Synopsis
In 1974, the oldest copy of Lao Tzu’ s Tao Te Ching was unearthed at Xi’ an along with the ceramic warriors guarding the tomb of the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. By 1979, Professor Toshihiko Izutsu— the Japanese Islamicist, philosopher and linguist— collaborated in Tehran with Seyyed Hossein Nasr to translate this treasure into English. Dr. Nasr went on to put it into Persian adding a Sufi commentary which was recently published in Iran. This has now been translated into English with annotations by Mohammad H. Faghfoory. Imagine having a foundational world scripture like the Tao Te Ching explained by such a renowned Sufi scholar and internationally recognized spiritual authority as Dr. Syed H. Nasr. Passages whose subtleties are normally inaccessible to the Western mind become clear. Through Dr. Nasr’ s insightful use of verses from such Persian luminaries as Rumi, Hafiz, and Attar, the reader is introduced to the “ world” behind this world. The scholar recognized as the “ Father of World Religions” , Huston Smith, refers to the Tao Te Ching as a “ Testament to humanity’ s at-home-ness in the universe, [which] can be read in half an hour or a lifetime… .T
About the Author
Jane Casewit holds a BA Honours degree from University of Durham (UK) and a Master’ s degree in education from Manchester University (UK) and Framingham University (Massachusetts). She studied in Paris and has extensive experience in translation with certificates in translation studies in French and Arabic. After teaching for many years in Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, she returned to Morocco and worked with the Ministry of Education promoting girls’ education and youth employment training. She has published several articles on traditional views of femininity. Mohammad H. Faghfoory is professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University and the director of the MA Program in Islamic Studies. In addition to advising graduate students' research and theses, he teaches courses on Qur'an and Hadith, Islamic Political Thought, Sufism, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Shi‘ ite Islam, Islamic Art and Spirituality, Islam, and other related courses. Dr. Faghfoory has written, translated, and edited twelve books, numerous book chapters, articles, and book reviews (see Publications section for details). Toshihiko Izutsu (1914 – 1993) was a Japanese scholar who specialized in Islamic studies and comparative religion. He took an interest in linguistics at a young age, and came to know more than thirty languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Hindustani, Russian, Greek, and Chinese. He is widely known for his translation of the Qur?an into Japanese. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, is an international authority on Islamic philosophy, mysticism, art, and science as well as comparative religion and religion and ecology. He is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles and the subject of a number of books, edited collections, and articles. A small sample of his recent publications include The Garden of Truth: The vision and Promise of Sufism (2007), Islam’ s Mystical Tradition (2007), Islam in the Modern World (2010), In Search of the Sacred (2010), and many more.
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