An Introduction to the History of Sufism

This work is made up of lectures in memory of the Indian Muslim scholar Abdullah Suhrawardy (d. 1935), delivered by the author at the University of Calcutta in 1942. In three lectures, Arberry provides an introduction to the history of mysticism in Islam. He begins by reviewing the work of past scholars and researches conducted by his contemporaries. He traces the early interest of Sufism in Europe as well as the Orientalist approach to the subject, and suggests a skeletal outline of any future work in studying the history of Sufism.