. Ibn al-Farid's Diwan of mystical odes, which was first collected by his grandson, is small in comparison with similar works of Persian mystics. The Diwan could be viewed as a collection of homogeneous poems expressing the ecstasy and longing of a devoted lover to become one with his beloved. It is equally conspicuous to assume that with the exception of the "Khamriyya" and "The Poem of the Way", the bulk of Ibn al-Farid's Diwan should be read simply as love poetry void of any mystical and spiritual overtones. In the mean time, it would equally be an exaggeration to adopt Nabulsi's argument which maintains that Ibn al-Farid did not harbor a thought without spiritual implications. Ibn al-Farid's Diwan may well be considered "a miracle of literary accomplishments." If all critics seem to agree that "al-Ta'iyyatu'l-Kubra" is his masterpiece, we can safely say that the "Khamriyya" is the second "jewel" in the collection. It is a masterpiece in its own right, and one of the longest poems after "The Poem of the Way". In this piece, every word is transparent. Every word is a world bathing in tradition, carrying two meanings or more. The symbolism of "Khamriyya" is not to be found in any other poem of the poet's collection. Love is the "wine of life"; the "Khamriyya" dedicated to this divine wine, stands in its own right as an incomparable masterpiece in the history of Arabic mystical poetry.