The Sufi Orders in Islam

A must for truly understanding practical sufism as well as its history, but it has to be read and reread carefully to grasp it if the reader has not had first hand experience with the practice; some confusion in assessing sectarian dynamics in relation to sufism which pales compared to the very accurate and rich content on practical sufism itself; most writers lack an understanding of the stages a wayfarer's journey. This and Hamid Algar's short treatise on sufism in my opinion are the only two accurate ones I have found.

This book almost set the standard. While there are many books of its kind in say Arabic or Turkish there are not many in English that cover a brief history of all of the major Sufi orders. The book details the history of Sufism, the early Sufis and then the establishment of the Sufi orders to the present day (or to be more exact the late 60s which it seems this is all the book goes up to) I would not say this book is difficult to read unless you know almost nothing concerning Sufism in which case A Schimmel Mystical Dimentions of Islam or one of the books of William Chittick or R.A Nicholson may be of more use to you. One slight problem though, there are a few errors in this book and very little covers Sufism in Turkey or the Ottoman Empire. There is some interesing passages concerning Sufism in Africa though which judging by his other works is his main field.

Much of this book, especially in the beginning, reads like a jargon-filled, complicated encyclopedia. Trimingham crams much information in here without successfully elaborating upon it or illustrating the points of highlights and importance. Only the patient, academic reader will come away with some real increased knowledge. If Trimingham is an expert on Sufism, he is not an expert in being concise, simple or direct. So - if you're an expert you may give this book 3 or 4 stars for its comprehensive details - but you'll have to look past the jargony, technical, and cramped style in which it is written. Those interested in a simple or concise introduction to Sufism should look elsewhere.

This book is a very interesting book about a much misunderstood area of Islam. It is comprehensive in that it covers the intellectual aspects of Sufism as well as the organizational aspects. Many books are available that cover the teaching and beliefs of Sufis (the intellectual aspects) and still others cover the tariqas and different orders of Sufism (the organizational aspects) but Trimingham's text covers both aspects together in one volume. The reason for my 4 star rating is that the text is a very difficult read. It tends to jump around a bit and it incorporates a lot of Arabic terms that require the reader to bounce back and forth between the section they are reading and the glossary of Arabic terms. I guess one can look at this as a positive as well because it forces a better understanding of Arabic terms but it tends to make the reading slow.

good for my college course

I bought this as a present to one of my friends who is writing a book on comparative religions. I will not read this book as it has gone already