The Comfort of the Mystics: A Manual and Anthology of Early Sufism

This critical Arabic text edition of Salwat al-‘arifin wa-uns al-mushtaqin, a manual of early Sufism by Abu Khalaf al-Tabari (d. ca. 470/1077), is based on a very old manuscript preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriya of Cairo, Egypt and copied in 459/1067. It is introduced by a detailed analytical study of the author and his work. Salwat al-'arifin forms an integral part of Sufi literature and reflects Islamic developments in Nishapur in northeastern Iran. This crucial Arabic text, published for the first time, is especially valuable because of its great philological accuracy and sound textual tradition. It represents an essential source for the intellectual history of Islam during the middle of the 4th/10th to the middle of the 5th/11th century.