Overview

Explores the influence of Sufism on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mehdi Aminrazavi ,  Jacob Needleman
Publisher:   State University of New York Press
Imprint:   State University of New York Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.227kg
ISBN:  

9781438453521

ISBN 10:   1438453523
Pages:   311
Publication Date:   02 July 2015
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Foreword Jacob Needleman Introduction Mehdi Aminrazavi The English Romantic Background 1. English Romantics and Persian Sufi Poets: a wellspring of Inspiration for American Transcendentalists Leonard Lewisohn The Master: Emerson and Sufism 2. The Chronological Development of Emerson's Interest in Persian Mysticism Mansur Ekhtiyar 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Muslim Orient Marwan M. Obeidat 4. Emerson and Aspects of Sa'di's Reception in Nineteenth-Century America Parvin Loloi 5. Emerson on Hafiz and Sa'di: The Narrative of Love and Wine Farhang Jahanpour The Disciple: Walt Whitman 6. Whitman and Hafiz: Expressions of Universal Love and Tolerance Mahnaz Ahmad 7. Walt Whitman and Sufism: Towards ""A Persian Lesson"" Massud Farzan The Initiates: Other American Authors 8. Literary ""Masters"" in the Literature of Thomas Lake Harris, Lawrence Oliphant, and Paschal Beverly Randolph Arthur Versluis 9. American Transcendentalists' Interpretations of Sufism: Thoreau, Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell, Melville, and Lafcadio Hearn John D. Yohannan 10. The Persians of Concord Phillip N. Edmondson 11. Omarian Poets of America Mehdi Aminrazavi 12. ""Bond Slave to FitzGerald's Omar"": Mark Twain and The Rubaiyat Alan Gribben 13. Mark Twain's Ruba'iyyat: AGE-A Rubaiyat Glossary Bibliography List of Contributors Index"

Reviews

"""…the collection is a success and provides a comprehensive and multi-pronged introduction to many of the major characters and key themes in the study of American literary engagement with Sufi texts and concepts."" — Journal of Sufi Studies"

This book reveals the rich, but generally unknown, influence of Sufism on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature. The translation of Persian poets such as Hafiz and Sa'di into English and the ongoing popularity of Omar Khayyam offered intriguing new spiritual perspectives to some of the major American literary figures. As editor Mehdi Aminrazavi notes, these Sufi influences have often been subsumed into a notion of Eastern, chiefly Indian, thought and not acknowledged as having Islamic roots. This work pays considerable attention to two giants of American literature, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, who found much inspiration from the Sufi ideas they encountered. Other canonical figures are also discussed, including Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, along with literary contemporaries who are lesser known today, such as Paschal Beverly Randolph, Thomas Lake Harris, and Lawrence Oliphant.

...the collection is a success and provides a comprehensive and multi-pronged introduction to many of the major characters and key themes in the study of American literary engagement with Sufi texts and concepts. - Journal of Sufi Studies

Author Information

Mehdi Aminrazavi is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mary Washington. He is the author of The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry, and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam and the coeditor (with David Ambuel) of Philosophy, Religion, and the Question of Intolerance, also published by SUNY Press.

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