Sara Sviri is Professor Emerita at the Department of Arabic and the Department of Comparative Religions of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She had also taught at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London and at The Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Oxford. Her fields of study include Islamic mysticism, mystical philosophy, comparative aspects of Early Islam, the formative period of Islamic mysticism, Medieval Jewish mysticism and the mystical wisdom of Ibn al-¿Arab¿. Her book The Taste of Hidden Things: Images on the Sufi Path was published in 1997. Her comprehensive Sufi Anthology was published in Hebrew in 2008. The Arabic version of the Anthology came out in Beirut by Mansh¿r¿t al-jamal (2016).

Introduction: perspectives on Early Islamic Mysticism - the world of al-¿ak¿m al-Tirmidh¿ and his contemporaries

Part I Asceticism and mysticism (zuhd and täawwuf)

1. 'Sufism': reconsidering terms, definitions and processes

2. Zuhd in Islamic mysticism: conduct and attitude

3. "Wa-rahb¿niyyatan ibtadä¿h¿": monasticism and asceticism - false and sincere

Part II Schools and teachers

4. Al-¿ak¿m al-Tirmidh¿ and the Mal¿mat¿s of N¿sh¿p¿r

5. Teachers and disciples in Baghd¿d and N¿sh¿p¿r

6. Facing hostility in Transoxiana: Al-¿ak¿m al-Tirmidh¿ and Mu¿ammad ibn al-Fäl

Part III Polarity

7. Between fear and hope: coincidence of opposites in Islamic mysticism

8. The self (nafs) and her transformation

9. Faces of al-¿aqq: the name and the named

Part IV The Spiritual Hierarchy

10. Wil¿ya: contemplating friendship with God

11. Myrtle and holy men: echoes of ancient traditions in a woman's dream

Part V Language and Hermeneutics

12. The power of words: mystical linguistics in al-¿ak¿m al-Tirmidh¿

13. The Countless Faces of Understanding: Istinb¿¿, listening and exegesis

Bibliography