Tales of God’s Friends Islamic Hagiography in Translation by John Renard, ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009. 413 pages.)

Abstract

Tales of God’s Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation, an anthology
that honors Sufis from every corner of the Muslim world, provides an easily
accessible overview of Sufism’s history and the particularities of individual
Sufi experiences that helped spread Islam throughout the world. A valuable
contribution to the contemporary literature of Sufi studies, this volume also
offers an excellent overview of the Sufi path and philosophy as well as classic
texts of Islamic mysticism. The wide-ranging and eclectic collection of sources is a particular strength, and manuscripts have been edited with references
to several authors who knew the life history of these Sufis.
The book contains twenty illustrations; a preface; six parts (divided into
twenty-seven chapters); an appendix and a glossary; notes about the contributors;
an index of names; an index of concepts, themes, places, and book
titles; and a Qur’an index. The editor claims that it is the first truly global
English-language anthology of Islamic hagiography, both historically and
geographically – it is translated from seventeen languages of origin, with the
help of two dozen Islamic scholars specializing in broad spectrum of languages
(pp. xi-xiv) ...