A solid, readable introduction to Sufism. His dismissal of the idea of Sufis as a proselytizing vanguard was, to me, unexpected. It seems like Nile Green in "Sufism: A Global History" was pretty keen on that theory.

My only criticism is the structure felt a little sloppy at times, like his train of thought was frequently off the tracks. As readers we've been conditioned to expect (with good reason!) that ideas within a paragraph, for example, will be closely related to each other, and as the author moves from sentence to sentence to develop these ideas, they will flow from one into the other in a logical manner. I frequently found myself re-reading sections of this book because I felt Ernst was just going from one idea to the next – within a paragraph – with very little, if anything, threading them together.

All in all a good book, though, and I'd recommend it to someone interested in a serious but not stilted introduction to Sufism. ( )

This book can also be called Sufism 101. A very good introduction to this branch of Islam that is basically associated with Shia'ism since it's adherents follow the tenets of Ali and the Imams. Sufism is probably the only moderating factor in this otherwise widely misunderstood religion and may be the answer to solving it's centuries long confrontations with other faiths.

This book can also be called Sufism 101. A very good introduction to this branch of Islam that is basically associated with Shia'ism since it's adherents follow the tenets of Ali and the Imams. Sufism is probably the only moderating factor in this otherwise widely misunderstood religion and may be the answer to solving it's centuries long confrontations with other faiths.

It is a very important book in the field of Sufi literature and Sufi theology. the book is minutely accessed the Sufism.

http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/
This is a great book. ( )