Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia: Teachings from the Sufi Path of Liberation Paperback – August 28, 2014

One of the most inspiring books I have ever read. The introduction and appendices offer valuable insights into the true nature of the universe.

This is a high class book and very well written. Off course, it is concise. But doable and readable.

I was floored that 2 persons I knew were mentioned in the book. Pierre Elliott and Andrew Moyer. The Hassan Shushud quotes were excellent.

Well researched compendium of a chain of Sufi Masters, however, I wish there was more of their knowledge and wisdom presented in this book. It reads more like a biographical encyclopedia. However, it is a good reference book.

Expertly written by an amazing man. I became aware of it's existence through Dr. Ergins book "The sufi path of annihilation". This book will have a powerful effect on you.

This book is a vitally important text of Sufism and also of great interest to followers of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. Previously only available in English as a "rare book" at often over 100 dollars a copy, since only one printing by Coombe Springs Press in 1983 was ever made, because of it's rarity it perhaps never reached its full potential audience, and Ben Bennett's work to go over the text and check the translation and re-publish it (there are actually some odd lacunae and omissions in Muhtar Holland's translation as well as debatable translations of words) is very important as opening up a core source to a wider public.Why do I say "a core source"? Because Hasan Lutfi Shushud, the author, used very old near contemporary texts to create the biographies of the line (@70) of the Masters of Wisdom, from Khwaja Yusuf Hamedani onwards. The use of the sources he cites (notably the Rashahat-i 'Ain al-Hayat by Mawlana 'Ali ıbn Husain Safi,died 939 AH, the book translated into Turkish in Hijra 993 and the Nafahat al Uns min Hadarat al-Quds by Mawlana Jami of 881) give an authentic text unrevised by later 'historical revisionists' which proper use of sources I like very much; the raw texts, practical, pragmatic, not romanticised or made more conventionally 'Islamic'. In fact in the light of this book we should question if the Sufi texts we usually refer to are at all a complete picture of the past, since what Hasan Shushud calls the "Northern School" of Sufism with near Buddhist concepts of "Liberation" and shamanic elements (Khwaja Ahmet Yesevi for example had Sufi teachers but also Shamanic teachers) has been very little known, even though it is in one way or another the source of Turkish Sufism.Khwaja Ahmet Yesevi "The Father of Turkish Sufism" as he is known, was the fourth master in the line, from whom the Bektashi Dervish Order partly descends, as well as the Yesevi mentioned by Gurdjieff to Anna Durco (as 'Yiesef' dervishes who he had visited with the necessary sponser, and been shown "very special dances"). Considerably later Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshband was another great master, though it is interesting how differently these documents show him from the later Naqshbandi; he had Yesevi/Khwajagan teachers.This book is a very important one. The Khwajagan were not in favour of an ostentatious religiousity or mouthing false pieties. They sometimes spoke of teaching not a high elevated intellectualised doctrine but what they called "practical wisdom" which they expected to be actualised, not remain as mere words. The Khwajagan are said to have said that "Reality is a mystery. It is not intended to be "understood". Theology is a waste of time".This book is important to students of Gurdjieff as perhaps the Khwajagan are the single most clear source of the teaching he gave. It is important to students of the Malamatiyya (Melami, "Way of Blame") and of Sufism. It is to be hoped that now it is inexpensively available as a ebook it will find the audience that it undoubtedly deserves and revolutionise Sufi studies as a practical discipline rather than a scholarly preserve.

Amazing book on the Sufi teachings of the Khwājagān. Glad to see it back in print after many years of being unavailable.