Gulshan-i Raz

An authoritative new edition and translation, with commentary, of one of the masterpieces of Persian Sufi poetry.

The Gulshan-i Raz, by Mahmud Shabistari (1288–1340), is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Persian Sufi poetry and philosophy. This new edition, by the renowned scholar of Islam Seyyed Hossein Nasr, not only includes a translation of the poem, it also establishes a new, authoritative edition of the Persian text and provides extensive commentary on the poem and its place in the Islamic, Sufi, and philosophical traditions. The work also introduces readers to the world of Islamic esotericism and mysticism, and it includes extensive discussion of deep metaphysical, cosmological, and anthropological ideas of universal interest beyond the realm of Sufi and Islamic studies. Written in language that is accessible to both Muslim and non-Muslim readers, it provides a compelling introduction to Sufi thought through the lens of poetry.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University. He is the author or editor of over sixty books in Persian and English, including Return to the Eternal Abode: Sufi Dialogues with Seyyed Hossein Nasr (with Amira El-Zein) and Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy, both published by SUNY Press.