Ibn 'Ajiba wrote his "fahrasa," or autobiography, not for the pleasure of talking about himself but "to celebrate God's kindness." It details his travels in search of both secular and spiritual knowledge, his entrance on a Sufi path strongly based within the Islamic tradition, and the social, intellectual, and spiritual struggles he encountered. This new English translation by David Streight is based on a contemporary French translation from the Arabic by the Swiss scholar Jean-Louis Michon.

Ibn 'Ajiba (1747-1809) was a Moroccan Sufi of the Darqawi school who studied in Fez and lived all his life in and around Tetuan. Although still relatively unknown in the English-speaking world, his writings are important for an understanding of Maghribi Sufism. In this bi-lingual edition, with a Preface by Claude Addas and a Foreword by Hamza Yusuf, Jean-Louis Michon presents two short metaphysical treatises by Ibn 'Ajiba which shed new light on the history of Sufism and show its vitality as a living tradition in eighteenth-century Morocco. The key idea underlying both treatises, the Oneness of Existence, reveals the enduring influence of the Ibn Arabi, more than five centuries after his death. Students of Islam in North Africa, those interested in the Sufi tradition and spiritual seekers will welcome the publication of these treatises and the useful presentation of both Arabic text and English translation on facing pages.

The three previously untranslated works presented here originate from the pens of two of the most eminent figures of the Khorasanian tradition, Hakim Tirmidhi and Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami al-Naysaburi.

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.

A collection of essays on Sufism, written by such contemporary contributors as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, William Chittick, and Frithjof Schuon, demystifies its language, philosophies, and history, in a volume that also provides interpretations of classic and modern essays. Original.

Providing commentary on three oft-recited chapters of the Holy Qur'an, this excerpt of the monumental discourse by 18th-century mystic and scholar Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba presents both an example of Islamic erudition based on traditional sources as well as insight into his own personal journey of discovery. Each verse is expounded upon with an exoteric explanation as well as related with an esoteric commentary to the mystic path of Islam, Sufism. As one of the few scholarly translations of traditional Qur'anic exegesis, this volume affords the previously unacquainted access not only to how educated Muslims have understood the dominant themes of these three chapters since the earliest days of Islam but also to how traditional Sufic sources have viewed the same themes in respect to the microcosm of the soul and the journey towards God.

The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi examines the life and doctrine of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328).

The Diwan of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, (1290/1871 - 1391/1972), is a masterful transmission of the essential teachings of the tasawwuf based squarely on the Book and the Sunnah, in a clear and accessible classical Arabic, and in this edition accompanied by an uncluttered English translation.