Idries Shah

This article is a controversial issue. Arguments pro et con with regard to actual Idries Shah stature can be seen at the

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Idries Shah (June 16, 1924 - November 23, 1996), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayyid Idris al-Hashimi, was an author and lyricist in the sufist tradition. Idris Shah has been described as "the most significant worker adapting classical spiritual thought to the modern world." Shah's books have sold over 15 million copies in 12 languages worldwide(His books). They have been reviewed by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times (London, see for example, Doris Lessing's review), The Tribune, The Telegraph, and numerous other international journals and newspapers.

Related Topics:
1924 - 1996 - Sayyid - Author - Lyricist - Sufist

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Idries Shah was born in Simla, India, of Afghan parents. Shah's upbringing bridged East and West. He was educated, as his father before him, by private tutors in Europe and the Middle East, and through wide-ranging travel -- the series of journeys, in fact, that characterise Sufi education and development. In keeping with Sufi tradition, his life was essentially one of service. His friends and associates included soldiers, scientists, artists, writers, thinkers, businessmen; the high-achieving, the famous, the royal.

Related Topics:
Simla - India - Sufi

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Idries Shah's writings greatly extended the western knowledge of the sufi teachings. He had profound influence on several intellectuals, notably Doris Lessing. His definition of Sufism was liberal in that he was of the opinion that it predated Islam and did not depend on the Qur'an, but was universal in source, scope and relevance. He maintained that spiritual teachings should be presented in forms and terms that are familiar in the community where they are to take root. He believed that students should be given work based on their individual capacities, and rejected systems that apply the same exercises to all. In his own work he used teaching stories and humour to great effect.

Related Topics:
Doris Lessing - Sufism - Islam - Qur'an - Teaching stories

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Shah's knowledge and activities took place in so many different areas of specialisation and in so many countries, that friends and sometimes even family were aware of what he was doing purely on a 'need to know' basis. Shah himself, and those round him, were masters of disinformation. For example, when in 1967 Robert Graves, a long-time friend, published his new translation of the Rubayyat of Omar Khayyám and declared Khayyam a Sufi, a group of academic Orientalists who felt their territory undermined by the fresh air Shah was bringing to the subject, attacked him by association, and even travelled to Afghanistan to collect ammunition against him and his family. Unaware of the tradition there of protecting the Hashemite family from idle curiosity. Through Octagon Press, the publishing company he founded to ensure these books remain in print, he also established a broad historical and cultural context for Sufi thought and action. In the event, his best-selling novel, Kara Kush, was based on fact, incorporating his first-hand knowledge of the stupendous courage of the Afghan people, and the appalling atrocities inflicted upon them.

Related Topics:
Omar Khayyám - Orientalist

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Shah married Cynthia (Kashfi) Kabraji in 1958, and fathered one son and two daughters. One of the daughters, Saira Shah reported on women's rights in Afghanistan with her documentary Beneath the Veil.

Related Topics:
Saira Shah - Afghanistan - Beneath the Veil

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About a year after his last visit to Afghanistan, in the late spring of 1987, Shah suffered two successive and massive heart attacks. He died in London in 1996. According to the obituary written by his supporters, Idries Shah was a founding member of the Club of Rome, the founder of Octagon Press, a collaborator with Mujahuddin in the Afghan-Russian war, a Director of Studies for the Institute for Cultural Research, and a Governor of the Royal Humane Society and the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables, among other accomplishments.

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Idris Shah also wrote "Secret Societies: A History" under the pseudonym of Arkon Daraul.

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