| Sufism and American Literary Masters Contributor(s): Aminrazavi, Mehdi (Editor), Needleman, Jacob (Foreword by) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1438453531 ISBN-13: 9781438453538 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $90.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Islam - Sufi - Literary Collections | American - General - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 810.938 |
| LCCN: 2014028931 |
| Series: Suny Series in Islam |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6.3" W x 9.2" (1.35 lbs) 297 pages |
| Themes: - Religious Orientation - Islamic - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |